Download The Roman Forum: The History and Legacy of the Center of Rome's Empire AudioBook Free

"A round trench was dug around what is now the Comitium, and in this were transferred first-fruits of most things the utilization of which was sanctioned by custom nearly as good and by nature as necessary; and finally, every man helped bring a small portion of the dirt of his native land, and they were cast in among the first-fruits and mingled with them. They call this trench, as they certainly the heavens, by the name of 'mundus' ['the world']. Then, taking this as a middle, they designated out metropolis in a group around it." (Plutarch) The Roman Empire is the most well-known in history, and the guts of the far-reaching empire's activities were found in the Forum, a low area between the Capitoline and Palatine hillsides in Rome. The topography kept a great deal of relevance for Romans, and consequently so many levels of misconception were laid together with the surroundings and buildings that it's difficult to split up legend from real historical fact. As being a low-lying area nearby the Tiber River, the Community was at the mercy of much flooding, and even into the 20th hundred years the Community area could flood upward of 40 legs above sea level. This would factor significantly in the imaginations of Romans, who later ascribed the flooding with saving the city's founders, Romulus and Remus, from execution. However, in the 8th and seventh decades BC, this did not lead to a good area for building. Previous generations of excavators have concluded that initially, there were waddle and daub huts in the Community, as indicated by remains of organic and natural food materials, fragments of daub, and evidence of post openings dug in the ground for these constructions.

Category: Classics