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Fora Imperatorum: Rome's Expanding Downtown
Join us on this tour in order to discover the majesty and functionality of Rome's various fora. We meet near the entrance of the Roman Forum along Via dei Fori Imperiali and our first stop is Caesar's forum. Here we admire Caesar's architectural projects and his political genius: he was the first person to alleviate the serious problem of overcrowding in the ancient Forum by creating a neighboring public space. He gets the credit for having started the 'forum fashion' which all self-respecting emperors then followed.
Caesar's adopted son, August, was the first to follow in Caesar's architectual footsteps, leaving us a splendid forum embellished with a temple dedicated to Mars, the god of war. Why Mars? What was the young Augustus' message? Wasn't Augustus the Roman prince of peace? We will stop to answer all these questions and more.
Vespasian's Forum follows with its interesting history. It's purpose was like that of a museum, but what treasures were displayed? And what has happened to them? We will also give a nod to Nerva, who succeeded in immortalizing himself (although he reigned for less than two years) by inaugurating the Forum Transitorium (which had been started and nearly completed by Domitian) in the space remaining between his predecessors' fora.
Trajan made the biggest contribution by creating the most complicated and multifunctional forum of them all. He moved over 61 million cubic meters of dirt in order to build his forum where he wanted it.
We explain this and other engineering miracles while jostled by ancient Romans doing their shopping in this monumental and ancient mall.
Entrance fee for the fora of Augustus and Trajan: € 6.20 a person
Note: This tour helps familiarize travelers with some of Rome's most important emperors.
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