I.

Introduction

Forum (Latin, “marketplace” or “out-of-doors place”), term applied by the ancient Romans to the large, open, rectangular space in the central part of a city that was the common place of assembly of the people. Originally an unenclosed space, without buildings, in which the people gathered on market days and for religious festivals, elections, and other public events, it became the political center where civic and administrative buildings and the more important temples were located. Archways frequently surmounted both ends of the road or roads that transected the forum.