[NOISE] Now, the valley nestles among the Palatine, Capitoline, and Esquiline hills became the public nerve center of Rome. For the modern tourist, the Roman Forum seems a hopeless complex of ruins. But to understand it, we can break it up into its different areas to bring it to life. The view over the Forum here, allows you to see just about everything, the whole history of downtown Rome, right in front of your eyes. And the Northwest side was the great government center with the curea, or the Senate building of Rome and originally the Comitium, the place of the assembly right in front of it. And as you look further away, you see on the South side, there was a huge basilica, a covered hall. Was built in the Hellenistic period and further away you can see the ruins of the temple of Vesta, from here, which was the patron goddess. A very important goddess to the Roman people, of the hearth and home and just beyond that, the house of the Vestal Virgins. And even further, way in the background, the arch of Titus, which was put up after the campaigns in Jerusalem and in Judea in the late 60s. And in front of us, here, one of the last monuments of the Forum, the Column of Phocas, put up in the 7th century AD, just in front of what was the ancient speaker's platform. So you have all these different periods of time, all jumbled up together, in an amazing combination. And it just makes you think back and look over the history phase by phase and step by step. The whole history of Rome, from the earliest times, all the way down to very last monument in form. [MUSIC] In the Northwest corner, for example, were government buildings, where the Senate of Rome and the popular assemblies met. The Curia was the Senate, and the Comitium the Assembly. The Curia was a huge space box, where Senators conducted the affairs of state. And the final rebuilding of the Curia in 283 CE, was preserved by the conversion of the structure into a significant church. In the Middle Ages, when the level of the Forum had risen considerably, a new entry was made higher up in the building. And the thick walls of the lower building were reused for tombs, which were emptied and filled in with concrete in modern times. Over the centuries, foreign missions to Rome might be housed here, while waiting to address the Senate. And a government business complex, was known as the Forum of Julius Caesar, offering meeting rooms and lovely promenades, reception areas and even bathrooms, of course, for officials. [MUSIC] The people who hung around the Northwest part of the Forum were called Sobrostrani, or those who hung around the rostrum, the speaker's platform. Here, in the center of the forum were given public feasts and were held gladiator fights, the death games that might be part of funeral ceremonies for a noted person. Influenced by Greek covered halls, the Romans added basilicas, so-called royal halls, which were like modern malls and featured meeting areas, art shows, and, of course, shelter from the rain and sun. People who hung around these places to see what was going on, were called Basilican. A sundial in the Northwest corner of the Forum helped to tell people the time, in an age without wrist watches. Starting times were then rather approximate and come to think of it, starting times for events in Italy now, still are approximate.
