Roman Forum

The Roman Forum - the heart of republican and imperial Rome from the 6th century B.C. to the 5th century A.D.  Above is an overview shot of the Forum from Palatine Hill and The Temple of Venus and Rome.  Below is the Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine - the largest building in the forum where they administered justice - it was twice as big as you see with a matching side toward us and held a 39 foot tall statue of Constantine.  Next is the remains of the Temple of Saturn - he taught them how to cultivate the earth and is well loved due to that.  Then comes the bell tower of Santa Francesca - taxi drivers come here on a certain day each year to be blessed by the saint of drivers...  After that is the Temple of Vespasian - he had the Coliseum built during his reign as emperor and is father to two emperors as well.  The last two pictures show triumphal arches - they really seemed to love building these after conquering someone!  The first one is for Septimius Serverus (who had two sons to follow him as emperor, but Caracalla had his brother killed so he could reign alone....) and the second smaller one is for Titus, son of Vespasian - it was actually built by the brother of Titus and they took turns being emperor - much nicer family!