The Roman Forum
Heart of the Ancient City

The Via Sacra — the Sacred Way — is the main artery of the Roman Forum, running from the Capitoline Hill down to the Colosseum. This is the road where triumphal processions paraded captured enemies and treasure before cheering Roman crowds. Caesar walked here. Cicero delivered speeches along its length. Augustus transformed it.

Start your visit from the entrance near the Arch of Titus and walk downhill along the Via Sacra. You'll be retracing the exact route that victorious generals took during their triumphs — the highest honour Rome could bestow. The original paving stones beneath your feet are, in many places, the same ones trodden by ancient Romans over two thousand years ago.

Built in AD 203 to celebrate Emperor Septimius Severus and his sons Caracalla and Geta's victories over the Parthian Empire, this triple arch stands over 20 metres high and is one of the best-preserved monuments in the Forum. The intricate relief panels depict battle scenes, siege warfare, and the submission of enemy kings.

Look closely at the inscription at the top: you can still see where the name of Geta was chiselled away after his brother Caracalla murdered him and condemned his memory — a practice the Romans called damnatio memoriae. It's one of the Forum's most chilling details, a reminder that this was a place of ruthless power as much as civic grandeur.

The Temple of Saturn is one of the most photographed structures in Rome — and one of the oldest. First dedicated in 497 BC, the temple you see today dates from a 4th-century AD reconstruction after fire. Its eight surviving columns of grey and pink granite, topped by a fragment of entablature, create one of the Forum's most recognisable silhouettes.

Saturn was the god of agriculture and wealth, and his temple doubled as the state treasury — the Aerarium Saturni. The Republic's gold and silver reserves were stored here, along with official records and military standards. During the festival of Saturnalia each December, Romans exchanged gifts and masters served their slaves — a brief annual inversion of the social order that echoes in our own Christmas traditions.

The large, austere brick building near the Arch of Septimius Severus is the Curia Julia — the Roman Senate house. Begun by Julius Caesar in 44 BC and completed by Augustus in 29 BC, this is one of the best-preserved buildings in the Forum because it was converted into a church in the 7th century, which saved it from being quarried for building materials.

Step inside and you'll find the original marble floor — a stunning geometric pattern of coloured stones — still largely intact. The stepped platforms on either side are where up to 300 senators sat during debates. Stand in the centre and imagine the voices of Cicero, Cato, and Caesar echoing off these same walls. The acoustics are remarkable even today.

The circular Temple of Vesta held one of the most important responsibilities in all of Rome: keeping the sacred flame alight. The Romans believed that if the flame ever went out, disaster would befall the city. Six Vestal Virgins — priestesses chosen between the ages of six and ten — tended the fire in shifts around the clock, serving for thirty years.

The Vestals were among the most powerful women in Rome: they could pardon condemned prisoners, they owned property, and they had the best seats at the Colosseum. But the price of breaking their vow of chastity was terrifying — burial alive in an underground chamber near the Colline Gate. The adjacent House of the Vestals, a large courtyard complex with a garden and pool, gives you a sense of their privileged but strictly regulated lives.

Only three fluted Corinthian columns remain of what was once one of the Forum's most magnificent temples. Dedicated to the divine twins Castor and Pollux — who supposedly appeared on white horses to help Rome win the Battle of Lake Regillus in 496 BC — the temple became a landmark at the Forum's centre.

The surviving columns, dating from an Augustan-era rebuild, are among the most graceful in Rome. Their height and the quality of the remaining entablature give you a sense of how monumental these buildings were in their prime. The temple also served as a meeting place for senators and a repository for the official weights and measures of Rome.

Standing alone in the centre of the Forum, the Column of Phocas marks both an ending and a beginning. Dedicated in AD 608 to the Byzantine Emperor Phocas, this 13.6-metre Corinthian column was the very last monument added to the Forum — making it, paradoxically, both the youngest and one of the most poignant structures here.

By AD 608, the Forum was already declining. The column itself was probably recycled from an earlier building, a practice that speaks to the fading resources of a city long past its imperial peak. After the Column of Phocas, no new monuments were built. The Forum gradually silted up, was buried, and became grazing land for cattle — the Campo Vaccino. This single column is the full stop at the end of over a thousand years of Roman civic building.