Transcript ForumIulium%5b1%5d

The Forum of Julius Caesar
and the
Temple of Venus Genetrix
Sarah Ellery, 2010
Little of the
forum is extant…
…and little of what does
remain is Republican.
Why study the Forum Iulium?
•Occupies a physical
position at the meeting-place
of the republican and
imperial fora
•In its form and purpose, it
is a crucial “fulcrum”
between the Forum
Romanum and that of
Augustus, etc.
•Serves as a physical
document of the political
changes in Rome in the
decade between 54-44 B.C.
Location,
location,
location!
HISTORY’S MYSTERIES:
When in the chronology did Caesar decide
a) to build an autonomous forum, and
b) to dedicate a temple to Venus Genetrix there?
Chronology
Building:
First record of
land purchase

What happened in these years?
Was C. simply preoccupied? Or
was he waiting for the auctoritas
he needed to build on the scale
he wanted??
Temple and
forum first
used

= 29 B.C.
Ancient Sources: Prime Real Estate
• Cicero, Letters to Atticus (4.17), Oct. 1, 54 B.C.:
Now for the rest. From my brother's letter I gather surprising indications of
Caesar's affection for me, and they have been confirmed by a very cordial
letter from Caesar himself. The result of the British war is a source of
anxiety. For it is ascertained that the approaches to the island are
protected by astonishing masses of cliff. Moreover, it is now known that
there isn't a pennyweight of silver in that island, nor any hope of booty
except from slaves, among whom I don't suppose you can expect any
instructed in literature or music. Paulus has almost brought his basilica in
the forum to the roof, using the same columns as were in the ancient
building: the part for which he gave out a contract he is building on the
most magnificent scale. Need I say more? Nothing could be more
gratifying or more to his glory than such a monument. Accordingly, the
friends of Caesar—I mean myself and Oppius, though you burst with
anger—have thought nothing of 60,000 sesterces for that monument,
which you used to speak of in such high terms, in order to enlarge the
forum and extend it right up to the Hall of Liberty. The claims of private
owners could not be satisfied for less. We will make it a most glorious
affair.
Chronology
Restoration:
80 A.D. – Forum and temple badly damaged by fire,
rebuilt by Domitian
113 A.D. – Restoration
under Trajan, dedicated
on the same day as the
Column of Trajan
283 A.D. – Forum burned;
restored under
Diocletian
Trajanic period Corinthian
columns, from the
Temple of Venus Genetrix
Reasons for Forum & Temple Construction
• Forum needed to enlarge the overcrowded
Forum Romanum
• Inspiration from Egypt(?)
• Venus Genetrix:
– Temple vowed on the eve of Pharsalus
– Didn’t want Pompey to have Venus (Victrix) all to
himself
– Obvious connection to Julian family
Ancient Sources: Forum Purpose
• Appian, The Civil Wars (2.15.102):
He erected a temple to Venus, his ancestress, as he
had vowed to do when he was about to begin the
battle of Pharsalus, and he laid out ground around the
temple which he intended to be a forum for the
Roman people, not for buying and selling, but a
meeting-place for the transaction of public business,
like the public squares of the Persians, where the
people assemble to seek justice or to learn the laws.
Vitruvius cites
this as an
example of
pycnostylespace between
columns = 1.5x
column
diameter; also
octastyle
Entrance to
temple via 2 
sides; this
offered
speakers on the
platform a bit of
protection from
the crowd
Only 8 columns
on the sides
because the
back of the
temple is built
into the ridge
that used to join
the Capitoline
and Quirinal
hills
 5 m. high
podium
Column base from the temple,
reused in the baptistery at St.
John Lateran, Rome
Ancient Sources: Inaugural Use
• Dio Cassius, Roman History (43.23):
The first days of the triumph* he passed as customary, but on
the last day, after they had finished dinner, he entered his own
forum wearing slippers and garlanded with all kinds of
flowers; thence he proceeded homeward with practically the
entire populace escorting him, while many elephants carried
torches. For he had himself constructed the forum called after
him, and it is distinctly more beautiful than the Roman Forum;
yet it had increased the reputation of the other so that that was
called the Great Forum. So after completing this new forum
and the temple to Venus, as the founder of his family, he
dedicated them at this very time, and in their honour instituted
many contests of all kinds.
* 46 B.C.
Rubens, c. 1630: “A Roman Triumph,” National Gallery, London
Decoration of the Temple
•
•
•
•
•
Cult statue of Venus by Arcesilas
Gold statue of Cleopatra as Isis
Valuable antique paintings
Collections of engraved gems
“Thorax” (corselet) of British pearls
Basalt statue of
Cleopatra VII as
an Egyptian
goddess, second
half of the first
century BC; The
Hermitage, St.
Petersburg
Ancient Sources: Statue of Cleopatra
• Dio Cassius, Roman History (51.22):
Thus Cleopatra, though defeated and captured, was
nevertheless glorified, inasmuch as her adornments repose as
dedications in our temples and she herself is seen in gold in the
shrine of Venus.
• Appian, The Civil Wars (2.15.102):
He placed a beautiful image of Cleopatra by the side of the
goddess, which stands there to this day.
Ancient Sources: An Interesting Episode
• Suetonius, “Life of Julius Caesar” (78.1):
But it was the following action in particular that roused
deadly hatred against him. When the Senate approached
him in a body with many highly honorary decrees, he
received them before the temple of Venus Genetrix
without rising. Some think that when he attempted to get
up, he was held back by Cornelius Balbus; others, that he
made no such move at all, but on the contrary frowned
angrily on Gaius Trebatius when he suggested that he
should rise.
Field Trip!
(Click here for video)
 Birth of Venus
Porticus
Porticus
= Appiades
fountain
Access to
 Curia Julia
Equestrian
statue of the =
man himself

Bucephalas,
Alexander’s
horse
= Another
statue of him
Bibliography:
• Uhlrich, Roger B. “Julius Caesar and the Creation of the
Forum Iulium.” American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 97,
No. 1 (Jan., 1993), pp. 49-80.
• Claridge, Amanda. Oxford Archaeological Guides: Rome.
London: Oxford University Press, 1998.
• Platner & Ashby. A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient
Rome. London: Oxford University Press, 1929.
• http://academicearth.org/courses/roman-architecture
• LacusCurtius.org
• Perseus.tufts.edu
• Penelope.uchicago.edu
• Google Earth, Ancient Rome 3D