What impact did the Roman Forum have on its ancient civilization?

Answer 1

The forum was a reflection of Roman civilisation, rather than something which had an impact on it. It was a product of this civilisation.

The city of Rome had two types of fora: the forum civilium and the forum venalium. The former was the civic forum and the latter was the commercial forum, or market. The forum civilium was the civic centre and the heart of a city and its public, political, judicial and administrative life. It was comparable to a city centre. It had a comitium, the place where the popular assemblies met to vote, public speeches were made and public debates were held. It had a senate house. Roman towns had their own local senate, modelled on the senate of the city of Rome. It had the courts were trials were conducted and administrative offices. It had public buildings (basilicas), shops, entertainments and important temples.

In the city of Rome the Forum or Forum Magnum as the Romans called it (Roman Forum is a modern term) which was a forum civilium, also had the aerarium (the treasury) which has in the temple of Saturn, the tabularium (the state archives) which was built on the slope of the Capitoline Hill, the regia (the residence of the Pontifex Maximus, the chief priest of Roman state religion) and the saenaculum (which was a place where the senators gathered before the entering the senate house for formal summons). It had several platforms for public speeches. The oldest one was called the rostra (plural of rostrum). The name came from the six rostra (warship rams) of captured warships which were and mounted to its side. It faced the north side of the comitium towards the senate house. Later it came to be called Rostra Vetera (Elder Rostra) when other platforms were built. These were called rostra with the addition of the name of their builders or the person it honoured. There was also the Graecostasis at the southwest end of the Comitium, to the west of the rostra. The name refers to the Greek ambassadors for whom the platform was built after the annexation of mainland Greece. It became a platform for representatives of foreign nations and dignitaries from the Roman provinces (conquered territories).

The city of Rome also had four other fora civilia (plural of civilis) which are called imperial fora because they were built by emperors, even though one of them was built by Julius Caesar, who was not an emperor (it was named after him). The others were named after the emperors who had them built: Augustus, Vespasian, Nerva and Trajan

The city of Rome had several fora (plural of forum) venalia (plural of venalium): the Forum Boarium (cattle market) the Forum Suarium (meat market) the Forum Piscarium (fish market) the Forum Holitorium (vegetable market) the Forum Vinarium (wine market) the Forum Pistorium (bakers' market) and the Forum Cuppedinis (delicatessen market).