Who controlled the roman forum?

Answer 1

No one controlled the fora (plural of forum). They were public spaces. There were public officials who had responsibilities which related to the fora. These were the aediles, who were responsible for the maintenance and repair of public buildings, sewers and aqueducts; for street cleaning and paving; for traffic regulations and for fire precautions. These were all relevant for the maintenance of the fora. Other duties which were relevant for the fora were the control of the quality of sold articles and the accuracy of weights and measures. The aediles also had other responsibilities besides these.

The Romans had two types of fora: the forum civilis 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 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 cities 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.

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).

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 civilis, 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 also 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. The 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).

Four more fora civilia (plural of civilis) were built in the city of Rome. They are called imperial fora because they were built by four emperor. They were named after the emperors who had them built: Augustus, Vespasian, Nerva and Trajan. Julius Caesar also had his own forum civilium built. Caesar was not an emperor.