DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42778#0099
THE FORUMS OF ROME.
53
Augustus was over ioo feet (Plate XXXI), and such an enclosure
would have had a dreary effect if the Romans had not known how
to give interest to these walls by their decoration, and by the
variety of their outline and form. This will be better followed on
reference to the restoration of the Forum of Augustus, where it will
be noted that the temple of Mars Ultor is built at the farther end
of the site, thus giving an ample space to the Forum (Fig. 9). As
the temple was erected against a portion of the Quirinal Hill
it was visible only from the front and sides, which may account
for the wide difference between its plan and that of a Greek temple.
Externally, far greater importance was given to the portico of the
front; internally, a finer effect to the statue of the god by the apse
in which it stood. The irregularity of the site at the back, on the
right, has been balanced on the left, so that, as seen from the
Forum, the two sides would appear to be symmetrical. In this
Forum is one of the earliest examples known of that feature which
seems to have had a special attraction for the Roman architect,
viz., the hemicycle, and we can thus appreciate, on examination of
the remains, the magnificent effect of the expansion of the farther
end of the court by those semi-circular walls on each side, decorated
as they were with ranges of niches flanked by monoliths of coloured
marbles and filled with statues, the whole of the rest of the surface
of the wall being covered with slabs of coloured marbles.
53
Augustus was over ioo feet (Plate XXXI), and such an enclosure
would have had a dreary effect if the Romans had not known how
to give interest to these walls by their decoration, and by the
variety of their outline and form. This will be better followed on
reference to the restoration of the Forum of Augustus, where it will
be noted that the temple of Mars Ultor is built at the farther end
of the site, thus giving an ample space to the Forum (Fig. 9). As
the temple was erected against a portion of the Quirinal Hill
it was visible only from the front and sides, which may account
for the wide difference between its plan and that of a Greek temple.
Externally, far greater importance was given to the portico of the
front; internally, a finer effect to the statue of the god by the apse
in which it stood. The irregularity of the site at the back, on the
right, has been balanced on the left, so that, as seen from the
Forum, the two sides would appear to be symmetrical. In this
Forum is one of the earliest examples known of that feature which
seems to have had a special attraction for the Roman architect,
viz., the hemicycle, and we can thus appreciate, on examination of
the remains, the magnificent effect of the expansion of the farther
end of the court by those semi-circular walls on each side, decorated
as they were with ranges of niches flanked by monoliths of coloured
marbles and filled with statues, the whole of the rest of the surface
of the wall being covered with slabs of coloured marbles.