DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.44944#0282
230 FORUM PISCARIUM—FORUM (ROMANUM S. MAGNUM)
supposed to have been situated in that neighbourhood on the via Labicana
(HJ 303-4).
Forum Piscarium : the fish-market north of the forum, between the
Sacra via and the Argiletum. It was burned in 210 b.c. (Liv. xxvi. 27. 2)
and rebuilt the next year. In 179 it was incorporated in the general
Macellum, built by Fulvius Nobilior in the same region (Liv. xl. 51. 5;
Varro, LLv. 146-7 ; cf. Hermes xv. 119). This forum is called piscatorium
in Livy, and piscarium in Varro and Plautus (Cure. 474).
Forum Pistorum : mentioned only in the Regionary Catalogue in Region
XIII. It was probably near the horrea, at the southern end of the Aventine
(HJ 179 ; Jord. ii. 108).
Forum (Romanum s. Magnum) :* at first the market-place, and later the
civic centre of ancient Rome. The adjunct Romanum is not common
(Verg. Aen. viii. 361 ; Plin NH. xix. 23 ; Tac. Ann. xii. 24 ; Suet. Aug. 72 :
so η άγορα η των ’Ρωμαίων Dionys. i. 87 (here only) ; Cass. Dio fix. 28 :
η άγορα η Ρωμαία; epit. lxiv. 6: η Ρωμαίων άγορα) ; while magnum is not
classical, though Cass. Dio xliii. 22, who here too1 calls it ’Ρωμαία, says that
it was called μεγάλη after the construction of the forum Iulium. Strabo
v. 3. 8. 236 calls it η άργαϊα άγορά. Cf. Jord. i. 2. 410. In Not. Regio
VIII it is called Forum Romanum vel (et) magnum. The etymology is
uncertain ; the derivation from ferre is generally discarded, but nothing
has been found to take its place.
The valley of the forum, and its continuation, the Velabrum, was at
first a marshy valley, traversed by a stream, which served as one of the
defences of the Palatine city and separated it from the Capitol and
Quirinal ; and the first extension of the original settlement towards the
east and south, by which the ‘ Septimontium ’ city was formed, still
left it out. Outside the boundaries of this city, and on the edge of the
valley there lay a burial ground, the so-called Sepulcretum (q.v.), the
earliest tombs of which are variously dated, though the latest must go
down to the end of the seventh or the middle of the sixth century b.c.
Roman tradition long preserved the memory of the original state of
the forum (cf. Ov. Fasti vi. 401 : hie ubi nunc fora sunt, udae tenuere
paludes ; omne redundatis fossa madebat aquis. Curtius file lacus, siccas
qui sustinat aras, nunc solida est tellus ; sed lacus ante fuit).
The testimony of geology also shows that the centre of the valley was
originally a swamp. Traces of man’s presence were still found at 3.60
metres above sea-level (the lowest point reached in the excavations)
near the foundations of the equestrian statue of Domitian, in the shape
of fragments of carbonised wood ; while, at between 6 and 7 metres
above sea-level, the skeletons of three individuals (if not more) were
brought to fight. No proper report is as yet available, but Mosso studied
the skull of a female, which he found to be very small and dolichocephalic.
1 So also Dionys. ii. 42.
supposed to have been situated in that neighbourhood on the via Labicana
(HJ 303-4).
Forum Piscarium : the fish-market north of the forum, between the
Sacra via and the Argiletum. It was burned in 210 b.c. (Liv. xxvi. 27. 2)
and rebuilt the next year. In 179 it was incorporated in the general
Macellum, built by Fulvius Nobilior in the same region (Liv. xl. 51. 5;
Varro, LLv. 146-7 ; cf. Hermes xv. 119). This forum is called piscatorium
in Livy, and piscarium in Varro and Plautus (Cure. 474).
Forum Pistorum : mentioned only in the Regionary Catalogue in Region
XIII. It was probably near the horrea, at the southern end of the Aventine
(HJ 179 ; Jord. ii. 108).
Forum (Romanum s. Magnum) :* at first the market-place, and later the
civic centre of ancient Rome. The adjunct Romanum is not common
(Verg. Aen. viii. 361 ; Plin NH. xix. 23 ; Tac. Ann. xii. 24 ; Suet. Aug. 72 :
so η άγορα η των ’Ρωμαίων Dionys. i. 87 (here only) ; Cass. Dio fix. 28 :
η άγορα η Ρωμαία; epit. lxiv. 6: η Ρωμαίων άγορα) ; while magnum is not
classical, though Cass. Dio xliii. 22, who here too1 calls it ’Ρωμαία, says that
it was called μεγάλη after the construction of the forum Iulium. Strabo
v. 3. 8. 236 calls it η άργαϊα άγορά. Cf. Jord. i. 2. 410. In Not. Regio
VIII it is called Forum Romanum vel (et) magnum. The etymology is
uncertain ; the derivation from ferre is generally discarded, but nothing
has been found to take its place.
The valley of the forum, and its continuation, the Velabrum, was at
first a marshy valley, traversed by a stream, which served as one of the
defences of the Palatine city and separated it from the Capitol and
Quirinal ; and the first extension of the original settlement towards the
east and south, by which the ‘ Septimontium ’ city was formed, still
left it out. Outside the boundaries of this city, and on the edge of the
valley there lay a burial ground, the so-called Sepulcretum (q.v.), the
earliest tombs of which are variously dated, though the latest must go
down to the end of the seventh or the middle of the sixth century b.c.
Roman tradition long preserved the memory of the original state of
the forum (cf. Ov. Fasti vi. 401 : hie ubi nunc fora sunt, udae tenuere
paludes ; omne redundatis fossa madebat aquis. Curtius file lacus, siccas
qui sustinat aras, nunc solida est tellus ; sed lacus ante fuit).
The testimony of geology also shows that the centre of the valley was
originally a swamp. Traces of man’s presence were still found at 3.60
metres above sea-level (the lowest point reached in the excavations)
near the foundations of the equestrian statue of Domitian, in the shape
of fragments of carbonised wood ; while, at between 6 and 7 metres
above sea-level, the skeletons of three individuals (if not more) were
brought to fight. No proper report is as yet available, but Mosso studied
the skull of a female, which he found to be very small and dolichocephalic.
1 So also Dionys. ii. 42.