Julius Caesar and the Creation of the Forum Iulium

Abstract

This article examines the historical and topographical issues connected with the first of the so-called Imperial fora, the Forum of Julius Caesar, in the light of new archaeological discoveries in Rome over the past decade, including the author's field observations at the site from 1981 to 1991. In its present state, the Forum of Iulium is for the most part a monument of the Imperial period, but it is also an important artifact of the Late Republic. It is argued here that the Forum of Caesar owes its plan to a rapid series of events that changed the physical and political realities of Rome over the decade 54-44 B. C. Since several of these events could not be foreseen in 54 B. C., when the project is first mentioned by Cicero, this article concludes that the Forum of Julius Caesar, as an integrated monument, was not conceived until after 48 B. C. The evolution of the forum was a rapid one, and the monument probably exhibited its characteristic plan by Caesar's death or shortly afterward. Building activity would have been most intense over the four-year period between the Battle of Pharsalus (48 B. C.) and Caesar's assassination (44 B. C.). Archaeological evidence in the podium of the temple suggests that the original shrine exhibited a plan at variance with that finally built. Both the architectural features and the historical circumstances suggest that the Forum Iulium was the only one of the Imperial fora built to supplant directly the traditional civic functions of the original Forum Romanum.

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