Timeline: The Roman Forum

753 BC Romulus founds Rome; year 1 of Roman calendar

c. 675 King Numa Pompilius institutes cult of Vesta and builds his house (Regia) in Forum

c. 650 King Tullius Hostillus builds Senate house (Curia) and encloses the Assembly area (Comitium)

616–578 Cloaca Maxima built to drain swampy Forum valley

509 The Senate ousts last Roman king; republic declared

498 The Temple of Saturn dedicated in the Forum

484 The Temple of Castor and Pollux dedicated on the spot where the twin gods were seen watering their horses at the Spring of Juturna after aiding Romans in their defeat of the Latin tribes at the battle of Lake Regillus in 496

367 Temple to the goddess Concord vowed after the reconciliation between the patricians and the plebians

338 The beaks of ships captured from the Volsci at Antium (Anzio) added to the speaker’s platform giving it the name Rostra

275 Defeat of the Greek city-states of southern Italy under Pyrrus brings entire Italian peninsula under Roman sway

184 Forum paved with gravel

179 Basilica Aemilia built to house judicial courts, banking and trade

146 Conquest of Carthage adds Sicily, Africa and Spain to Rome’s territory; Mummius sacks Corinth in Greece

78–74 Forum paved in travertine

50 Julius Caesar conquers Gaul (France)

44 Julius Caesar assassinated in the Curia

27 Augustus proclaimed Rome’s first emperor; fulfills Caesar’s building plans for Forum by rebuilding the Basilica Aemilia, the Temple of Castor and Pollux, the Curia, finishes the Basilica Julia and constructs temple to Divine Julius

20 Augustus erects the Milliarium Aureum (Golden Milestone) in Forum to mark spot where Rome’s major roads converge; Senate erects triumphal arch to Augustus

5 Rome’s population reaches 1,250,000

64 AD Fire, allegedly set by Nero, engulfs central Rome reaches the edge of the Forum destroying the Temple of Vesta, which Nero rebuilds; Nero’s Domus Aurea (Golden House) rises from the ashes

70 Vespasian begins construction of the Flavian Amphitheater (The Colosseum) east of the Forum on the site of the Golden House

77 Pliny the Elder numbers the Basilica Aemilia among Rome’s most beautiful buildings

79 Vesuvius erupts, burying Pompeii; Titus begins a temple dedicated to his father Vespasian; completed by his brother Domitian when Titus dies in 81

85 Domitian erects triumphal arch to commemorate Titus’ victory in Jerusalem

116 Trajan’s conquests of Dacia (Rumania), Arabia and Mesapotamia (Iraq) extend the empire’s borders to their fullest

135 Rome’s largest temple, dedicated to Venus and Roma, designed by Hadrian, is built between the Forum and the Flavian Amphitheater requiring the move of the bronze Colossus of Nero toward the amphitheater.

161 Antoninus Pius dies and the temple dedicated to his deified wife, Faustina, is rededicated to him as well

203 Senate erects an arch celebrating Septimius Serverus’ tenth anniversary and his defeat of the Parthians

258 St. Lawrence is condemned to martyrdom by Valerian at the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina, which is converted to the church of S. Lorenzo in Miranda four centuries later

270 Aurelian encircles the city of 500,000 with walls against the threat of barbarian invasion

307 Maxentius builds a temple to his deified son Romulus and begins the last major addition to the Forum with a basilica that will be completed by Constantine after his victory over Maxentius at the battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312

313 Constantine issues the Edict of Milan ending Christian persecution

326 St. Peter’s Basilica is built

330 Constantine transfers his capital to new city of Constantinople (Istanbul)

c. 350 Temple of Saturn repaired for the last time

384 Siricius, bishop of Rome, first to use title “Pope”

394 Official ban on non-Christian cults

410 Alaric and the Ostrogoths sack and burn Rome

476 Last emperor of the Western Empire deposed

before 499 Santa Maria Antiqua built in the Forum

523 Last games held in the Flavian Amphitheater

before 599 Santi Cosma e Damiano built inside library of Vespasian’s Forum of Peace and in one of the halls of the Temple of Divine Romulus

608 Column erected in the Forum in honor of the Byzantine emperor Phocas who first authorized the conversion of a pagan temple (the Pantheon) into a Christian church

625–630 Pope Honorius I strips gilt bronze roofing tiles from the Temple of Venus and Roma to adorn St. Peter’s; converts the Curia into the church of S. Adriano al Foro; the Regia and the Basilica Aemilia become private noble residences

663 Constans II, Byzantine emperor, removes bronze statues from the Forum of Trajan

754 Papal States established giving pope temporal control of central Italy

800 Charlemagne crowned Emperor of the Romans in St. Peter’s

847 Earthquake damages Flavian Amphitheater, the Basilica of Constantine and Temple of Venus and Roma on whose ruins S. Maria Nova (now S. Francesa Romana) is built

1000 The name Colosseum is applied to the amphitheater rather than the long-lost colossal statue of Nero

c. 1100 The Frangipani take possession of the Colosseum converting it into a private fortress and incorporating the arches of Titus and Constantine into their fortifications

1162 Upon the flight of Pope Alexander III to France, the Roman senate declares the Column of Trajan inviolate: “It should remain whole and undamaged to honour the whole of the Roman people”

c. 1250 Santa Maria Liberatrice built over damaged S. Maria Antiqua

1309–1378 Popes decamp for Avignon; Rome’s population bottoms out at 17,000

1440 Interior walls of the Temple of Saturn taken down for use elsewhere

1451 2,522 cartloads of stone taken from the Colosseum for buildings in the Vatican and the walls of Rome

1471 Pope Sixtus IV donates ancient bronzes to the people of Rome establishing the Capitoline Museum

1480 Complete section of the first story of the Basilica Aemilia recorded in a drawing by Giuliano da Sangallo

1504 Remains of the Basilica Aemilia recycled for use in the Giraud-Torlonia Palace by the architect Bramante

1536 Emperor Charles V triumphal entry into Rome follows the ancient Sacre Via through the Forum to the Michelangelo-designed Campidoglio on the Capitoline hill

1539–1549 Rostra and Temple of Antoninus Pius excavated as Pope Paul III’s contractors scour the Forum, dismantling the temples of Divine Julius and Csator and Pollux, in search of marble for St. Peter’s

1562 Fragments of the Marble Plan that had once adorned the Temple of Peace found in the garden of Santi Cosma e Damiano; removed to the Farnese Palace

1589 Pope Sixtus V restores columns of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius; papal bull sets taxes on weekly cattle market in the “Campo Vaccino”

1600 Rome’s population reaches 100,000

1613 Pope Paul V removes monumental column from the Basilica of Constantine to the Piazza in front of S. Maria Maggiore

1620 Urban VIII has bronze celing from the porch of the Pantheon melted down for Bernini’s Baldachino in St. Peter’s and for canons in Castel Sant’ Angelo leading to Pasquino’s epigram: “What the barbarians didn’t do, the Barberini did.”

1650 Innocent X removes the bronze doors from Curia for St. John Lateran

1700–1721 Clement XI’s staircase to the Capitoline destroys north side of Temple of Concord

1741 Marble Plan transferred from Farnese family to Roman people and the Capitoline Museum

1747 Piranesi arrives permanently in Rome

1748 Pompeii accidentally discovered

1756 Piranesi records major fragments of the Marble Plan in his Anticita Romana

1788 First scientific excavation in Forum, underwritten by the Swedish ambassador, uncovers the Basilica Julia

1790 Rome’s population reaches 165,000

1796 Napoleon invades Papal States; Treaty of Tolentino (1797) demands specified antiquities from the Vatican and Capitoline collections destined for the Musée des Antiquitiés (Louvre) in 1798

1803 Carlo Fea, commissioner of antiquities, clears rubble from the Arch of Septimius Severus, the Column of Phocas, unencumbers the temples of Saturn and Vespasian and excavates temples of Castor and Concord

1807 Napoleon purchases 500 ancient sculptures from the Borghese family in Rome

1811–1814 French excavations in the Forum of Trajan

1815 Congress of Vienna requires restitution of antiquities ceded by Treaty of Tolentino

1822 Arch of Titus rebuilt by Giuseppe Valadier

1827–1836 Excavation of the Basilica of Constantine by Antonio Nibby

1849–1870 Napoleon III restores Pope Pius to the throne; French garrison Rome

1861 Pietro Rosa begins excavation of imperial residences on the Palatine for the current owner, Napoleon III

1871 Rome declared capital of unified Kingdom of Italy; Rosa excavates in the Forum

1900 Major excavations in Forum uncover foundations of the Basilica Aemilia

1902 S. Maria Liberatrice deconsecrated and demolished to recover remains of S. Maria Antiqua

9122 Benito Mussolini comes to power

1930 Temple of Vesta partially rebuilt from ancient fragments

1928-1934 Italian excavations in Forum of Trajan and north side of Forum remove 80,000 square meters of earth and a Renaissance neighborhood between the Colosseum and the Piazza Venezia, 67,000 square meters of which are paved over for the Via dei Foro Imperiali

1935 S. Adriano al Foro deconsecrated to restore Curia

1944 Rome falls to the allies

1946 Italian monarchy abolished

2000 Rome population reaches 2,643,581