Rome / The Forum

On the same day we went to the Colosseum (the 1st of July), we went to "The Forum" which is really called the "Foro Romano" and it was the centre of ancient Roman life.

As we left the Colosseum (read the posting two below this one) we walked along the Sacred Way which was a narrow road along which victorious Romans paraded along with the winnings of their most recent war.

We walked passed the fountain where the gladiators bathed after their bloody battles and through the remains of Nero's Palace, which overlooks the entire Forum on one side and a huge chariot race track known as Circus Maximus on the other side.This is me standing somewhere outside the Circus Maximus.

In the first century there were 1,000,000 people living in Rome, 250,000 people (or a quarter of the population) could gather on the hillsides to watch the chariot races. That is twice as many people as attend the Melbourne Cup.

We passed many, many temples including "The Temple Of The Divine Julius, named after my dad, Julius......just kidding, it was built on top of the site where Julius Caeser's cremation took place.If you were wondering how we knew how many people attended so and so, there was a large archives building which held information including who owned what land and whos occupation was what and even those things about how many people lived there, were all in an archives building. The ancient Romans kept excellent records on everything..

All over Rome you can find the acronym "S.P.Q.R." which stands for the Latin meaning of "the Senate and People Quo - quo means "of" - Rome.