The complex of the Forum of Caesar was one of the most important urban interventions in Rome, especially if we talk about the first century b.C. Coming here you can have one of the best archeological landscapes of Rome, and not only that. An area that for a local tour guide like me is something ordinary, even if its fascination could not disappear....

Thanks to this project, Julius Caesar will be the first one who expanded what was the Forum, the political, cultural and economic centre of the Eternal City, that developped since the time of the the period royal. Imagine how, just to buy the land on which it is built his own Forum, Julius Caesar and the city of Rome spent something like 60 million sesterces! Crazy! Imagine how the work went forward from the 51 to b.C. to the 48 b.C., when, after the Battle of Farsalo, Julius Caesar defeated Pompey, his main rival. In this way he really became the most powerful man in the Eternal City. We also know that the area, in reality, was only opened in the 46 b.C. and as we read thanks to some historical documents, Augustus, after Julius Caesar, really completed this urbanistic project. What really was the Forum would by Caesar?

Today we have some ruins, historical remains of a great area that probably made the Romans proud to live in Rome. It is also a shame to know as a part of the Forum of Caesar is beneath the Via dei Fori Imperiali, would by Mussolini at the 1932. However, the Forum of Caesar was composed of a square (160 X 75 metres), paved in marble and enclosed on three sides by a magnificent portico, with two rows of columns. Behind them some tabernae (stores), faced the main square, revealing the commercial side of this area.  Keep in mind moreover that the Caesar Forum survived after his death becoming one of the main squares of Rome, something that was restored and enlarged several times, mainly with the roman emperor Trajan. 

Two were the main elements of the Forum that, in a certain sense, rendered justice to the man who wanted this project, embedded in a real plan: the equestrian statue in the center and the Temple of Venus Genetrix on one of the short sides. With regard to the first opera it was, according to ancient sources, a great bronze equestrian statue representing a victorious and triumphant Caesar. After all Julius Caesar built his consent on its business by the war, the aura of invincibility that had been built around, like a shell, thanks mostly to its battles and conquests. A general tough and strict when needed, but if necessary, magnanimous and ready to thank and reward his fellow soldiers. The second main element of the Forum was, in fact, the great temple that closed off one of the short sides, dedicated to Venus. Basically Julius Caesar consecrated himself before the war against Pompey and, once obtained another victory, he run to erect a temple for the Goddess of Love and Beauty. Moreover it is not a case if Julius Caesar gave to Venus the name Genitrix. It was a way to emphasize, as he had done constantly during the previous years, its alleged divine origin. The gens Iulia, in fact, for Julius Caesar was a direct descendant of Iulo, the Aeneas' son. The latter was according to the myth, one of the Venus' sons. It was a way for Julius Caesar to legitimize its political power, investing it with a mission almost divine, as if the Gods had wished that he was there, ready to save Rome. Today, after two thousand years, there are still only three columns, largely reworked, of what was the peripteral sine postico temple, and then with a colonnade on three sides except to the rear, enclosed by a simple wall. As you can understand, therefore, Julius Caesar did not spare any expense to create an urban project in the heart of the Rome, a project based on his victories, his fame, his political charm. So a urban project that was used to celebrate Caesar like a sort of divine king, in a different language and puurpose comparing the Forum would by Augustus some years later (click here to know more). But we are sure that the Caesar's Forum was a project that changed forever in Rome.