The Forum of Julius Caesarand the

Temple of Venus Genetrix

Sarah Ellery, 2010

Little of the forum is extant…

…and little of what does remain is Republican.

Why study the Forum Iulium?•Occupies a physical position at the meeting-place of the republican and imperial fora

•In its form and purpose, it is a crucial “fulcrum” between the Forum Romanum and that of Augustus, etc.

•Serves as a physical document of the political changes in Rome in the decade between 54-44 B.C.

Location, location, location!

HISTORY’S MYSTERIES:

When in the chronology did Caesar decide a) to build an autonomous forum, and

b) to dedicate a temple to Venus Genetrix there?

ChronologyBuilding:

First record of land purchase

Temple and forum first

used

= 29 B.C.

What happened in these years? Was C. simply preoccupied? Or was he waiting for the auctoritas he needed to build on the scale

he wanted??

Ancient Sources: Prime Real Estate• Cicero, Letters to Atticus (4.17), Oct. 1, 54 B.C.:

Now for the rest. From my brother's letter I gather surprising indications of Caesar's affection for me, and they have been confirmed by a very cordial letter from Caesar himself. The result of the British war is a source of anxiety. For it is ascertained that the approaches to the island are protected by astonishing masses of cliff. Moreover, it is now known that there isn't a pennyweight of silver in that island, nor any hope of booty except from slaves, among whom I don't suppose you can expect any instructed in literature or music. Paulus has almost brought his basilica in the forum to the roof, using the same columns as were in the ancient building: the part for which he gave out a contract he is building on the most magnificent scale. Need I say more? Nothing could be more gratifying or more to his glory than such a monument. Accordingly, the friends of Caesar—I mean myself and Oppius, though you burst with anger—have thought nothing of 60,000 sesterces for that monument, which you used to speak of in such high terms, in order to enlarge the forum and extend it right up to the Hall of Liberty. The claims of private owners could not be satisfied for less. We will make it a most glorious affair.

ChronologyRestoration:

80 A.D. – Forum and temple badly damaged by fire, rebuilt by Domitian

113 A.D. – Restoration under Trajan, dedicatedon the same day as theColumn of Trajan

283 A.D. – Forum burned; restored underDiocletian

Trajanic period Corinthian columns, from the

Temple of Venus Genetrix

-- All probably

reconstructed

on the same

basic plan as

the original…

Reasons for Forum & Temple Construction

• Forum needed to enlarge the overcrowded Forum Romanum

• Inspiration from Egypt(?) • Venus Genetrix:

– Temple vowed on the eve of Pharsalus– Didn’t want Pompey to have Venus (Victrix) all to

himself– Obvious connection to Julian family

Ancient Sources: Forum Purpose

• Appian, The Civil Wars (2.15.102):

He erected a temple to Venus, his ancestress, as he had vowed to do when he was about to begin the battle of Pharsalus, and he laid out ground around the temple which he intended to be a forum for the Roman people, not for buying and selling, but a meeting-place for the transaction of public business, like the public squares of the Persians, where the people assemble to seek justice or to learn the laws.

Vitruvius cites this as an example of pycnostyle- space between columns = 1.5x column diameter; also octastyle

Entrance to temple via 2 sides; this offered speakers on the platform a bit of protection from the crowd

Only 8 columns on the sides because the back of the temple is built into the ridge that used to join the Capitoline and Quirinal hills

5 m. high podium

Column base from the temple, reused in the baptistery at St. John Lateran, Rome

Ancient Sources: Inaugural Use

• Dio Cassius, Roman History (43.23):

The first days of the triumph* he passed as customary, but on the last day, after they had finished dinner, he entered his own forum wearing slippers and garlanded with all kinds of flowers; thence he proceeded homeward with practically the entire populace escorting him, while many elephants carried torches. For he had himself constructed the forum called after him, and it is distinctly more beautiful than the Roman Forum; yet it had increased the reputation of the other so that that was called the Great Forum. So after completing this new forum and the temple to Venus, as the founder of his family, he dedicated them at this very time, and in their honour instituted many contests of all kinds.

* 46 B.C.

Rubens, c. 1630: “A Roman Triumph,” National Gallery, London

Decoration of the Temple

• Cult statue of Venus by Arcesilas• Gold statue of Cleopatra as Isis• Valuable antique paintings• Collections of engraved gems• “Thorax” (corselet) of British pearls

Basalt statue of Cleopatra VII as an Egyptian goddess, second half of the first century BC; The Hermitage, St. Petersburg

Ancient Sources: Statue of Cleopatra

• Dio Cassius, Roman History (51.22):Thus Cleopatra, though defeated and captured, was nevertheless glorified, inasmuch as her adornments repose as dedications in our temples and she herself is seen in gold in the shrine of Venus.

• Appian, The Civil Wars (2.15.102): He placed a beautiful image of Cleopatra by the side of the goddess, which stands there to this day.

Ancient Sources: An Interesting Episode

• Suetonius, “Life of Julius Caesar” (78.1):

But it was the following action in particular that roused deadly hatred against him. When the Senate approached him in a body with many highly honorary decrees, he received them before the temple of Venus Genetrix without rising. Some think that when he attempted to get up, he was held back by Cornelius Balbus; others, that he made no such move at all, but on the contrary frowned angrily on Gaius Trebatius when he suggested that he should rise.

Field Trip!(Click here for video)

= Appiades fountain

Equestrian statue of the = man himself

Access to Curia Julia

Porticus

Birth of Venus

Bucephalas, Alexander’s horse

= Another statue of him

Porticus

Bibliography:• Uhlrich, Roger B. “Julius Caesar and the Creation of the

Forum Iulium.” American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 97, No. 1 (Jan., 1993), pp. 49-80.

• Claridge, Amanda. Oxford Archaeological Guides: Rome. London: Oxford University Press, 1998.

• Platner & Ashby. A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. London: Oxford University Press, 1929.

• http://academicearth.org/courses/roman-architecture• LacusCurtius.org• Perseus.tufts.edu• Penelope.uchicago.edu • Google Earth, Ancient Rome 3D