Season Team

• AIAC_95 - Foro di Nerva - 1997
  Begun under Domitian but inaugurated by Nerva in A.D: 97, the complex appears as an elongated rectangle, whose form was exaggerated by the presence of high columns protruding slightly from the continuous perimeter wall. Two of these, traditionally know as the "Colonnacce", are still visible at the corner of Via dei Fori Imperiale and Via Cavour. The piazza was closed off by the temple dedicated to Minerva, with six columns along the front of the pronaos and three on the sides. The temple was destroyed at the beginning of the seventeenth century by order of Pope Paul the fifth, who used its spolia in the fountain of the Acqua Paula on the Janiculum, and in the Borghese Chapel at Santa Maria Maggiore. Behind the temple was found the Porticus Absidata, a semicircular building with several orders of columns that served as a monumental entrance to the Forum from the Subura while masking the rear of the Temple of Minerva. The recent excavations show that the Forum continued in use for a very long time. As late as the eighth century A.D. the piazza was maintained in good condition. During the last decades of the century a road was created along the line of the ancient Argiletum, linking the area of the Roman Forum with the Subura. Along this road in the course of the ninth century a series of large houses was built. These substantial buildings had two floors, and in one case a portico along the street. They are now restored, and visible in the Forum itself. (Riccardo Santangeli Valenzani)
• AIAC_96 - Foro di Cesare - 2000
  Caesar's construction of the earliest Imperial Forum, which would serve as the model for all the successive complexes, was inspired by both urbanism and propaganda. Built from 54 B.C. onwards, after the acquisition of a series of buildings, it was intended to take pressure of the Roman Forum. The monument was completed by Augustus after the death of the dictator. It comprises a rectangular piazza flanked by double colonnades behind which opened a series of tabernae, shops or offices. The north side of the piazza was occupied by the large temple dedicated to Venus Genetrix, the mythical progrenitrice of the gens Iulia from which Caesar was descended. This is a monument of clear ideological intent, and was the subject of two important restorations, by Trajan and by Diocletian. Without changing the plan of the building, these restorations modified substantially its aspect. On the short southern side recent excavations have brought to light the fourth portico, as wide as the side ones but single rather than double. Another portico opened onto the Argiletum, the road that linked the Roman Forum to the Subura. The excavations have also given important new information about the protohistoric period in the area, as well as its late Republican plan and the Medieval re-use of the site for habitation from the tenth century onwards. (Riccardo Santangeli Valenzani)
• AIAC_97 - Foro della Pace - 2000
  Connected both urbanistically and architectonically to the complexes of the Imperial Fora, the Templum Pacis, built by the emperor Vespasian and inaugurated in A.D.75, is also composed of a monumental porticoed piazza, with a temple at its north end. It so closely reproduces the form of the earlier fora that it was sometimes identified in the sources as the Forum Pacis. Its official name, Templum Pacis, qualifies it instead as an area consecrated to the goddess Peace, a divinized personification of a quality typical of the Roman religious mentality. The excavations took place in the western corner of the complex, up to now almost unknown archaeologically. They have brought to light a large portion of this area, which emphasizes its difference from the other imperial fora. Unlike these, it was occupied to a large extent by flowerbeds, separated by six long ornamental canals. As we know from the sources, various masterworks of greek art brought to Rome by Nero for his Domus Aurea were displayed in this space, restored to the enjoyment of the public by Vespasian. The discovery of three statue bases inscribed with the names of Attic artists confirms this tradition. The excavation has also revealed the transformations of the area from the late antique period through the destruction caused by Mussolini's creation of the Via dei Fori Imperiali in the -30's. (Riccardo Santangeli Valenzani)