Roman Forum

I find that article to be thoroughly depressing... Though I have often wondered about such things, knowing it for certain only upsets me. Haha.

Actually, after re-reading it, that's not so bad. The authenticity, from ancient times, has made it through as intact as can be expected, I guess. The issue seems to be the disappearance of 1,500 years of history in the Forum AFTER the fall of ancient Rome.

As far as a little bit of reconstruction here and there, I see nothing wrong with that. I admit it is interesting to know that the "open air museum" style of the Forum is relatively recent, and that many more modern structures had to be destroyed to get back the "ancient" look.

Thanks for the link!

This is actually a great example to illustrate why it's really worthwhile to get a good "live" guide for the Forum. It is very hard to see and understand what you're actually seeing when you simply walk the grounds. The audio-guide provided by the Forum doesn't really do a good job either to explain the different excavations and reconstructions. And only mentions very briefly what is left underground and not seen. The DK guide book helped a little as well but in the end we really regretted not having had a guided tour in this place.

I've come to terms with the relative nature of what is and isn't "Authentic." The American Mind has a hard time conceiving the vast amount of history presented by Rome. The Forum is a reconstructed collage of various periods of history. It can't be understood as ever being in one classical, ideal, state. It was never that. In ancient times, every emperor had his own public works project. The Forum was rebuilt many times over, even before the Fall of Rome.

This makes pre-500 AD Rome very difficult, if not impossible, to visualize.

To the Romantic, just put on the rose colored glasses and enjoy it. Its mostly a nicely constructed theme park. But it is a very beautiful theme park.

The Historian has a harder job. You have to pick exactly what period you are interested in, and then wade through all the re-building, all the mis-direction and all the bad pseudo-archeology of the 16th and 17th centuries.

Thanks for the link..

I didn't bother with the Roman Forum on my trip to Rome. The Trajan Forums were interesting but the rest of the forum was really just a pile of rocks.

Just to elaborate on Sean's answer - there is only one Forum of Trajan. There is his column, there are the markets (well worth seeing IMHO) and there is one forum. While the Roman Forum between the Coliseum and Trajan's Market has many fallen pieces of architecture to call it a pile of rocks does it a disservice. It is also far too large to be considered a pile.

I stand by what I said. The Trajan markets and the Arch of Titus are very interesting but the rest is of little interest to anyone but archeology buffs.
There are many well preserved Roman sites in Italy such as Ostia Antica and Pompeii, that you needn't bother see the forum. It's just a pile or rocks with a few columns here and there.

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