FORUM OF VESPASIAN
EXPLAINED

Roman goddess Pax sitting in the Temple of Peace, holding a staff, olive branch, and a Cornucopia at her feet
© atouchofrome.com

In the whole Roman empire, the Temple of Peace in the Forum of Vespasian was the only temple dedicated to the Roman goddess Pax. Roman veneration of Pax started during the reign of the first Roman Emperor Augustus, who used her images to promote peace and political calm after the years of civil war and conflict preceding his coming to power.

In the drawing above, I attempted to show how the interior of the Temple of Peace looked, with floors based on the surviving tiles made of white, pink, and purple stone. Roman goddess Pax is seated on a throne while holding an olive branch in one hand and a staff in the other. At her feet is a cornucopia, signifying bountiful peace. Her dress is made of gilded bronze, and she is painted in lifelike colours. The interior is lit by braziers burning incense and tall Roman lamps. Tall pilasters adorn the marble-covered walls.

After further civil wars broke out following the suicide of Emperor Nero in June of 68 AD, Emperor Vespasian began constructing his forum and the Temple of Peace three years later, in 71 AD, to alleviate the anxieties and low morale of the people of Rome. Four years later, the forum and temple were officially opened in 75 AD.

Building a temple dedicated to Pax symbolized a new era of peace and stability for the empire. Nero had seized many parts of central Rome to build his giant palace, which angered the people. By building the forum and its Temple of Peace, in addition to the Colosseum on top of Nero's palace, Emperor Vespasian gave back the land to the people for their own use and enjoyment.

Roman goddess Pax shown on four different Roman coins
Pax is seen both standing and sitting and always holding a staff and extending an olive branch of peace

Most of the images we have of this goddess come from Roman coins, as shown in the image above. She is portrayed as a rather young lady dressed in a long gown and holding a staff in one hand and an olive branch in the other. She is shown as either sitting or standing, as seen in the four ancient coins above. She could also be shown holding a long cornucopia that represented abundant peace. On January 3, a festival was dedicated to Pax, and it is said that images of emperors and others were placed at her feet in the hope that peace would be promoted.

Roman goddess Pax holding two infants - 'Ara Pacis' marble relief
Credit: Jean-Pierre Dalbera - CC-BY-2.0 - 2014

Emperor Augustus' greatest tribute to Pax was the construction, in the year 9 BC, of the Altar of Augustan Peace, better known by the Latin name "Ara Pacis, as shown in the image above. Eighty years later, in 79 AD, the Temple of Peace and its forum were constructed by Emperor Vespasian.

This Roman goddess was the daughter of the god Jupiter and Justitia (Justice), and she became officially recognized during the reign of Augustus, though her image started appearing on Roman coins as early as the the Fourth Century BC. Her image was used on coins to honour her and also promote peace throughout the Roman empire. The origin of Pax is the Greek goddess of peace, Eirene, as shown in the image below.

Roman copy of Eirene sculpture by Cephisodotus the Elder
Image: Licensed from Dreamstime

The photo above shows the Greek equivalent of Pax holding the infant Plutus, the god of plenty. Eirene's father was Zeus (the Roman 'Jupiter'), and her mother was Themis (the Roman 'Justitia'), the goddess of justice and good counsel. Both Pax and the Greek Eirene were displayed far less often than other gods, such as Mars and Diana, for example. The three most important gods for the Romans were Jupiter, Minerva, and Juno - known as the "Capitoline Triad" of gods thought to protect Rome and its civilization. Pax was low in the hierarchy of gods, not even rating in the top twelve (Jupiter, Juno, Minerva, Neptune, Venus, Mars, Apollo, Diana, Vulcan, Vesta, Mercury, Ceres). One could conclude that peace was not the most important consideration of most Romans.

About ten years after the destructive fire of 191 AD, the temple was rebuilt by emperor Septimius Severus. This new temple included a vast room containing many clerks and a huge 18-metre wide (60 feet) marble map of the City of Rome, known as the Forma Urbis Romae. The job of the people in this room was to maintain and update the huge map so that every building and street of Rome was dutifully etched onto the map.

This giant scale map of the city of Rome was engraved on 150 marble panels attached to an inside wall of the Temple of Peace, shown in the image recreation below. The top of the map is east, not north.

Forma Urbis Romae marble map of Rome in 200 AD

The image above shows how the Forma Urbis Romae looked after its creation in the early 200s AD. I highlighted in red the map section showing the exact location of the Forum of Vespasian. One thing missing from the image is ladders, which they certainly would have needed to closely examine and revise the marble map.

Though all those marble panels are gone, the wall they were attached to still exists, and it now forms the rear outside wall of the Basilica of Saints Cosmas and Damian, as shown in a recent image below. Obviously, over the centuries, they added windows to the wall. On the left side of the photo, you can see a very thick wall that may have been the back wall of the Temple of Peace - or it might be just a buttress that supports the ancient building.

Forma Urbis Romae wall in the 21st century

In the photo above, one can still see the holes where the 150 marble panels were attached with metal pins. The lower left section of the wall clearly shows holes forming square rectangles. Only 10% of the marble panels still exist, broken down into about 1200 fragments collected and preserved since 1562 AD and kept in the Capitoline Museum in Rome.

Forma Urbis Romae room, looking out towards main forum courtyard - First Century AD
Remaster of image by unknown artist - possibly Altair4 or LVIIC - Educational Use

Of the remaining 10%, only half of the fragments have been correctly positioned. The marble panels were destroyed mainly during the Middle Ages in the production of lime which involves burning marble. However, some fragments were also used as filler in walls which means that new fragments are sometimes discovered. In 2016 a fragment showing the Circus Flaminus was found in a building located in a distant neighbourhood of Rome. Today, we have a good idea of what the Forum of Vespasian looked like long ago because some marble map fragments showing the forum survived, as explained in the next section.

SURVIVING MAP PIECES OF THE FORUM OF VESPASIAN

In an image below, surviving Temple of Peace map fragments are shown. And you can also see surviving map fragments of the Colosseum (click link to view).

Because this stone map was created during the reign of Septimius Severus, it is also known as the Severan Marble Plan. This marble map was very detailed, using a scale of 1 to 240 approximately. Architectural details of religious, administrative, commercial and residential structures were included, such as temples, basilicas, amphitheatres, apartment buildings, baths, shops, warehouses, aqueducts, and private homes. The Forma Urbis Romae fragments are an invaluable tool in helping us conceptualize the actual layout of ancient Rome.

Wall outlines, columns, staircases and names of structures and city areas were engraved, not just drawn or painted, into the marble panels, as seen in the drawing below of the marble fragments showing the layout of the Forum of Vespasian. The white parts of the image with black lines are estimations by experts of how the whole forum was laid out, based on the actual fragment information.

Forma Urbis Romae fragments of Forum of Vespasian

In the image above, the three surviving fragments are beige-coloured. The rest of the map detail is an estimated drawing done by experts who studied the ruins and historical descriptions over the years. A significant portion of the Forum of Vespasian/Temple of Peace details has survived, and thus our reconstructed views of it are probably correct.

However, the actual detailed look of the buildings themselves is a matter of conjecture. There are only a few vague descriptions and no surviving paintings, reliefs or recognized coins showing us what the actual structures looked like before or after the reconstruction following the great fire of 191 AD. Here is a photo of other Forma Urbis fragments placed against a map of ancient Rome.

WHAT DO THE MAP FRAGMENTS SHOW US?

A close examination of the surviving Forma Urbis Romae fragments in the image above clearly shows us many details of the floorplan of the Temple of Peace and the surrounding Forum of Vespasian. We can see that the temple had a wide staircase in front, made up of several steps. At the top of the stairs were six large columns with six more columns further behind. The main temple area contained a large entrance room with an altar situated within a large, convex wall niche. Furthermore, there were large rooms beside the temple which were all fronted by a colonnade of columns.

Within the garden courtyard, you can see there were three long structures that held water on either side - either a kind of elongated fountain or flower beds (or a combination of both) - for a total of six. Each of those long fountains was sub-divided into four sections. In front of the temple staircase there was a square structure, almost certainly an altar where people could bring offerings and rites could be performed. And all along the edges of the courtyard are more columned porticos.

As mentioned earlier, the map fragments only show us the basic appearance and floorplan of the Forum of Vespasian. The fragments do not show what all those forum structures actually looked like. Artists who draw the forum buildings are making their best, informed guesses. For example, how many windows did the buildings have, and where were they? We do not know. How many stories high were the buildings - again, we do not know for sure. What kind of detailing and statues were incorporated into the architecture? Same answer - we do not know. There are no surving Roman paintings, stone reliefs, or coins showing what the Forum of Vespasian looked like. Thus, a certain degree of "artistic licence" is almost always used when creating images showing what this ancient forum looked like in the past.

Two hundred years after the Temple of Peace and the Forum of Vespasian were rebuilt following the fire of 191 AD, another calamity befell the area.

In 408 AD, earthquakes repeatedly struck this forum for seven days. We know this event happened because of Roman historian Marcellinus Comes who wrote the following quote sometime in the early 530s AD in his book Annales, a chronicle covering what happened during the years 379 to 534 AD:

Romae in foro pacis per dies septem terra mugitum dedit

"In the Forum of Peace in Rome,  for seven days the earth roared"

A whole week of earthquakes must have caused significant damage to the Forum of Vespasian and many other parts of ancient Rome. When this forum was damaged, the Roman empire in the west was already in serious decline. Resources and finances were very constrained, so the forum may not have been fully repaired.

Up until the early 500s AD, parts of the forum were still used to display art. Then, in approximately 530 AD, the hall to the far west of the Temple of Peace was converted into the church of Saint Cosmas and Damian by Pope Felix IV. Almost 1,500 years later, the church (now a basilica) is still there. In the image above showing the forum in the sixth century, you can see the church on the far right side (with the crucifix on the roof).

By the year 540 AD, we know for sure that the forum was abandoned and severely damaged. A man from the Eastern Roman Empire, by the name of Procopius, was in Rome in the 500s during the destructive Gothic Wars fought over nineteen years (from 535 to 554 AD). He visited the forums of Rome and reported that the Forum of Vespasian had been destroyed by lightning many years earlier. He also wrote that some of the works of art that were formerly housed in the Temple of Peace had been relocated to other nearby parts of the city. Very likely, the forum had also been seriously damaged during the sacking of Rome in 410 AD.

Was the Temple of Peace closed along with the other Roman pagan temples in the late 300s? In my opinion, it was not closed, though the large statue of the Roman goddess Pax was certainly removed. However, because the temple and adjoining rooms were used to house the Forma Urbis Romae and to display art and treasures from the war in Judea in the 70s AD, I believe the temple was still being used throughout the Fourth Century AD.

In addition, the Temple of Peace had a long history and was of great importance to the Roman people. After the statue of the goddess Pax was removed, I do not see why there was any other reason to close the temple and all the adjoining facilities. What ultimately sent the Forum of Vespasian and its temple into severe decline was the sacking of Rome in 410 AD that caused significant damage.

So many forums were reduced to shattered ruins, like the Forum of Caesar above
Licensed from Dreamstime

According to scholars, after the sacking of 410 AD, the forum was not restored. However, even after the sacking, some areas of the forum may still have been in use. The Western Roman Empire continued until 476 AD, after which life still continued in Rome until the devastating Gothic Wars in the 1530s. For almost sixty years after 476 AD, the Roman Senate still met, and the Colosseum and Roman baths still operated. Thus, I wonder if the forum lay abandoned entirely for over 120 years after the sacking of 410 AD, or were the surviving structures still used for administrative and other purposes.

Even if the Forum of Vespasian and its beautiful temple were no longer used after 410 AD, nevertheless these beautiful structures had been enjoyed by the Romans for 340 years - that is a long time. For example, the Parliament buildings in London, completed in 1876, are not even 150 years old, but it seems like they have been around a long time, going back many generations. It will take almost 200 more years before the Parliament buildings have existed as long as the Forum of Vespasian.

I have read that, during the Middle Ages, the area of the forum was used as a burial ground for many centuries. During that period, the pillaging of marble and other resources steadily removed almost all traces of the temple and the long colonnades on either side of it, which is described in greater detail in the next section.

Just like all the other ancient forums of Rome, not much remains of the Forum of Vespasian. In fact, very little of the large and beautiful Temple of Peace and its long columned porticos can still be seen. Even the walls and long fountains are mostly all gone - but not quite.

A portico foundation can be seen, in addition to some walls, floors tiles, broken columns, reassembled columns, and a hall that was converted into a church. Even one of the original four square exedras along the forum's surrounding walls still exists - very modified - but its base foundation supports a tall tower.

Below is a list of six parts of the Forum of Vespasian that still exist in the 21st century, though they may be altered:

1.	The wall that supported the Forma Urbis Romae. Notice, in the photo, how this wall is now part of the Basilica of Cosmas and Damian;

Forma Urbis Romae Wall
Photo by Hugo DK - CC BY-SA-4.0

2.

The next photo shows the interior of the Basilica of Cosmas and Damian. Though it is not 100% certain, it is thought the interior of the church used to be a hall - probably a library - that was located next to the Temple of Peace in the Forum of Vespasian. The front entrance part of this church, located in the Forum Romanum, was the Temple of Romulus. In fact, the ancient bronze doors to the church are original, and the key still works. The wall shown above that supported the Forma Urbis Romae is definitely part of this church.

Former library hall of the Forum of Vespasian
Licensed from Dreamstime

3.

A portion of the west portico's stairs and seven columns that were raised through the process of anastylosis. In the foreground, you can see remnants of the long and rectangular fountains that once filled the forum's courtyard. The columns are discussed in great detail further down the page; Stairs and columns of the west portico. Also showing remnants of the long, rectangular fountains Photo by AncientDigital Maps - CC BY-NC-2.0

4.

The northeast exedra located along the wall that surrounded the ancient forum. Today, the exedra foundation is used to support the Torre dei Conti, shown in the photo below. Forum of Vespasian exedra transformed into Torre dei Conti tower Licensed from Dreamstime This tower, built in 1238 AD and heavily damaged in 1348, is located at the corner of Via dei Fori Imperiali and Via Cavour streets in Rome. I have produced an image below that shows the exedra location in present-day Rome, with the outline of the ancient Forum superimposed above. Forum of Vespasian outline over image of present-day Rome I used Google Earth to create this image As you can see in the image above, roads now cover much of what was the Forum of Vespasian. When you visit the forum today, you will need a lot of imagination and background information to visualize the ancient forum's appearance around you.

5.

Possibly a Temple of Peace firewall made of volcanic tuff & travertine (see photo below). Possible Temple of Peace firewall (left) that has survived Image courtesy of BSR - Fair Use - Educational In the image above, is the wall on the left truly a part of the Temple of Peace Firewall as claimed by the British School at Rome, which they describe as being the "rusticated tuff and travertine firewall of the Temple of Peace". I am assuming the BSR is describing the wall on the left because it is the only wall showing two kinds of stone, as stated in the BSR description. Tuff (a volcanic stone) and Travertine (a form of limestone) were commonly used by the ancient Romans and can be found in the Colosseum, for example. That photo of what may be an actual surviving wall of the Temple of Peace is truly fascinating. Thank you to the British School at Rome (BSR) - this link shows the actual article, in which BSR states: ... it is fantastic to be able to walk through the Severan substructures of the southeast corner of the Palatine to the sunken 'stadium' Domitian, as well as down the ancient road that ran between the Temple of Peace and the Basilica of Maxentius. This means the visitor can now see a well-preserved section of the firewall of the Temple of Peace as well as gain a good view of the stunning marble floor of the interior ... How interesting that this wall also includes an entrance with a metal gate. The main problem with this image is this: I can't find any other online references to this surviving firewall section that would validate the above statement. To be frank, I am not entirely convinced the British School at Rome claim is correct, though I really hope it is. It would be great to know that another significant part of the Temple of Peace still exists.

6.

A few floor sections of the Temple of Peace, In another image below, from the same website, the BSR shows us an image of a floor section from the Temple of Peace. This photo matches closely with the surviving and very damaged floor sections we already know, which I have superimposed in the top right corner so you can compare the two photos. The new image of the Temple of Peace floor shows us a more vivid and well-preserved section with rich colour and sheen, looking like it did long ago - very elegant. I see three kinds of stone - white marble, red marble, and a circular border of rare purple Porphyry stone that is very hard and came from Egypt. In the top corner photo, you can see how the circle of precious porphyry was pillaged. Surviving marble floor sections of the Temple of Peace Image Courtesy of the British School at Rome Ancient Roman writers stated that the Temple of Peace was one of the most beautiful buildings in Rome. The photo above gives us a good idea of how splendid the temple must have been. The Romans really knew how to create stunning and colourful floors made from inlaid marble and granite. Other examples of fine Roman floors can be found in the Pantheon, the Forum of Augustus' porticos, the Basilica Ulpia in the Forum of Trajan's, and the Curia Julia in the Forum Romanum. Except for the Pantheon floor that is still complete and restored, the other structures mentioned have only a few surviving floor sections that nevertheless still show their former glory and colours.

In this section, I explore the western portico of the Forum of Vespasian more closely, including how it looked 1,800 years ago. This is the only part of the forum's porticos that has survived to some degree. In Roman times, this portico was very long, and it ran almost the entire length of the forum. All of the portico's columns were made from reddish granite from Egypt.

Over the centuries, all the columns were knocked down, smashed, or removed from the forum. All that remained of those columns were various chunks lying in the ground under several metres (yards) of dirt. For well over a thousand years, people walking through this forum saw only a field covered with grass and some trees. Consequently, there were no standing columns for many centuries until 2015, when some of them were "raised from the dead" through a special process that I explain further on.

View from inside the West Portico in the 2nd Century AD
Modified image based on original by LVIIC

The drawing above shows the Forum of Vespasian's west portico from the inside. The viewer is looking northwest through the length of the portico with the Temple of Peace at the top left. Notice how all the colums are made of a red granite. The columns are topped with Corinthian capitals, and they are supported by a short plinth and torus below, all made of white marble. Like the porticos of many Roman forums, this one probably had a curved ceiling that was decorated, as imagined by the artist. It is also very likely that the portico contained statues and other works of art.

7 columns of the West Portico. The two wide steps in the middle foreground mark the forum entrance. Above the entrance, you can see a rectangular fountain base

Photo by Jordiferrer - Wikimedia Commons

The photo above shows what remains of the southern part of the Forum of Vespasian in our century. We see a portion of the west Portico with seven columns raised in 2015 through a process called "anastylosis". Many tourists think these seven columns are part of the Temple of Peace - but that is incorrect. These seven columns, only recently restored and raised, are just a few of the many columns (30 approximately) that formed the long West Portico colonnade of the Forum of Vespasian. This structure led towards the Temple of Peace, which would be located far to the left of the white buildings (top centre), behind the tall tree on the left.

This process of raising the columns caused much controversy because these newly raised columns were formed by mixing some of the original surviving column pieces with cement and reinforced concrete. So the debate is:  "How authentic are these columns - How much of them are made from the original ancient parts - 50%, 70%, 10%?"

I can understand a concern that the public's perception of the authenticity and purity of the Roman Forum ruins can be affected by the degree of anastylosis, described in greater detail in the section below.

The image below of the western portico of the Temple of Peace is composed of a "before" and an "after" picture. In the first image, we see pieces of columns lying on the ground. In the following image, we see full columns standing, made up of those same column pieces with cement added (probably in some mould). This is the process of anastylosis which usually strives to rebuild and restore ruins by using as much of the original material as possible and does not always use cement, resins, or similar fillers/binders.

Dark column sections are original. Lighter parts and bases are new

Nevertheless, the deed is done, and the columns have been raised. And these columns do indeed contain real sections of the original Egyptian red granite. Nevertheless, some columns are mostly just cement, as can be seen in the image above. Many thanks to friendly and helpful Deb Nystrom for the bottom part of the image.

Personally, I have no problem with the concept of anastylosis so long as it is not extreme. Standing columns are markers that proclaim: "An ancient building was here and a small part is standing again."

Raised columns are more pleasing and understandable to the average person than column chunks lying flat on the ground. In my opinion, when most people visit ancient ruins, they want to see something coherent, something they can relate to that helps them visualize what the structure looked like in the ancient past. That is probably why the seven columns shown above were raised in the first place. Before those columns were raised, there really was not much to see.

However, the raising of those columns through anastylosis does beg the question ... "Just how much more of the forum will be 'raised'? Why not just rebuild the whole thing? What is an acceptable limit?" I suppose that time will tell if anastylosis is a good or bad thing. What do you think?

Forum of Vespasian and Temple of Peace from above in the year 2020
Image made using Google Earth

The image above places those seven raised columns (location indicated in red/yellow) in context. I have recreated lines of missing columns (in white) on either side of those seven columns to recreate the East Portico and part of the main Temple of Peace central structure. To the far lower right is the Forum of Nerva. To the far upper left is the Basilica of Maxentius, and just to the right of that is the wall that supported the Forma Urbis Romae. To the far-middle left is the area where original floor sections of the Temple of Peace can be seen, as shown in this image of the Temple of Peace floors in poor condition. The newer and more robust floor sections that have survived are located elsewhere.

This concludes my discussion of the Forum of Vespasian. Hopefully, more areas of this forum will be discovered so that we can glimpse even more of its former beauty and magnificence. If you would like to explore another of ancient Rome's great forums, you can use the Forum Guide I have placed below for your convenience.