Forum of Augustus

You are standing on the Argiletum in front of the southern entrance to the Forum of Augustus. Before the battle of Philippi in 42 BCE the young Octavian had vowed to build a temple to Mars Ultor ("Mars the Avenger") to honor his pledge to avenge the death of his adoptive father, Julius Caesar, at the hands of Brutus, Cassius, and the other conspirators. Forty years later, in 2 BCE, the entire city of Rome celebrated the dedication of this forum, with its great temple of Mars Ultor and carefully planned symbolic imagery. Rome's great national epic, Vergil's Aeneid, had been completed in 19 BCE, and the design and thematic focus of this forum had been greatly influenced by Vergil's work. One wall of Augustus' Forum abutted the Forum of Caesar, whose Temple of Venus Genetrix recalled not only the divine progenitor of the Julian family, but also the lover of Mars, who had fathered Romulus, the founder of Rome (see the relationship of these two fora in the model of Rome).

This plan of the forum graphically depicts its unusual structure and will introduce you to the symbolic themes that you will explore in more depth as you walk around the various part of the site (see also this navigational plan).