The Forum of Augustus
Representation conceived by Piero Angela and Paco Lanciano
While spacing on various aspects of the Roman world, the story of the city is still anchored to the site of Augustus. Creatively using some remains of the Tempio di Venere commissioned by Julius Caesar, the breathtaking cultural entertainment which will take place inside the Forum tries to let the stones “speak” for themselves and induce visitors relive the emotion of the life of time in Rome, when officials, plebeians, soldiers, matrons, consuls and senators walked under the porticoes of the Forum.
Besides the faithful reconstruction of the area, with special effects of all kinds, the story told by the voice of Piero Angela take viewers on the footsteps of Augustus, whose giant statue, over 12 meters high, dominated the area next to the temple.
A new period of Roman history started under Augustus: as a matter of fact the imperial age was one of great achievement, within a century Rome ruled over an empire which extended from current England to the borders of the modern Iraq, including most of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. These achievements led to the expansion not only of the empire, but also of culture, technologies, legal rules, art. Traces of that past are still visible in all parts of the Empire, with amphitheaters, baths, libraries, temples, roads.
Rome at that time had more than one million inhabitants: no city in the world had ever had a population of those proportions; only London in the XIX century reached that size. It was the great metropolis of antiquity: the capital of economics, law, power and entertainment.
Entrance address: Via Alessandria/Largo Corrado Ricci – How to reach the Forum >>
The Forum of Caesar
Representation conceived by Piero Angela and Paco Lanciano
The story narrated by Piero Angela, accompanied by reconstructions and videos, starts from the history of the excavations made for the construction of Via dei Fori Imperiali, when an “army” of 1,500 construction workers were mobilized in an unprecedented work: razing to the ground an entire neighborhood and digging out the area until the level of ancient Rome was reached.
Thus the story starts from the remains of the majestic Temple of Venus, built by Julius Caesar after his victory over Pompey, to lead the spectators into the excitement of the daily life in Ancient Rome, when officials, plebeians, militaries, matrons, consuls and senators strolled under the arches of the Forum. Ancient taberne reapper among these colonnades, they were used as offices and shops of the Forum and, among these, of particular interest is the shop of a nummulario, a sort of currency exchange point of the timeThere was also a large public toilet of which there are curious remains.
The visit seeks to evoke the role of the Forum in the life of the Romans but also the figure of Julius Caesar. To accomplish this great work, Caesar had to expropriate and demolish an entire neighborhood, at the total cost of 100 million gold coins, the equivalent of at least 300 million euros. Caesar also wanted that the new headquarters of the Roman Senate, the Curia, was built right next to his court. A building that still exists and that, through a virtual reconstruction, you can review as it appeared at that time.
In those years, while the power of Rome grew dramatically, the Senate was very weakened and it was in this situation of internal crisis that Caesar was able to get special and perpetual political power. Through the story narrated by Piero Angela spectators will get to know more about this intelligent and ambitious man, idolized by some, hated and feared by others.