Forum of Dougga
About
Thugga's forum served as the town's civic heart from the early Roman empire onward, a compact square of roughly 924 square meters ringed by porticoes. A Numidian-era temple to King Masinissa, dedicated in 139 BCE, lies buried beneath its paving. By 117 CE the forum had already anchored daily business for generations, decades before the Capitol rose across its northern edge.
What happened here
Business starts at first light. The magistrates' tribunal opens, cases are called, and the crowd that gathers to listen is half the point of coming. Money-changers work from tables under the porticoes, weighing coin from a dozen mints against the local rate. Notices are painted on the walls and whitewashed over when they go stale: elections, gladiator shows, a lost slave, a house to let. By the sixth hour the heat empties the open square and the arcades fill instead. Statues of the town's benefactors stand between the columns, and the men who paid for them expect to be greeted by name. Public slaves sweep at dusk. The forum is where a Roman town keeps its records, its gossip and its self-regard in the same place.
Sources
Nearby
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Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →