Forum of Proculus
About
A Roman-period forum stood in Cyrene's civic center, named for Proculus, the official credited with building or restoring it. Over a hundred free-standing Doric columns lined its rectangular court, with a small temple at the center and a basilica along one side. Merchants and magistrates used the space daily as Cyrene's second marketplace and law court. It stood exactly as built when Trajan died in August 117 CE.
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
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 →