Forum of Utica
About
Utica's forum grew unusually large after Rome made the city its first African provincial capital in 146 BCE, following Carthage's destruction. Cato the Younger crossed this square in April 46 BCE before withdrawing to end his own life rather than accept Caesar's clemency. Excavators found the pavement rebuilt across some four centuries of continuous use. By 117 CE it had already anchored the city's civic life for 263 years.
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.
In ancient writing
- Plutarch, Life of Cato the Younger 66-70
Describes Cato's final days and suicide at Utica in April 46 BCE, in the city where this forum stood.
Sources
Nearby
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