Old Forum of Leptis Magna
About
Leptis Magna's original civic square, laid out under Augustus and still the working heart of the city in 117 CE. Three temples line its south side, to Rome and Augustus, to Liber Pater, and to Hercules, patron gods the city had honored since its Phoenician founding. Nearly a century would pass before Septimius Severus, born in this city, gave it a second, grander forum nearby.
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 →