Forum Augustae Treverorum
About
The forum spread 275 by 135 meters across three city blocks, one of the largest public squares north of the Alps. Traders from the Moselle, the Rhine and inner Gaul struck deals under its porticoes while the procurator governing three provinces worked alongside. A modest Augustan square grew into this monumental market by the end of the first century, so anyone crossing it in 117 CE walked a finished forum. Fourth-century emperors rebuilt it yet again.
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 →