Forum of Volubilis
About
The forum served as the civic and commercial heart of Roman Volubilis, raised during Nero's reign over the remains of the earlier Mauretanian-era town center. Colonnaded porticoes lined three sides of the open square, framing the space where the city's duumvirs and town council conducted public business. By the time Trajan died in 117 CE the forum anchored a functioning municipium of citizen-farmers, oil merchants, and Romanized Mauretanian elites. The basilica and Capitol that now flank it were still a century away, so in 117 the forum stood essentially alone as the town's monumental core.
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 →