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The archaeological area known as the Forum is, in fact, only one of a number of imperial fora, or meeting places, to be found in Rome. The open area, which corresponded with the modern Italian piazza, was the centre of Roman life. Here every aspect of the city's daily business was conducted, from religious cerimonies to the buying and selling of vegetables. It is from here that the Roman Empire was governed. Visitors are constantly surprised by how small the area is. It was to this place that Julius Caesar's body was brought to lie in state after his murder on the Ides of March 44 B.C. and it was from the nearby rostra that Mark Antony delivered his famous speech beginning, in Shakespeare's play, "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears..."
THE VESTALS VIRGINS
turning away from the Roma Forum and walking behind the Rostra, there is the ruin of a small circular temple dedicated to the Roman Goddess Vesta. Immediately next door can be found the house of the Vestal Virgins whose job it was to keep a perpetual fire burning in the Temple. Should the Vestals ever allow this fire to become exstinguished the pristess and her nuns would suffer dire punishments, including a scourging from the Pontifex Maximus. Although the Vestals Virgines enjoyed enormous influence, their lives were subject to the strictest rules. A virgin who transgressed her oath of 30 years' chastity would be burried alive. In 420 B.C. a Vestal Virgin named Postumia was charged for a sexual offence. She was innocent, however, but the fact that she gressed well and was renowned as a wit seemed to justify the suspicions against her. When she was finally acquitted she was warned to stop making jokes during religious cerimonies and from now on to dress with more regard to sanctity and less to fashion
MARFORIO
Much of the area of the Forum has been despoiled. In 1587 the huge statue of Marforio was removed from his original site in the Forum Romanum and placed in the Capitoline Museums where he can still be seen to this day. Originally the name of this colossal reclining figure was thought to derive from Mars Fori (i.e. Mars of the Forum). He formed part of a fountain which poured water into a large basin near the Curia (or meeting house). This basin has also been removed from its original position and nowadays can be found in the Piazza del Quirinale as part of the central group of the "Horse Tamers" and the Obelisk. The basin was removed to its present position from the Forum, where it had been in use as a cattle through, at the beginning of the XIX century by Pope Pius VII.
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