Note: If a monument or museum is highlighted in red, please click on it for a link to the official website.

The three major sites of ancient Rome can now all be visited for the price of a single ticket.

For admission fees and the times of opening visit: www.turismoroma.it

The Palatine

Part garden, part archaeological site, the Palatine, one of the famous seven hills of Rome, is a place charged with myth and legend. This is where, according to tradition, Romulus founded the first city of Rome in 753BC. It was the site of the Lupercal, the cave in which he and his twin brother, Remus, were suckled by a she-wolf and also the hut of Faustulus, the shepherd who brought the twins up.

During the Republic, the Palatine became one of the most desirable places to live and is where the English word, palace, comes from. In 36BC, Rome's first emperor Augustus bought a house here, albeit a modest one (part of it has recently been re-opened to the public). One hundred and fifty years later, the emperor Domitian, built a huge palace on the south-eastern corner, the ruins of which still remain.

The Palace, which covers about six acres, was built between 81AD and 92AD and designed by Rabirius, one of the few Roman architects we know by name. Rabirius built to impress. The First Court, for example, was once enclosed on all four sides by a portico with fluted columns of Numidian marble (fragments of which can still be seen). The huge pool would have had a large octagonal island in the middle where fountains played. Everything would have been veneered in marble. Water and coloured marble were just two of the elements that were used in great quantities; a third was the lavish use of gold and the sheer scale of the place in terms of height and space. Grandeur was seen as the prerogative of the gods and in his palace Domitian was flaunting the concept of his own divinity (he frequently compared himself with Jupiter).

But when Rome went into decline so did the Palatine and by middle of the 13th century it was made up mostly of vineyards and vegetable patches tended by small groups of monks, who lived amidst the ruins. This all changed in the 16th century when the land was parcelled up and sold to several of Rome's leading families, notably the Farnese, who transformed much of the hill into a series of terraced gardens leading down into the Forum. It was they who built the two aviaries, which still dominate the north-eastern side of the hill.

The Forum

At the bottom of the Palatine sits the Roman Forum, which, for over one thousand years, was the nerve centre of ancient Rome. No fewer than eight roads linked the Forum with the rest of the city.

In the days of the Republic, the Forum was the meeting-place of the whole population, the nucleus of business and commercial affairs. It was also a place where important ceremonies were held. Orators spoke from the Rostra, edicts, legal decisions, and official communications were all published here. It was also the place where the main religious festivals were held, where political offenders were executed and where the funerals of important figures were held. This was the place where the body of Caesar was burnt and where Mark Antony delivered the funeral speech imagined and immortalised by Shakespeare.

It was also where, from 216BC, gladiatorial games were staged. This was a crowded area, as far as buildings were concerned and emperor after emperor added new ones or reconstructed old ones.

In the days before the Forum was established here, the land was marshy and used as a place for burying the dead. In time, the land was drained and the Forum came into being. By the beginning of the 6th century, the Forum was being transformed into a pebble-floored market place. The earliest thoroughfare was the via Sacra, which probably took it name from the religious processions that passed along it. The second oldest street in Rome was simply called the via Nova and ran parallel to the via Sacra.

In time, the Forum became home to many magnificent temples and basilicas, few of which remain. The ones that do owe their continued existence to the fact that at some point in time they was transformed into churches. This was the case with the Temple of Antoninus Pius and Faustina.

The temple was built by Antoninus Pius for his wife Faustina, who was deified after her death in 140AD. When the Emperor himself died in 161AD, he was also deified and his name was added to the dedication, which can be seen atop the columns. The temple's beautiful frieze is still well preserved at the sides. The front steps were originally of marble and ran the whole length of the façade with an altar in the middle.

In the 8th century the temple was turned into a church and dedicated to St Lawrence. A thousand years later, San Lorenzo in Miranda, as it was known, was modernised and given the baroque facade we can see today.

The colossal Temple of Saturn, of which the imposing columns of the facade remain, was the oldest sacred place in the Forum after the Temple of Vesta, dating back to the beginning of the sixth century BC.

The cult of Saturn was equally ancient. The god’s feast day was December 17th, and the celebrations, known as the Saturnalia, eventually extended over a period of seven days, ending on December 24th. This was a time of merry-making and the exchanging of gifts. Businesses, schools and law courts were all closed so that the people could devote their time to feasting, gambling, dancing and generally enjoying life to the full.

From the earliest times, the temple had also housed the public treasury, a repository of gold and silver ingots. The Temple of Saturn might have been chosen, because of the god’s link with agriculture, which was the original source of Roman wealth: pecunia (money) comes from pecus (sheep).

The largest and most magnificent building in the Forum was not a temple but a basilica,  The project was begun by the Emperor Maxentius in 306 and completed by the Emperor Constantine in 313. 96 metres long, 65 metres wide and 35 metres high, the basilica was largest building ever erected in the Forum. It was vaulted not in wood but in concrete, a truly stupendous achievement.

Sadly, only the the north side of the Basilica remains, but with its coffered barrel vaults still soaring to a height of  25 metres you get a good idea of the original scale of the building.

The above reconstruction may help you get an idea of the scale and sumptuous grandeur of the Basilica.

No building better defines Rome than the Colosseum.

Described, in 1781, by the English traveller, Dr John Moore, as ‘this horrid piece of magnificence’ and by Lord Byron as ‘a ruin, yet what a ruin!’, the Colosseum is the most famous example in the world of an amphitheatre, which was a strictly Roman invention.

Situated in a natural depression, once a lake in the grounds of Nero’s vast palace, this is the largest surviving ancient Roman structure. 47m high, 189m long, and 156m wide, it had a seating capacity of more than 50,000 people.

It was begun under the emperor Vespasian in 70AD and finished a mere ten years later under the reign of his son, the emperor Titus.

The construction of such a building within such a short space of time was a staggering achievement. It originally comprised 200,000 tons of travertine, 200,000 tons of tufa, brick and mortar and 300 tons of iron clamps. The stone was quarried at Tivoli and brought to Rome by specially constructed roads.

The Colosseum was financed by the spoils of war, namely the sacking of Jerusalem in 70AD and the plunder of 50,000 kg of gold and silver from the Temple.

At ground floor level there were 80 entrances, 76 of which were numbered. The original numbers can still be seen on the surviving part of the perimeter. The four entrances at the ends of the two axes were richly decorated and access was forbidden to the general public. The arch on the north-east, between numbers XXXVIII and XXXIX, is without a cornice and larger than the others. This arch opened into a hall richly decorated with stuccoes and is thought to have been reserved for the emperor.

The Colosseum has been rightly described as a 'Theatre of Death'. For centuries blood was spilled here by thousands of men, hundreds of thousands of animals and all in the name of entertainment!

Gladiatorial contests are last recorded as taking place here in 434 and animal hunts went on for almost another century, finally coming to and end in 523.

By the late 6th century, a small church had been installed and the entrance arches were occupied by houses and workshops.

For more information about the Colosseum, see the Wikipedia article, to which I have contributed: Colosseum