Forum

Forum, the name applied by the Romans to a public space, especially the market-place in a city, as the principal place of meeting where public affairs were discussed, courts of justice held, and money transactions carried on. In Rome the name applied particularly to the famous forum or forum magnum, the low level space extending from the foot of the Capitoline Hill to the north-east part of the Palatine. Unlike the fora of the emperors this was a slow growth, and was only possible after the valley had been drained by the great cloacæ. The central space was the meeting-place of the plebs, Comitia Tributa; while the patricians, Comitia Centuriata, met on the Comitium, adjoining the Forum. See ROME.