There are lots of fun facts about the Roman Forum. Did you know that:

• Rome's first inhabitants lived on the hill. At that time the Forum, the Latin word for outside, was a marshy place full of mosquitoes.
• Tarquinius Priscus, the 5th king of Rome, built a sewer and drained the Forum creating the new center of Rome.
• The Romans went to the Forum to do more than shop. They held meetings and religious ceremonies, administered justice and even gossiped in the Roman Forum.
• Not all of the temples in the Roman Forum are dedicated to gods some are dedicated to people. The Romans believed that by building a temple and dedicating it to themselves they became deity.
• The Romans built glorious arches to celebrate their conquests and decorated them with battle scenes. Several are still standing.
• Julius Caesar built the Curia, the great brick Senate building, for the same men that slew him.
• Processions of all kinds took place along Via Sacra, the Forum's main street. They were led by the city's leaders and enjoyed by its citizens.
• With the decline of the Roman Empire the Forum was used increasingly less. In the Middle Ages it was filled with dirt and made it into a meadow. Thus it became known as Campo Vaccino or Cow Field in English.