The Forum of Jerash, in Jordan. The columns mark the location of a stoa, or covered walkway, where the stalls of open-air vendors might be located in bad weather. Note the semi-circular shape and traces of a central podium, similar in function to a theatre.

A forum (Latin, "place outdoors"; pl. forums or fora) was a public square in a Roman municipium, or any civitas, reserved primarily for the vending of goods; i.e., a marketplace, along with the buildings used for shops and the stoas used for open stalls. Many forums were constructed at remote locations along a road by the magistrate responsible for the road, in which case the forum was the only settlement at the site and had its own name, such as Forum Popili or Forum Livi.^[1]

The functions of a forum[link]

In addition to its standard function as a marketplace, a forum was a gathering place of great social significance, and often the scene of diverse activities, including political discussions and debates, rendezvous, meetings, et cetera. In that case it supplemented the function of a conciliabulum.

Every Italian municipium had a forum. Forums were the first feature of any civitas synoecized whether Latin, Italic, Etruscan, Greek, Celtic or some other. The first forums were sited between independent villages in the prehistoric period, known only through archaeology. After the rise of the Roman Republic, the most noted forum of the Roman world, the Roman Forum in Rome itself, served as a model of new construction. By the time of the late Republic expansions and refurbishing of the forums of the city had inspired Pompey Magnus to create the Theatre of Pompey in 55 BC. The Theatre included a massive forum behind the theatre arcades known as the Porticus Pompei (Colonnades of Pompey). The structure was the forebearer to Julius Caesar's first Imperial forum and the rest to follow.

Other major forums are found in Italy; however, they are not to be confused with the piazza of the modern town, which may have originated from a number of different types of ancient civic centers, or more likely was its own type. While similar in use and function to forums, most were created in the Middle Ages and are often not a part of the original city footprint.

Forums were a regular part of every Roman province in the Republic and the Empire, with archaeological examples at:

Wall painting from Pompeii depicting everyday activities in the marketplace

• Forum of Philippi
• Forum and Provincial Forum of Mérida, Spain
• Forum of Tarragona, Spain
• Forum of Pompeii, Italy

In new Roman towns the Forum was usually located at, or just off, the intersection of the main north-south and east-west streets (the Cardo and Decumanus). All forums would have a Temple of Jupiter at the north end, and would also contain other temples, as well as the Basilica; a public weights and measures table, so customers at the market could ensure they were not being sold short measures; and would often have the baths nearby. At election times, candidates would use the steps of the temples in the forum to make their election speeches, and would expect their clients to come to support them.

Typical forum structures[link]

• Basilica
• Roman temple
• Roman baths

Equivalent spaces in other cultures[link]

• Agora
• Piazza
• Plaza
• Town square
• Civic center

See also[link]

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Forum.

• Amphitheatre
• A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
• Greek Hippodrome
• Roman Circus
• Roman theatre

References[link]

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Look up forum in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Forum (plural forums, fora, or fori) may refer to:

• Forum (Roman), open public space in the middle of a Roman city
  • Roman Forum, most famous example
• Forum (legal), designated space for public expression in the USA
• Internet forum, discussion board on the Internet
• Public forum debate, or Pofo, a type of debate.

Companies[link]

• FORA.tv, a website of debates, interviews and conferences
• Forum Cafeterias, cafeteria chain
• Forum Communications, publisher of The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead newspaper
• Forum Corporation, corporate training company owned by Informa
• Forum Snowboarding, snowboard manufacturer
• Landmark Education, San Francisco based, offers the Landmark Forum as its introductory course

Media[link]

• Forum (KQED), radio show on KQED-FM hosted by Michael Krasny
• Forum (Bangladesh), a Bangladeshi current affairs magazine
• The Forum (BBC World Service), an international inderdisciplinary radio discussion show
• The Forum (journal), an annual history publication by students at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo
• Forum (Macedonian magazine), a weekly political magazine in the Republic of Macedonia
• Penthouse Forum, an American pornographic magazine
• The Forum (defunct magazine), an American magazine between 1886 and 1930
• The Forum (journal), an American history journal
• The Forum, an official magazine of Alcoholics Anonymous
• The Forum Newsweekly, a newspaper in Shreveport, Louisiana

Shopping centres[link]

• The Forum (shopping mall) in Bangalore, India
• Forum (Kolkata) in Kolkata, India
• Forum The Shopping Mall in Singapore
• Forum (shopping centre) in Helsinki, Finland
• The Forum Shops at Caesars in Las Vegas, Nevada

Sport[link]

• Mediolanum Forum, indoor arena Milan, Italy
• Montreal Forum, historic arena in Montreal, Quebec
• The Forum (Inglewood) also LA Forum, Los Angeles Forum, indoor arena in Los Angeles
• FedExForum, arena Memphis, Tennessee
• Tampa Bay Times Forum, arena Tampa Bay, Florida
• Thessaloniki Forum, indoor arena in Greece

Modern culture[link]

• Forum (album), a 2001 pop/soft rock album by Invertigo
• Forum Copenhagen, exhibition, concert, and faire building in Copenhagen, Denmark
• Forum (magazine), Penthouse Forum, British sex magazine
• The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead, a newspaper in Fargo, North Dakota
• A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, musical, and a film based upon it
• The Forum, Norwich, library, tourist information office and headquarters of the BBC in Norwich
• London Forum, nightclub and live music venue in Kentish Town, London
• Universal Forum of Cultures, international cultural event 2004 and 2007

Geography[link]

• Forum Fulvii, Roman settlement in Italy
• Forum Station, metro station Copenhagen
• Blandford Forum, town in England
• Piz Fora, a mountain in the Alps

Economics and politics[link]

• European Forum Alpbach
• World Social Forum
• World Economic Forum

See also[link]

• Foraminifera
• The Forum

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Look up roman in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Roman or Romans may refer to:

• A thing or person of or from the city of Rome

History[link]

• Ancient Rome (9th century BC – 5th century AD)
  • Roman Kingdom (753 BC to 509 BC)
  • Roman Republic (509 BC to 44 BC)
  • Roman Empire (27 BC to 476/1453 AD)
  • Roman Britain, part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire between AD 43 and about 410
  • Roman citizenship
  • Roman alphabet or Latin alphabet, the standard script of the English language and most of the languages of western and central Europe, Indonesia, Malay, and other areas once settled by European colonial empires
    • Romanization
  • Roman architecture
  • Roman army
  • Roman calendar
  • Roman law, the legal system of both the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire
  • Roman numerals, numeral system where certain letters are given a numeral value
  • Imperial cult (ancient Rome), Roman religion
• Byzantine Empire (330/476/629 to 1453), a Late Antiquity and medieval continuation of the Greek-speaking portion of the Roman Empire
  • Romaioi (Ρωμαίοι), Greek-speaking, Orthodox population of the Eastern Roman Empire dating to Late Antiquity (the term translates literally to "Roman")
  • Romioi (Ρωμιοί), Greek-speaking, Orthodox population of the Rum-milet in the Ottoman Empire, or Greek-speaking Orthodox people today (the term translates literally to "Roman")
  • Romanae or the Greco-Romans from Aetolia Acarnania that speak Romanesci
• Holy Roman Empire (c. 900 to 1806), a medieval state in Central Europe

Geography[link]

• Roman, Bulgaria, a town and a municipality in Vratsa Province
• Romans-sur-Isère, in the Drôme département of France
• Roman, Romania, a city in Neamţ county
• Romans, Ain, a town in France
• Roman, Eure, France
• Romans, Deux-Sèvres, France
• Romans d'Isonzo, a town in Italy
• Roman roads
• Roman Valley, Nova Scotia
• Saint Roman, Monaco

Christianity[link]

• Roman Catholic Church, a Christian church that professes the Catholic faith
• Roman Missal, a book containing prayers and readings for a Roman Catholic Mass
• Epistle to the Romans, a letter in the New Testament of the Christian Bible

Typography[link]

• Roman type, an upright typeface style, contrasted to italic
• Times New Roman, a typeface

Literature[link]

• The word for Novel in many European languages.
• Romance (heroic literature), a genre of Medieval French literature
• Nouveau roman, a type of French novel
• Ar-Rum, the 30th book in the Qu'ran, is sometimes translated as The Romans

Music[link]

• Roman (album), by the Japanese musical group Sound Horizon
• "Roman (My Dear Boy)", a song by the Japanese pop group Morning Musume

Cinema[link]

• Roman (film), a 2006 suspense-horror film

Mythology[link]

• Roman mythology

People[link]

Family name[link]

• Johan Helmich Roman, a Swedish composer
• Petre Roman, Romanian politicians
• Valter Roman, Romanian politicians
• Bernard Romans, a Dutch-born navigator, surveyor, cartographer, naturalist, engineer, soldier, promoter and writer

Given name[link]

• Roman (name), a male given name derived from Latin Romanus
• Roman Glick, bass guitarist for American rock band Jackyl
• Roman Madrolle, music artist and producer
• Roman Yakub, composer

Science[link]

• Roman pot, a device used in accelerator physics
• Roman surface, self-intersecting immersion of the real projective plane into three-dimensional geometrical space
• Roman chamomile, a plant
• Roman bean, also known as "Borlotti bean"

Other uses[link]

• Roman (bidding system), a contract bridge bidding system
• Roman candle (firework)
• Roman chair, the exercise equipment
• Romans, a race in the Heroscape Universe
• The Romans (Doctor Who), an episode of the BBC production, Doctor Who
• Roman (vehicle manufacturer), a Romanian truck manufacturer
• Roman Bellic, a fictional character that appears in the game Grand Theft Auto IV

See also[link]

Note: the following entries are arranged in an etymological tree.

• Roma (disambiguation)
  • Rome (disambiguation)
  • Romaic
  • Romanus (disambiguation)
    • Aromanians
    • Romagna
      • Romagnol language
    • Romain (disambiguation)
    • Romaine (disambiguation)
    • Roman (disambiguation)
      • Romanesco
      • Romanesque (disambiguation)
    • Romana (disambiguation)
    • Romand
      • Romandy
    • Romania (disambiguation)
      • Romanian (disambiguation)
    • Romanicus
      • Romance (disambiguation)
      • Romanza (disambiguation)
      • Romance languages (Romanic)
    • Romanization (disambiguation)
    • Romano (disambiguation)
    • Romansh language
  • Rûm
    • Rumelia

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.