Two Public Spaces
Nobody planned it exactly. The Roman Forum started out as a low boggy spot between the Seven Hills that would serve as a market once they dug a ditch to drain it. That ditch became a vaulted sewer, and a few temples started to be put up on the slopes of the hills, but the ground in between still served for buying and selling, holding assemblies and holding votes. But the population of Rome grew, and the wealth of Romans grew, and buildings started to encroach into the flat space. Rome acquired moneychangers and moneylenders, a civic bureaucracy and the cults of strange gods. By the time of the last wars of the Republic, Julius Caesar put up a columned hall along one long side, and Lucius Aemilius Paulus put up one on the other. All that was left open was a space the size of a soccer pitch, accessed by narrow roads that twisted and wound around the bases of the monuments. It is difficult to find unless you know what to look for (the curia Julia is an excellent point to orient yourself around).
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