Ancient Rome

The Biblioteca dell'Istituto Nazionale d'Archeologia e Storia dell'Arte in Rome is located at Piazza Venezia 3.

According to legend, the Circus Maximus, lying to the south of the Palatine, was constructed by Tarquinius Priscus on the site of the rape of the Sabine women. The Circus was, in fact, established in the A.D. second century as a stadium for chariot races. It consisted of two tracks, 500m/547yd in length and could accommodate 300,000 spectators. The remains of the buildings date from the time of Trajan. An obelisk erected at the Circus during the reign of Augustus, now stands on Piazza del Popolo.

Adjoining the Forum of Nerva at the point where Via Cavour now joins the Via dei Fori Imperiali, was the Forum of the Emperor Vespasian (A.D. 69-79), in the center of which was the Temple of Peace (after which it was also known as the Forum of Peace). The forum, of which only a few fragments remain, was built by Vespasian and paid for from the booty won in the Jewish War.

Little is left of the Forum of Augustus but three columns from the temple of Mars Ultor (Vengeful Mars), built by Augustus in 2 B.C. (which avenged the murder of Julius Caesar). About 1200 the Knights of St John (later of Rhodes and Malta) used the ruins of the forum to build their palaces. In an exedra and in the Antiquarium are remains of the Priory of the Knights of Malta.

The Obelisk of Axum, 24m/80ft high, which stands in the Piazza di Porta Capena was brought from Axum, the holy city of Ethiopia, in 1937, during the Italian war of conquest in Abyssinia.

Piazza Mattei is situated in the center of Renaissance Rome and is flanked by Palazzo Costaguti. In the middle of the piazza is the Tortoise fountain which is one of the most beautiful fountains in Rome designed by Giacomo Della Porta.

This six-lane highway, built by Mussolini in 1932, runs from the Capitol to the Colosseum, passing along one side of the Forum. In 1980 the city council, giving priority to archeology over traffic, decided to remove the road and thus make it possible to excavate the remains of the great days of the Empire which lie concealed under its 64,000sq.m/76,500sq.yd of asphalt.

This broad tree-lined street, in ancient times the Triumphal Way followed by victorious generals, runs south from the Colosseum and Arch of Constantine between the Palatine and Caelian Hills, past the church of San Gregorio Magno, to the southeast end of the Circus Maximus.