The Roman Forum (Plan)

Click on the dots to access the monuments. With the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra at Actium in 31 BC, Octavian, Caesar's adopted son and heir, was left undisputed ruler of Rome. Proclaimed Augustus four years later, he sought to build a capital worthy of the empire over which it ruled, boasting that he had "found Rome a city of brick and left it a city of marble." And, indeed, the Roman Forum essentially is Augustan: the Temples of Saturn, Concord, Castor and Pollux, Divine Julius, the Basilicas of Julia and Aemilia, the Curia and Rostra--all took their final form during his triumvirate and principate.