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The sack of Rome by Alaric the Goth on August 24, AD 410 had devastating results in the forum. The Basilica Aemilia was famously burned to the ground on that day.
Rome rebounded and Christian Rome eventually reused many forum structures still standing. In the seventh century, both the Curia and the Temple of Faustina and Antoninus Pius were converted into churches.
For a window into the rising ground level, the recent excavations of the Vicus Iugarius section that leads into the forum. In one corner, abutting the Basilica Iulia, a house dating to 1000 sits atop a fill of 1 meter that was purposefully deposited on top of the Vicus Iugarius. With access to the various new churches, the rest of the area was filled in atop the ruins, so that the forum was a veritable cow pasture, circa 1400-1800. Full scale excavations did not take place until the unification of Italy. These nationally led and motivated excavations began in the 1890s under Giacomo Boni and largely revealed the forum we see today.
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Cite this page as: Darius Arya, The American Institute for Roman Culture, “Forum Romanum (Roman Forum) – After Antiquity” Ancient Rome Live. Last modified 09/15/2020. https://ancientromelive.org/forum-romanum-roman-forum-after-antiquity/
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