The Roman Forum took its form and shape under the kings, notably the Tarquins, who are credited with filling in and draining with swampland between the Palatine and Capitoline hills. The conceptualization of the Cloaca Maxima goes back to the forum’s origins. Early celebratory monuments focused on the achievements of Romulus, according to legend, with the Mundus and Lacus Curtius, and even the Lapis Niger, by the Comitium. The Temple of Vesta also goes back to the time of the kings, as does the Regia. All of these structures were lined around the always central piazza of the forum.
This content is brought to you by The American Institute for Roman Culture, a 501(C)3 US Non-Profit Organization.
Please support our mission to aid learning and understanding of ancient Rome through free-to-access content by donating today.
Join our free newsletter to receive more ancient Rome content, lecture and Masterclass invites, travel course news and more:
Cite this page as: Ancient Rome Live, The American Institute for Roman Culture, “Forum Romanum (Roman Forum) – Regal/Archaic Period“. Last modified
June 20, 2026. https://ancientromelive.org/forum-romanum-roman-forum-regal-archaic-period/
Created by The American Institute of Roman Culture, published on
September 15, 2020 under the following license: Creative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon this content non-commercially, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms.