Rome
ABSTRACT
This lecture contextualizes the rise of the Roman Empire and compares Bribracte, France, a leading city of the Gauls in France with the city of Rome. It focuses on the unique set of elements - spatial, ceremonial and social - that were part of the founding of the city.

KEY PEOPLES AND EMPIRES
•	Gauls
•	Emperor Augustus (63 BCE – 14 CE)
•	Emperor Hadrian (76 – 138)
•	Parthian Empire
 
KEY CONCEPTS
•	Forum
•	Exedra
•	Basilica
•	Colonnade
•	Niche
•	Aedicule
•	Axis, major and minor
•	Castrum
•	Cardo and decomanus
•	Aqueduct
•	Urban Armature

KEY PLACES
•	Bribracte, France (ca. 300 BCE- 50 BCE) 
•	Rome: founded (8th c. BCE)
•	Forum of Augustus (2 BCE)
•	Timgad, Algiers, founded 100 CE
•	Palmyra, Syria, first century CE
•	Bath of Diocletian, 300 CE

NOTES ON SELECT TERMS
Some of the Elements of the Roman Forum
Forum
Via Sacra
Umbilicus
Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus
Comitium 
Rostrum/Curia
Basilica Aemilia  (5th century BCE), the first of two that flanked the forum
Temple (and sacred grove) of Vestal Virgins
Statues of famous men, generals

Umbilicus Urbis Romae 
"Navel of the City of Rome”
The symbolic center of the city from which, and to which, all distances in Ancient Rome were measured.
Roman legend related that Romulus, when he founded the city, had a circular pit dug in the Forum. The first fruits of the year were thrown into this pit as a sacrifice and all new citizens of Rome had to throw in a handful of dirt from their place of origin.

Mundus
The Mundus (Latin, “world”), was an underground structure considered a gate to the underworld. The Umbilicus Urbis Romae was the external (above ground) part of the subterranean Mundus.
The Mundus was ritually opened only three times each year. These days were considered dies nefasti — days on which official transactions were forbidden on religious grounds —– because evil spirits of the underworld were thought to escape then.

Comitium
The Comitium was the nerve center of the Roman Forum in ancient Republican Rome. It had major religious significance, as it was the location for all political and judicial activity. The word itself means "place of assembly.” It is the historic meeting place of the grown males of Rome to discuss matters and vote. The senate meeting house or curia is associated with the Comitium.