Near the Tiber embankment, in a hollow between the Aventine, Capitoline and Palatine hills, not far from the Great Circus (Circo Massimo), are the ruins of Rome’s oldest forum. This is the so-called Forum Boarium.

During the Early Republic, it was the site of the cattle trade and a huge number of ships docked here – the forum was a staging post for all goods shipped from Ostia (Rome’s main port on the Mediterranean). Today you can see some of Rome’s oldest temples and the remains of triumphal arches.

The Temple of Hercules the Victorious is a circular structure in one of the classical Greek styles. This temple is one of the very few temples from the Early Republican period that have survived in good preservation. It was built in 120 BC and consists of a cella in a concentric circle of twenty Corinthian columns.

The columns supported the ancient architrave (the upper part connecting the columns) and the roof. Neither the architrave nor the roof have survived, but the cella walls and 19 of the original 20 columns remain. The building has important historical significance as the first marble temple in Rome.

There are no reliable sources to determine to whom exactly the temple was dedicated and what it was originally called, but it is believed to be associated with the legend of Hercules and Cacus. It is for this reason that the temple today bears the name of the Temple of Hercules the Victorious.

Nearby, on a small hill, is a rectangular temple dedicated to Fortuna, the goddess of good fortune in career and business. However, because of its proximity to the river port, it also became the site of the cult of the god Portunus, who was responsible in ancient Rome for the safety of ports and harbors.

During excavations, the remains of the foundations from the 4th-3rd centuries B.C. were discovered, but the present structure dates back to the 80th year B.C. The temple consists of a cella and a portico with Ionic columns. The supporting structures are made of travertine, while the rest are made of tufa.

The podium of the temple is filled with concrete. The good preservation of the temple is explained by the fact that in 872 it was converted into the Christian church of Santa Maria in Gradelis.

Dominating the forum is the Romanesque church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, built over the ruins of the great altar of Hercules in the 4th century. In ancient times, however, the church building served as the residence of the Roman prefect in charge of supplying the city with food. It was one of the most important public posts in Rome, through which all those who wanted to become consuls in the future had to pass. A seven-story tower was added to the church as early as the 12th century.

In the narthex of the church is Rome’s famous attraction, the Mouth of Truth. According to legend, this relief mask could distinguish between lies and truth. A person only had to put his hand in the mouth of the mask and if he lied, the mask would bite his hand off.

To the side of the Portuna Temple stands the Crescenzi House, a small building constructed from antique finds and columns in the 10th century.

In the northern part of the forum stands the massive Janus Arch, built in the 4th century. What makes this arch exceptional is that it is the only surviving quadrifrons in the city. The arch is 16 meters high and 12 meters wide. The Janus Arch served as a covered passage at the crossroads (quadrivium) and possibly housing for cattle sellers.

Built of brick and marble, it has niches that originally contained statues and other decorative elements, unfortunately not preserved. Only in one of the niches remains a statue of the goddess Minerva. Little is known about this arch, but despite its name (Arch of Janus) it was probably built in honor of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great. The remains of the inscriptions from the arch are in the Church of St. George (San Giorgio in Velabro), whose bell tower rises directly behind the arch.

The church is full of columns and other traces of the ancient and early Christian era. The columns in it are quite different – the architects had to make tricks to bring them to more or less the same height (some of the columns are filed, some are sunk into the floor, some are placed on stands).

On some of the columns, especially on the right side, traces of ancient graffiti are visible. The church is dedicated to St. George – a warrior, dragon fighter and protector of girls, one of the most popular in the Christian world patron saints of professions, countries and cities. His image on the coat of arms of the Russian capital is well known. Under the patronage of St. George are also Georgia, England, Portugal, Greece, Lithuania, Genoa, Barcelona, Rio de Janeiro and others.

At midnight on July 27, 1993, a car bomb near the Church of San Giorgio in Velabro almost completely destroyed the ancient portico. Another bomb exploded at the same time near the Basilica of St. John Lateran. No one in Rome was killed, but both churches were badly damaged. The wreckage of the portico of San Giorgio was meticulously transcribed and documented, and now only a small display of photographs at the entrance to the church reminds us of the terrorist attack. Police linked the bombings to a large-scale anti-mafia investigation underway in Italy at the time.

The bell tower of the Church of San Giorgio is propped up by the Arch of the Changers or the Arch of Argentarii, erected in 204 in honor of Emperor Septimius Severus and his successor Caracalla. A long inscription on its architrave says that it was dedicated to Emperor Septimius Severus and his household by the “changers and livestock traders of this place” (argentari et negotiantes boari huius loci).

The structure is almost entirely made of marble (apparently the merchants and changers could afford it), except for the travertine bottom, which was much more imposing in antiquity. Perhaps the lower tier of the arch was so simple and devoid of decorations because herds of cattle were regularly driven through it, which would have spoiled the marble reliefs with their flanks.

A medieval legend claimed that bargainers hid their treasures inside the arch. There was even a poem about it: Tra la vacca e il toro, troverai un gran tesoro – “Between the cow and the bull, row the gold in a sack” (the sacrificial bull is on the left on the outside of the arch, the cow on the right on the inside). That’s why there are so many holes in the arch. The treasure was never found.

Between the Temple of Hercules and the Mouth of Truth is the Fountain of Tritons or Fontana di Bocca della Verità. The fountain was built in 1717 by sculptors Francesco Moratti and Filippo Bai by order of Pope Clement XI. The vase in the shape of an octagonal star (the emblem of the Pope) is held on the shoulders of two newts.

In addition, at the bridge Ponte Palatino, located just behind the temples of Hercules and Portunus, you can see the outlet of the Great Cloaca (Cloaca Maxima) – the first sewer of Rome, built in the 6th century BC under King Lucius Tarquinius Prisca and partially functioning to this day.

Here, between the Ponte Palatino Bridge and the Tiber Island, are the remains of the Ponte Rotto Bridge. It is the oldest bridge in Rome. Its predecessor was wooden, and construction of the stone bridge began in the 2nd century B.C.

It connected the Bull Forum with the Trastevere neighborhood. Those responsible for the construction were Marcus Aemilius Lepidus and Marcus Fulvius Nobilior. The bridge was originally called the Aemilian Bridge. It was completed in 142 BC and consisted of six stone arches.

The first renovation of the bridge took place in 12 BC under Emperor Augustus. After that it was rebuilt and repaired several more times, lasting until the end of the 16th century. In 1598, the eastern half of the bridge collapsed in a flood. The other half was dismantled in 1887 when the Tiber was widened and a new bridge (Ponte Palatino) was built. Today, only one arch in the middle remains, which gave the bridge its modern name: Ponte Rotto (Broken Bridge).