Foro Boario e Foro Olitorio

de Ilaria Soda

Since the most ancient times at Rome, at the center of the city, not far from the Roman Forum, stood other fora that were purely commercial in nature and that were intended, at least at the beginning, for the sale of a specific kind of product. They included the Forum Boarium for the sale of cattle and sheep, the Forum Holitorium for vegetables, the Forum Suarium for pigs, the Forum Pistorium for bread and cereals, and the Forum Piscarium or Piscatorium for fish. Retail trade of meat and agricultural products also took place at the Macellum near the Comitium, and in many tavernae that occupied the ground floors of all of the houses located in the vast commercial zone between the Roman Forum, the Capitoline Hill, and the Tiber. This study looks at the topographical and archaeological evidence for the minor fora of Rome, and compiles both the literary and epigraphic evidence for them.