Foro Olitorio

The Forum Olitorium was the zone reserved to the vegetable and legume market. It was a small square situated between the slopes of the Capitol and the Theater of Marcellus and the ancient Port on the Tiber river (where the building of the General Registry Office stands today). At the center of the Forum stood the temples of Janus, Spes and Juno Sospita, many important ruins of which are stillincorporated in the Church of San Nicola in Carcere. Several tracts of masonry of a fourth temple dedicated to Pietas - built between 191 and 181 BC and destroyed for the realization of the Theater of Marcellus - have been identified. Excavations performed in Piazza di Monte Savello revealed a huge white marble plinth sculptured with scenes that refer to the myth of Hercules and ruins of the small portico of the temples of Apollo and Bellona.