Forum (Roman)

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A forum (Latin: forum, "public place outdoors",^[1] pl.: fora; English pl.: either fora or forums) was a public square in a municipium, or any civitas, of Ancient Rome reserved primarily for the vending of goods; i.e., a marketplace, along with the buildings used for shops and the stoas used for open stalls. But such fora functioned secondarily for multiple purposes, including as social meeting places for discussion. Many fora were constructed at remote locations along a road by the magistrate responsible for the road, in which case the forum was the only settlement at the site and had its own name, such as Forum Popili or Forum Livi.^[2]