ABSTRACT
The combined effects of despotic rule, civil war and fire had taken their toll on the city image and the Flavians needed to show that a deserving new dynasty had brought back the order and peace of their worthy predecessor through displays of triumph, power and providence. The Flavian plan for Rome did not follow the classic Roman grid pattern. Romans of all social classes were experienced readers of non-verbal texts and the upper classes were trained to read the physical environment as a mnemonic device to remember long speeches and would thus read the urban environment of their daily lives in a similar way. The Forum Romanum, a space similar in size and proportion to that of the Forum Transitorium opened up to the viewer. The concentration of civic, political and religious buildings in the central Forum area not only marked the climax of the triumphal parades.
