ABSTRACT
The role of commerce in urban fora has been marginal in scholarship on retail and in discourse on fora. However, the commercial character of fora, and their impact on urban commercial landscapes is not to be underestimated. Non-urban fora founded along consular roads in the Republican period served as commercial interfaces where local- and supra-local commercial networks met, and the large numbers of tabernae constructed alongside Republican fora in Roman colonies suggests their function was equally fundamental. When fora developed a more monumental form from the Augustan period onwards, their commercial function did not disappear: even in the Imperial Fora at Rome, imperial messaging served in practice as a background to business and trade. By consequence, it is possible to see a strong impact of the forum on the commercial landscape of many cities.
