The forum of an antique town is above all the
place where people meet, where business is
 done and where people worship the Gods,
 the Emperor and the elite (les notables) of the town.

Around this Square, which is generally dominated by
raised porticos and surrounded by one or more religious
edifices were placed the administrative buildings which
ensured municipal life, like the Curia (housing the local Senate)
and the civil Basilica (place for judicial management).

We still have little knowledge of the direct environment
of the Forum in Arles, but it should correspond to
the above description. 

In order to provide a large esplanade in the very heart
of the cities and thus give these places a symbolic
position by a slight elevation, the Roman engineers
built bases called cryptoporticos (underground porticos)
in several towns of the empire, which served as the base
of the forums.

What is characteristic about the cryptoporticos in Arles
is their topographic position on a naturally sloping terrain
which obliged the architects to carry out vast levelling
and fill work. The edifice has the shape of a horseshoe
of which the south branch is underground whereas, due to
the gradient of the natural soil, the north branch had direct
access to a public square.

Besides this structural function, we have often
discussed possible ways of using this double gallery
due to its construction and neat finish: as a granary,
an ambulatory, a public market, or even as a meeting
house for processions. However, these hypotheses
are made unlikely by several factors, especially the
difficult access to the galleries. On the other hand, it
seems possible that in Late Antiquity these
foundations were transformed into a storage place. 

These galleries, lightened and ventilated by air vents,
supported a rectangular portico surrounding the
slabbed square of the Forum. The discovery in 1951
of marble fragments in a lime kiln operator storehouse
(lime manufacturer) created in Late Antiquity suggests
that an imperial worship building was erected on this
square. Thanks to stylistic criteria, this complex
(forum and underground cryptoporticos) can be dated
to the years 30-20 BC, albeit with several
reconstructions noticeable in the north gallery: shops
next to the façade were redeveloped with the erection
of a perpendicular building (perhaps a temple), which
would also be surrounded by an arcaded gallery
forming an ambulatory which is subsequently
enlarged towards the north by a new portico
composed by reused architectural elements (half of
the façade is still visible at the Forum Square). The
holes in the pediment where bronze letters were once
inserted for a dedicatory inscription probably attribute
this reconstruction to the Emperor Constantine the
Great or to his son Constantine II.

Under the reign of Tibère, this ensemble was ended
on the west side by the construction of a new forum
with a north-south orientation, closed by a
semi-circular exedra still conserved in the Court of
Museon Arlaten.

Reconstruction of the Forum in the Roman Era.
Scale 1:100. Dimensions: 1m x 1m

Made of polyurethane resin cast in elastomer
moulds. Models machined by numerical control
on polyurethane resin plates.