The Forum in Pompeii, the civic centre of the ancient city, is instantly recognisable with its large open space surrounded by temples, civic buildings and market places but here are some things you may not know about it…

The Forum of Pompeii was one of the great archaeological discoveries made during French rule in the early 19th century. Excavations began in the south by the Basilica in 1812 but only on May 22nd 1813 was the area officially identified as the Forum.

The buildings on the Forum were badly damaged in the AD63 earthquake and many had been rebuilt or were undergoing redesign at the time of the AD79 eruption. The effect of the earthquake in the Forum was depicted in a relief on a household shrine in the House of Caecilius Iucundus

The Forum was regularly used as a marketplace with temporary stalls as depicted in this astonishing fresco which decorated the atrium of the Estate of Julia Felix in Pompeii - market traders selling textiles, bronze pots, utensils, and shoes alongside the colonnaded portico.

The ‘mensa ponderaria’ (public measuring table) was situated in the Forum & was used to ensure the sale of standard measures of produce, such as grain & liquids. The Oscan measurements were replaced with Roman ones as the inscription on it, written by the magistrates, tells us.

Due to its proximity to the Temple of Apollo, the Forum was used to stage the Ludi Apollinares – the Games of Apollo. From the epitaph of the local magistrate, Aulus Clodius Flaccus, we know the festival involved a procession, bull fights, boxers, gladiators, music and pantomime.

The Macellum building, a market in the NW corner of the Forum, was initially thought to be a temple but later excavations of the drains in the central dodecagonal structure revealed deposits of fish bones and scales suggesting an area for the gutting, cleaning and sale of fish.

Restoration of the portico around the edge of the Forum was undertaken in the 1930s. This double-tiered colonnade can be seen if you look carefully at the fresco from the Estate of Julia Felix beyond the men looking at the latest political news on banners displayed in the Forum.

Excavations in the 1940s revealed that before the Roman forum was laid out, the main square in the 3rd-2nd cent. BC was lined with a series of small shops associated with private houses. These buildings on the east side were demolished & replaced with monumental public buildings.

With hundreds of ancient graffiti scratched into the walls of the Basilica, one observant Roman with a sense of humour added to the collection and wrote “I admire you, oh wall, for not having collapsed at having to carry the tedious scribblings of so many writers”.