Customer Reviews

The Roman Forum (Wonders of the World (Harvard University Press))

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This slim volume is packed with information that is indispensable for the serious visitor to the forum. It reveals which structures were destroyed in recent decades to create the forum as we now see it, and how others were created more or less arbitrarily in the 1930s. It is especially interesting with regard to the Senate building, which was until the past century hidden within a Baroque church, and thus preserved. The bare brick of the interior does not reflect what was undoubtedly a rich marble wall. You will see the forum in a somewhat different light but be sure to take the book with you to work with it on site.

Historical survey of the Roman Forum site from Antiquity to the modern age. Unlike most other books concerning the site, this book traces in great detail the post-classical history of the site and its buildings.
The archaeological exploration and partial reconstructions of some of the buildings are also covered extensively but the architectural aspect is not. The author relies too much on Piranesi as a guide and injects too many of his own opinions concerning archaeologists and their impacts on the forum for my taste. Book construction for edition printed in the United States: The book is cloth bound and is printed on alkaline paper. Unfortunately the pages are adhesive bound-not sewn as are other books in the series (The Parthenon, The Colosseum, etc.)

The book started out promising enough and right off the bat I learned some really stunning things about which buildings in the Forum are truly "ancient" and which are just modern reconstructions, restorations, or remodelings. But even in delivering this great information Watkins general attitude was already shining through, as he seemed to be almost giddy in dropping all these little bombs on us: "That's not really old and that's not really old and that's not really old- see! It's all just a scam!" I loved what he was telling me, but his tone put me on guard.

Watkins then proceeds on a tour of the Forum which he insists "is magical place" even though he just called it "baffling, ugly, and frustrating" (producing quotes from great men like Joyce to back up the claim that the site is just a overblown tourist trap). So how can it be magical? Well you must approach it as David Watkins does and only as David Watkins does. And the way he approaches it is through the lens of 18th century engraver Giovanni Piranesi (who he simply asserts is "the greatest engraver of all time" like it was an objective fact. Albrecht Durer anyone?). Half the book then, is just a (fawning) study of Piranesi, which would be great if I had bought a book on Pirenesi, but I bought a book on the Roman Forum...

And here is where we get down to it: Watkins wants the Forum to be like it is in his beloved Piranesi engravings and it isn't anymore and that really really ticks him off. Every couple of pages he finds an opportunity to lash out at the evil archeologists, those no-good dirt grubbers who have ruined the Forum for David Watkins. He has nothing good to say about the contributions archeology has made to our understanding of the Roman world and instead heaps scorn upon scorn upon them for digging where they should be admiring. He is forever contrasting the beautiful glory of the engravings with the modern site, which has been dug out by those rotten archeologists who, I'm serious, seem to have done this all for intentionally malicious reasons. It become clear pretty quick that this book is a polemic against archeology as much as it is a guidebook to a fascinating place.

In his defense I think it is worth noting that Watkins is a professor of Architecture, rather than, say, History or (god forbid) Archeology. He clearly loves the buildings (mostly churches) that sprang up around the Forum later and thinks we have done ourselves a great disservice by neglecting all that in the pursuit of information about the Romans. But this gets him into repeated trouble because you get the sense that not only does he really like the newer stuff, but he really hates the older stuff, he calls it "bits of rubble" and "puzzling scraps of often minor buildings." Which I can understand him saying- architecturally speaking, the Forum aint so hot. But, my god, historically speaking, every one of those "incomprehensible foundations" is proof positive that the Roman Empire, probably the most important civilization the Western World has ever seen, was centered RIGHT HERE- RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE STANDING. And even though it's just a foundation, or a bit of a broken column it is still a living connection to that world- which, pardon me for disagreeing with you sir, I find magical to the nth degree. Certainly more magical that yet another pretty church.

I give The Roman Forum 2 stars because I did learn things from it, but I wish Watkin's editor had gone through and stripped out the endless (and mean-spirited) editorializing. Or better yet, found someone who actually appreciates Roman History to write the damn thing.