For Closer Look: The Forum Romanum and Imperial Forums: The shopping center at Caesar’s Palace Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, is called The Forum. In what ways is a modern shopping mall comparable to the Roman Forum? In what important ways do they differ?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The Forum Romanum, or Roman Forum, was the chief public square of Rome, the center of Roman religious, ceremonial, political, and commercial life. Originally, a Roman forum was comparable to a Greek agora, a meeting place in the heart of the city. Similarly, modern shopping malls have been both centers of commercial life and social life. They are places where many retailers and consumers populate a densely crowded area to exchange good and services for money or as a meeting place. Though they are now gradually dying out, modern shopping malls have competed to be the biggest and the best in the region or the nation (such as the Mall of America in Bloomington, MN). Modern shopping malls, however, never attained the spiritual and political importance of the Roman forums, which gradually took on a symbolic function as well, becoming a symbol of imperial power that testified to the prosperity—and peace—that the emperor bestowed on Rome’s citizenry.