Storia e funzioni degli impianti forensi nella documentazione epigrafica tardorepubblicana

This is a study on Republican Latin epigraphy concerning the interventions in forums of Italian towns, to clarify chronology, typologies, promoters and financings. The available sources are from the second half and the end of the first century B.C. and they mostly concern central Italy, especially Latium. Forum buildings were built either partially or entirely by local magistrates from public and private funds. Sometimes, however, promoters were members of Rome’s senatorial aristocracy, who were linked to local communties by either patronage or family origins. They were rarely freedmen and never women. After the last century of Roman Republic forums became more and more places to honour both local individuals and Roman politicians who were still alive. Meanwhile, forums gradually reduced their more traditional functions, such as commercial activities and both theatrical and gladiatorial shows, for which permanent theatres and amphitheatres were constructed.