For over a thousand years the valley hemmed in by the Palatine, Capitoline, and Esqu
iline hills was the center of the political and civil life of Rome and its Empire. The Forum was the location for assemblies of the people, meetings of the Senate in the Curia, the administration of justice, triumphal parades, and markets of every kind.
Much of the area was originally marshland where the first inhabitants of the Palatine hill used to bury their dead (ninth-tenth century BC). Tradition holds that \b \cf4 \ATXht54 Tarquinius Priscus\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 was responsible for important works of
reclamation in this area and even the initial paving of the Forum. \par