The Cow Forum

Fraternal twin temples, the Mouth of Truth, and the world's first sewer on the Foro Boario

At the western foot of the Palatine Hill, in the middle of an old boario, or "cow pasture," sit two small 2nd-century B.C. temples. The

Temple of Portunus

was crafted in the squared-off, Latin style, while the

Temple of Hercules Victor

was built in the older, rounded Etruscan style and ranks as the oldest marble structure surviving in Rome.

This little field lies right in front of the

Church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin

(famous for the Mouth of Truth on its porch), down the street from the

Theater of Marcellus,

and right above the famous

Cloaca Maxima,

ancient Rome's main sewer (brave the traffic to cross the Lungotevere and peer down the embankments to where the hole empties into the Tiber. There is is: world's first major sewer.)

Daily.
Piazza della Bocca della Veritá.

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