Foro Boario

Fraternal twin temples and the world's first sewer on lovely little "Cow Forum" by the Mouth of Truth

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 (sometimes erroneously said to be the Temple of Vesta) was built in the older, rounded Etruscan style and ranks as the oldest marble structure surviving in Rome.

Sadly, neither temple is open to the public on anything like a regular basis (though the round one supposedly is on the 1st and 3rd Sundays of each month at 11am for a peek inside at the 15th century frescoes that remain from when it was converted into a church—later abandoned.)

This little field lies right in front of the Church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin (famous for the Mouth of Truth on its porch), just down the street from the Theater of Marcellus, and right above the famous Cloaca Maxima.

The Cloaca Maxima was ancient Rome's main sewer. Brave the traffic to cross the Lungotevere and peer down the embankments to where a giant hole empties into the Tiber. There is is: the world's first major sewer.

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