The Roman Forum wasn’t marble white.
It was painted — bright, deliberate, and easy to miss standing there today.
I enter the Roman Forum through the Arch of Constantine and follow the gravel path down.
The Forum lies before me — magnificent, cracked marble ruins, glowing gray and white in the late afternoon sun.
Tourists weave past me. I stop and study the spectacular ruins lying ahead.
A trace of Italian perfume drifts from a young woman passing on my left.
For a moment, I imagine the smells of the Forum two thousand years ago.
Garum — fermented fish sauce from market stalls. A mixture of anchovies and sun-fermented brine. Romans poured it on nearly everything.
Cooking smoke from food stalls. Grilled sausages. Roasted meats. Lentil and chickpea stews simmering in clay pots.
Temple incense drifting through the air — frankincense and myrrh.
And of course, the smell of horses and cattle. Manure ground into the stone streets by feet, carts, and hooves.
I walk farther into the Forum, stopping besid…
