The Forum

The heart of an ancient Roman city was the Roman forum. The forum was the religious and civic centre of the city, an open space lined with monumental buildings and marble statues erected in honour of emperors and leading citizens. It was also the city’s commercial hub, a place where people exchanged money and goods.

The forum at Butrint is situated close to the sanctuary of Asclepius in the heart of the Hellenistic city. The earliest building found in the excavations is a large Hellenistic building, having the characteristic shape of Greek Stoa, measuring 4.5 m x 25 m. A Stoa is a long roofed building supported by rows of columns, offering a place for informal assembly and a shelter from the scorching summer heat. The Hellenistic building was constructed in the late 2nd or 1st century BC, not long after the Roman conquest of Greece and the Balkans. The building, which was constructed next to a sacred well, may have formed part of a larger complex related to the theatre and the sanctuary of Asclepius.

The Roman redevelopment of the complex, probably undertaken after the grant of Roman status to the city, reconfigured the Hellenistic building into a Tripartite building, which overlooked the Roman forum. By the late 1st century AD under the Flavian emperors, the Tripartite building was aggrandized and connected to the forum pavement by five marble steps, while 20 marble steps connected an adjacent two-story building to the forum as well. In front of the Tripartite Building, a large monument was built for honorific statues.

The precise function of the Tripartite building remains unknown, but it may have served as a series of shrines as suggested by an inscription to Minerva. Certainly, it was richly adorned with imported marble wall revetment and wall paintings. The excavations have revealed several sculptures, as well as an exquisite intaglio glass gem (10x20 mm). This depicts a semi-nude standing female, possibly a nymph, wearing a shawl draped loosely about her shoulders.

Sometime after the mid-3rd century AD the Roman complex, along with accompanying statuary, was systematically demolished and despoliated, while the forum pavement remained in limited use.

 

• Roman town planning
• QTVR of the so-called Gymnasium
• The Forum
• Sculptures from the Forum
• QTVR of the Forum excavations
• The Roman landscape

A dedication to Minerva
Translation: Sacred to Minerva Augusta: this statue(?) and shrine were set up by Manius Otacilius Mystes at his own expense on land voted to him by decree of the city councilors.
Judging by his name, Manius Otacilius Mystes was a freedman; possibly even one of the colonists sent to Butrint by Caesar. The worship of Minerva Augusta was frequently the result of a personal vow, and, indeed, Otacilius Mystes used his own funds for the benefaction.
Mystes’ project received the approval of the council of the city, which provided a suitable site. Such approval was necessary for the construction of a public, as opposed to a private shrine.
The dedication appears to have been made in the early 1st century AD.