Introduction to the Forum of Nerva

This room is home to a reconstruction of the attic of the pseudo-portico in the Forum of Nerva. Recent finds, brought to light during the excavations that opened in this Forum in 1998, have made it possible to come up with a new theory about the iconography present here. It now seems likely that the female figure represented a Province that had succumbed to Roman rule, illustrating the fact that the Roman Empire had united East and West and that there was now peace. The room is also home to two white marble pieces that fit together, on a 1:1 scale, from the frieze featuring small dear from the Temple of Minerva.. Although documented by Renaissance architects, they have only recently been identified.