The Roman Forum is full of monuments, ruins or memories of a distant past. An area that I always visit  with my tourists, who are happy to understand something more about the archeological heart of the Eternal City. But sometimes, however, there are small, hidden or not so well known secrets here in the Roman Forum that must be revealed. For a local tour guide like me this surprise is useful in order to give to the visitors new perspectives of the long history of Rome.

For example it is time  to talk about the so-called Porch of the Consenting Gods. We are in the vicinity of the ancient Tabularium, whose remains, in the picture, are well visible in the three archways flanked by columns at the background. This porch consists of two rows of columns that join in a point, forming an obtuse angle. The structure can be traced back to the III century b.C. What was the point? Probably, as reported by Varro, was a sacred area dedicated to the Dei consentes, six pairs of deities (six men and six women), who represented what in Greece was defined dodekatheon (the twelve Gods). In essence, there were statues coupled of the twelve main gods of the Romans. The couples were: Jupiter-Juno, Mercury-Ceres, Vulcan-Vesta, Apollo-Diana, Mars-Venus and Neptune-Minerva. These couples divine are Greek-inspired, but, after all, even the Etruscans, before the Romans, had well in mind this particular form of worship. The Porch of the Consenting Gods also is not completely original: some of the columns, in fact, were built and rebuilt in 1858, when some scholars tried to bring to life, architecturally speaking, this corner of the Roman Forum.

Another little curiosity is the backdrop to one of the most turbulent of Rome. An engraving found on the architrave tells us how the porch was totally restored in the course of 367 a.D. This inscription refers to the restoration of the portico, which, however, in the IV century was not already the original one, that ancient sacred area that was built centuries before. It is probable, indeed, that the sacred area had been completely rebuilt over the course of the imperial dynasty of the Flavians (69 - 95 AD) However this further restoration of the IV century a.D., it was a political act, well-marked and important, if we consider that already at the time the Christianity, thanks to Constantine, started to have several followers.

The Rome of the fourth century was living in, in the first person, a social and religious transformation is not indifferent, a time when Christianity has become a religion permitted in the Empire, could finally come out into the light of day. The faithful, therefore, they could have their churches, without fear of repercussions and persecution. This restoration, therefore, occurred between the other in the heart of Rome, we may indicate as the polytheism of the roman were, at the very least, still alive, trying to make their voice heard. The inscription carved above the capitals of the columns is the original one, left by the prefect of Rome at the IV century a.D. Here he underlined how the restoration was made to pay homage to the "revered" Gods, the ordinary roman Gods who were loosing influence. The new God was coming...