"He erected the temple to Venus, his ancestress, as he had vowed to do when he was about to begin the battle of Pharsalus, and he laid out ground around the temple which he intended to be a forum for the Roman people, not for buying and selling, but a meeting-place for the transaction of public business.."
Appian, The Civil Wars (II.102)
The long, narrow square was flanked by a double colonnade down the sides, the square doors of the tabernae, which served as the archives and meeting rooms of the Senate, corresponding to the intercolumniations of the portico.
