Construction of the forum transformed the Argiletum into a monumentalized thoroughfare connecting the Forum Romanum with the Subura, one of the most populous and congested districts of Rome, filled with shops and brothels, as well as the homes of such men as Julius Caesar. It also joined the Forum of Augustus with the Templum Pacis, which otherwise would have remained detached from the other forums.
Pedestrian traffic passed from the Subura (in the foreground of the model above) through a curved exedra with a portico in the shape of an apse, the Porticus Absidata, that filled the irregular space behind the temple and the hemicycle of the Forum of Augustus and also disguised the fact that the entrance to the forum was off axis. Across the elongated courtyard, one then entered the Roman Forum between the Basilica Aemilia and Curia.
