To the left of the Arch of Septimius Severus, the low brown surround is the Rostra , covering the wide-open scatter of paving, dumped stones and beached columns that makes up the central portion of the Forum, the place where most of the life of the city was carried on, and which, in ancient times, was usually crowded with politicians, tribunes and traders. Left of the Rostra, are the long stairs of the Basilica Julia , built by Julius comic in the 50s BC after he returned from the Gallic wars. All that remains are a few column bases and one nearly complete column, and you can’t mount the stairs - although you can still see the gameboards scratched in the marble of the stairs where idlers in the Forum played their pebble-toss games. A bit further along, on the right, the guard rails lead into a kind of alcove in the pavement, which marks the site of the Lacus Curtius - the spot where, according to legend, a chasm opened during the early days and the soothsayers determined that it would only be closed once Rome had sacrificed its most valuable possession into it. Marcus Curtius, a Roman soldier who declared that Rome’s most valuable possession was a loyal citizen, hurled himself and his horse into the void and it duly closed. Further on, you reach the foundations of the Temple of Saturn - all that remains of a restoration done around 380 AD. The temple was also the Roman treasury and mint. To the right of the temple, three columns still stand from the Temple of Vespasian and Titus of the 80s AD. Still further to the right, behind the Arch of Septimus Severus, the large pile of brick and cement rubble is all that remains of the Temple of Concordia Augusta , dedicated by Tiberius in 10 AD.