Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Roman Forum was originally a marshy valley used as a cemetery as early as the 10th century BC, with cremation burials placed in earthenware jars beneath capstones. It later became an open-air marketplace before evolving into the civic, political, judicial, and religious center of ancient Rome.
By the Imperial period, the central open rectangle of the Roman Forum measured approximately 130 by 50 meters, with the Basilica Aemilia defining its northern long side and the Basilica Julia its southern. The Forum Adjectum sometimes extended the complex further southeast as far as the Arch of Titus.
The Column of Phocas, erected on the 1st of August 608 AD before the Rostra, was the last monumental addition made to the Roman Forum. It was dedicated to the Eastern Roman Emperor Phocas.
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Rome's population shrank dramatically and the Forum was largely abandoned. By the Middle Ages its grounds were used for grazing livestock, earning it the name Campo Vaccino, meaning cattle field in Italian.
In 44 BC, Marc Antony delivered his funeral oration for Julius Caesar from the New Rostra in the Forum, and Caesar's body was publicly burned on a site directly across from the platform. Augustus later built the Temple of Caesar on that spot in 29 BC.
Carlo Fea began clearing the Arch of Septimius Severus in 1803, marking the start of modern clearing efforts. Official government excavations began in 1898 under Dr. Baccelli and were led by Dr. Giacomo Boni until his death in 1925, with a pause during World War I.