The Trajan’s Forum, also remembered as Forum Ulpium in some sources, is the largest and most monumental of the Imperial Forum of Rome, the last in chronological order.

Built by the emperor Trajan with the spoils of war obtained from the conquest of Dacia, and inaugurated, according to the Ostian Fasti, in 112, the forum was arranged parallel to the Forum of Caesar and perpendicularly to that of Augustus. The design of the structure is attributed to the architect Apollodorus of Damascus.

The complex, which measured 300 m in length and 185 in width, included the forensic square, the Basilica Ulpia, an arcaded courtyard with the Trajan’s Column and two libraries. The presence of the temple of Divo Traiano and Plotina, added by Adriano, seems to have been ascertained, after various alternative proposals which proved to be unfounded, below Palazzo Valentini, where it was traditionally located.

Archaeological Area
The five monumental complexes named the “Imperial Forums” were constructed in topographic continuity with the old Roman Forums of the imperial-republican era. The new structures substituted the religious, political and administrative functions of the former.

In chronological order of inauguration the forums built were: the Forum of Caesar (46 BC), the Forum of Augustus (2 BC), The Temple of Peace or Templum Pacis (75 AD), Forum of Nerva or Forum Transitorium (97AD) and the Forum of Trajan (112 and 113 AD). During the opening of the later a restored Forum of Caesar was also inaugurated as was the complex of buildings today known as the Markets of Trajan. The forum complexes were built with the wealth accumulated during wars. They had a celebratory and auto-representative character for their clients, whose empire guaranteed peace in Rome.

To site them under the Palatine the urban landscape was modified and some pre-dating public structures (even sacred ones) were sacrificed. Significantly, the engraved inscription on the base of the Column of Trajan catalogues all that was dismantled for the construction of his forum. Each complex was designed in conceptual and physical relationship with the previous one and they were connected through openings on various sides.

From an urban-architectural point of view the forums are monumental arcaded squares shaped around centralised axis circuit points. In relation to the space employed and the constraints imposed by pre-existing structures, they were of different sizes and orientation. The far end was made more imposing by the construction of a temple, which was dedicated to the protective divinity of the commissioning emperor. The emperor’s presence was repeatedly evoked through representations of him on horseback or on war wagons, inscriptions with his name and symbolic references in iconography and decorative motifs.

The juridical-administrative functions were performed in civil basilicas, while the cultural function was provided by libraries and galleries of statues. The architectural scheme, monumentalised by the huge dimensions employed and the rich decorative and sculptural apparatus made of precious coloured marbles, was a model to be exported and reproduced in Roman provinces.

Forum of Caesar

The Forum of Caesar and the Temple of Venus Genetrix were opened in 46 BC, the last day of celebrations for Julius Caesar’s victory over Pompey. The construction of a new forum, destined to broaden the already congested spaces of the Roman Forum, had already been planned in 54 BC as documented in a letter by Cicerone to his friend Attico saying that he was instructed by Caesar (who was then busy in Gaul) to purchase the land. To complete the complex it was necessary to first make embankments on the slopes of the Capitoline Hill.

In 48 BC, before the decisive battle of Farsalo against Pompey, Caesar had promised a temple to Venus Vincitrix, even if the goddess already had a temple dedicated to her on the top of the mines in Pompey’s Theatre in Campus Martius. The Caesarean temple was built at the far end of the new Forum but instead was dedicated to Venus Genetrix, the mythical protector of gens Iulia (the Julian clan), who descended though Ascanius son of Aeneas of Troy.

The construction of the square took place during the rebuilding of the Curia, which was the seat of the Senate and whose traditional orientation according to cardinal points was modified in order to make it compatible with that of the new complex. The square was inaugurated while it was still incomplete with works being completed by Augustus, as he recalls in the Res Gestae (The Deeds of the Divine Augustus).

During Trajan’s era (113 AD) the temple of Venus Genetrix was entirely rebuilt. The new building retained the same plan as the previous one but the cella apse, which no longer rested against the Capitoline Hill, was hidden by two cross-bracing walls that were a continuation of the cella walls. The temple was richly decorated in marble.

The Temple of Venus Genetrix
Splendid remains of The Temple of Venus Genetrix from the reconstructions undertaken in Trajanic have survived. After the excavations of the 1930s three of the columns on the western side of the temple were raised and their imperfections brick in. Visible on them are rich entablatures with a florid frieze of engraved and die-punched spirals.

The use of amorini (cherubs) in decorating the temple is linked to the mythological figure of the god Eros, the son of Venus. Eros is depicted as a bread fed boy. The motif is repeated on the lacunari (semi-circular decorations) of the brick entablatures and on the frieze that once belonged to the first internal column order of the cella.

From ancient sources, we know that the temple hosted numerous works of art: dattiloteca (collections of engraved gems) and statues, including statues of Cleopatra in gold leafed bronze and Julius Caesar (sidus Caesarus).

The interior decoration of the Trajanic cella included two orders of columns that were placed against the walls with pilasters behind them. The first series were decorated with amorini bearing various objects: among those preserved are a shield with the head of Medusa and a quiver; other elements feature amorini pouring liquid from an amphora into a basin. Perhaps, symbolically, the objects evoke the presence of various deities accompanying the goddess in her role as nature’s progenitor.

Forum of Augustus

It is highly likely that the ground works for the building of the Forum of Augustus started after the period 30 to 27 BC. During these years Octavian conquered Egypt and eliminated Marc Anthony (30 BC). He symbolically returned the res publica to the Senate and Romans and made selections for the highest appointments of the Republican State. He then added the imperium (the military command) for the not yet subjected provinces (27 BC) and acquired the title of Augustus. In 23 BC he also added the foundations of republican courts (la tribunicia potestas). He welded ancient roman tradition with a new course, through the inspiration of summi viri, the illustrious personages who had “created” Rome.

The Augustan Forum was planned as part of a wide reorganisation of the area between the central Forum, the Forum of Caesar and the Basilica Emilia. Its proximity to the Subura (Current Monti Quarter) was conditioned by the capabilities of the existing sewer system found there.

The “E” shaped central space was dominated by a temple, which was very imposing especially when compared to the frontal square and two narrow side corridors. To make space for the Hall of the Colossus at the end of the northern walkway the building (today known as the House of the Knights of Rhodes) was “cut”.

Recent excavations at the Forum of Trajan have revealed the existence of a third exedra, which was removed to make way for a building of the same period. Therefore, the existence of a fourth exedra has been assumed. Perhaps, it was subsequently eliminated to make way for the Forum of Nerva. The numerous historical sources that document these spaces have different theories as to their function.

The Hall of Colossus
The Hall of the Colossus was deliberately set in the northeast of the forum, at the rear of the wide western walkway. This position was typically set aside for sacellums (house shines), which are closely related to the basilicas of the provincial complexes, however in this context, they were intended for worshiping the imperial figure.

The area is characterised by vertical development accentuated by its relatively small surface area. The walls of the hall in which the Colossus stood were decorated with rectangular slabs of white marble at least up to the height of the statue, which was about 11 metres high. The use of ramps in the assembly of blocks for the forum and the thickness of the stone made it possible to add a sequence of decorative florid motifs in a slightly curvilinear form. In this way onlookers would envisage the backdrop of the colossal statue as a giant piece of undulating fabric.

Of the few remains attributable to the gem stone decorated statue, the right hand holding a circular form has been recovered and perhaps the left one just beyond the wrist. The finds are carved in best quality Greek Parian marble, as was the case for the statue of Augustus at Prima Porta.

The arcades
The porticos were accessed from the square via three steps. By now, we are certain that in front of the columns of the façade, there were plinths with statues. The façade consisted of a single row of yellow Numidian marble columns with base attica (square bases) and Corinthian capitals in Luna marble. They were crowned by decorated main beams in separate blocks.

In the past, on top of the columns a high attic story was placed, which contributed to lightening the load of the porticoes. Without the division of the load the weight of the temple that rose above the columns would have crushed them. To hide its structural role the attic story was internally faced with a stucco ceiling. It was divided into protruding avant-corps with the female figures of Caryatides. Their elegant hairstyle was carved from a single block with the crest, egg and dart moulding and an abacus replicating a ‘basket’ made up the capital. On the bottom floor, among the Caryatides, quadrangular panels were placed. They were framed by a decorative band and Clipei were joined to them. They had imagines clipeatae (circular shied-like elements) whose convex frame varies with at least three different decorative motifs.

The exedras
From the mighty columns the porticos to the exedras lining the internal section we can perhaps imagine hearings being conducted.

The first exedras of the forum had niches, which were a bit narrower than the porticos. Even so in their curved lines they hosted the most important statue cycles, all of which were set on tablatures with tituli and elogia. Through the reign of the characters represented and the chronicles of their actions, the statues were in fact part of Augustus’s propaganda plan.
Placed in the central niche of the northern exedra was the sculptural group of Aeneas escaping from Troy and saving his father Anchises and son Ascanio; personages that were the founding fathers of gens Iulia (Julius clan). On the side niches, the kings of Albalonga represented the origins of Rome, while in the southern exedra Romulus was placed. Augustus had named him as the new founder of the city and its empire. On both sides of Romulus the summi viri appear those who according to the ideology of Augustan had “done” greatness to Rome either of a military and civilian nature.

The Temple of Peace

The Temple of Peace, which celebrated Emperor Vespasian quelling of the Jewish revolt (71 AD), was inaugurated in 75 AD. It housed the most precious trophies accumulated with the conquest of Jerusalem including the seven-arm candelabrum and silver trumpets taken from the city’s temple, which were also flamboyantly carved onto Titus’s Victory Arch on the Via Sacra.

The name “Templum Pacis” (as known by ancient sources) reflects differences in the layout of the complex as compared to other imperial forums and stresses its sacred character.
The monumental complex was placed on the Macellum, the Market of the Republican era, which was destroyed in a fire during Nero’s reign (64 AD). It was perhaps influenced by the orientation and the condition of the space once occupied by the market.

The structures which remain are in the main part from reconstruction works carried out by Septimus Severus that followed a serious fire in 192 AD. The architectural layout of the temple was reconstructed through graphic documentation in Forma Urbis – a plan of Mable structures in Rome drawn on a scale of 1:246 at the beginning of the 3rd century AD, and recent archaeological studies conducted by the Roman Archaeological Heritage Authority.

The hall was rectangular and had an apse, that stood behind an altar and a hex style pronao, which was aligned along the axis of the porticos and divided in two rows of columns. These columns were larger than those making up the porticos and recently recovered fragments of drums of smooth pink Aswan granite 1.80 in diameter are thought to have once belonged to them.

In the absis (apse) a divine statue was placed on a podium. Its iconographic form represented a female figure sitting with a branch in her right hand while her left hand lay on her lap. The image of the statue was reproduced on commemorative coins minted in 75-76 AD. Two blocks of travertine that were to the statue’s sides, which had the purpose of sustaining vertical elements in the structure, are believed to be remains from the Temple of Jerusalem and thus constituted trophies.

In the Severan era, the room was paved with a large opus sectile form. The floor had a sequence of rotae (circular shapes) in Turkish pavonazzetto marble, granite and porphyry that were carved into squares of yellow Numidian marble within a pavonazzetto boarder. For some scholars, the room is considered a library with theories being based on comparisons made with the plans and architectural layout of the so-called Hadrian Library in Athens.

Forum of Nerva

In the constructive sequence of the imperial complexes, the Forum that was inaugurated by Nerva in 97 AD is situated in a symbolic position. Actually conceived by his predecessor Domitian (81-96 AD) in a programme for the use of the urban space, it gave unitary to that area via original urban and architectural solutions.

In fact, an ancient path was built in the narrow space between the Forums of Caesar, Augustus and the Temple of Peace on a section of the Argiletum, the road which connected the republican Forum with the Subura district. The original function of this structure is enshrined in its ancient name Forum Transitorium, as well as the plans adopted, which required a structure of longitudinally orientation.

The complex was surrounded by high walls in peperino blocks lined with slabs of marble. Access was from the sides. Three openings on the Roman Forum side and on the opposite side, there was a monumental entrance that consisted of an exedra porticata in the shape of a horseshoe, as recorded in the Urbis Form. This entrance was called Porticus Absidata in the Regional Catalogues of Constantine’s era.

The portico was preceded by a Temple dedicated to Minerva, the goddess who protected Domitian. Her death would have ensured the apotheosis of the gods, as had already been the case of Hercules. However after the death of Domitian, the forum was given the name of Nerva, thus the memoriae damnatio (damnation of memory) had to be rewritten. The temple had a hex style pronaos and the marble columns were interposed with irregular columns that supported Corinthian Capitals. The architraves rested that rested on them were decorated with bucrani (ox skulls) and sacrificial instruments.

Forum of Trajan

The Forum of Trajan, which was inaugurated in 112 AD, completed the big monumental district of the Imperial Forums. The Column of Trajan was completed the following year, together with the renovations to the Temple of Venus Genetrix in the Forum of Caesar.

In order to create the huge complex (300 x 185 m) space was obtained by cutting into the slopes of the Capitoline and Quirinal Hills, which until then had been connected by a saddle. The excavation works had probably already started under Domitian at the same time as the layout of the Forum of Nerva. The works were interrupted after the death of the emperor, who was murdered in a conspiracy in 96 AD. Continued by Trajan, they were financed with the conquest of Dacia (now Romania). The conquest was conducted in two campaigns (101 -102 and 105 -106 AD) and ended with the defeat and subjugation of the Dacians and the death of their king Decebalus.

The architect of the work was Apollodorus from Damascus, who was the military engineer that had accompanied the emperor in the victorious war. The plan of the Forum of Trajan was more complex than that of those built by his predecessors. In fact, it included a vast square, flanked by porticos with exedras set back into them. On one side was the Basilica Ulpia that is thought to have housed a library, behind which was the Column of Trajan. On the opposite side, the square was closed by a large three sectioned hall (a rectilinear central sector and lateral sectors that faced inward). Its monumental columned façade formed the background for the colossal equestrian statue of the emperor, behind the central sector of which was a quadrangular courtyard that connected the new forum with the Forum of Augustus.

The monumental complex was used as the grandiose setting of public ceremonies and to house statue cycles that honoured famous people from different eras.

Trajan’s Market

“Mercati di Traiano” is the modern name of an extensive complex of brick buildings, articulated on several levels with architectural solutions of great interest: it was built at the same time as the Trajan’s Forum, at the beginning of the second century AD, to occupy and support the cutting of the slopes of Colle Quirinale.

Due to the continuity of their use over time, the buildings of the “Markets” also bear traces of numerous subsequent interventions, ranging from the Roman age, up to the great works of discovery, restoration and integration of the years 1926-1934. The lower part, starting from the level of the Forum, includes the Great Hemicycle, on three floors, the two classrooms at the ends and the Little Hemicycle again on three floors.

The upper part is separated from the lower part by means of a paved road, the via Biberatica, upstream of which the building of the Central Body rises, with rooms at street level and on the three floors above. To the north, the street turns and then gets lost under the current Via Quattro Novembre, flanked upstream by the Grande Aula complex, with the vast central space overlooked by a series of rooms on several levels. To the south the road connected to the current via della Salita del Grillo, on which a multi-storey block with traces of post-ancient interventions appeared. Behind the Great Hall and the Central Body there is a second paved path, the Via della Torre and, in an area currently arranged as a garden, other Roman structures, on which the medieval Torre delle Milizie (XIII century) was built.

Trajan’s Markets Museum of the Imperial Forums
The Markets of Trajan are an archaeological complex of uniqueness in Rome, perhaps even worldwide. They represent an area that has experienced the evolution of the city from the imperial age to today; an area that has been constantly recycled and transformed. The markets once the strategic administrative centre of the Imperial Forums, successively became a noble residence, a military fortress, a prestigious convent and a barracks… a continuous evolution. It has gone through architectural changes and the signs of the various “hands” from these different eras are all still visible. Now, with the completion of recent restorations, we too have crafted out a functions for it and so The Markets of Trajan have begun a new “season” of life.

Since 1985 over 40,000 fragments originating from the forum area have been catalogued and documented from deposits created after excavations carried out in the 20th century. A seemingly huge quantity of finds but in reality they represent a small percentage of what was the enormous quantity of marble facing and super-structure blocks which made up the Antiquarium Forense (Forum District).

Over the last 20 years, works carried out in the deposits of the forums and markets have focussed on the treatment and restoration of these fragments. However, they have also focussed on making an inventory of all the fragments using photographic documentation. It was this detailed gathering of data which made it possible to identify the most significant pieces for the reconstruction of ancient buildings and their decorative details.

When possible the approach to reassembling original fragments has carefully avoided the introduction of pins. Only when the use of additional newly cut stone and/or resin mouldings was impossible to include for various reasons in the exhibits’ assembly are there pins. Once reassembled, the exhibits then underwent graphical documentation and restoration; a rigorous process that has saved some fragments from complete loss. The identification of new contexts and the definition of architectural orders, and hence the appearance of forum complexes, have formed the basis of study for The Museum of the Imperial Forums project.

Different “routes” intertwine. In fact, the museum project has also had to be a communication project – “the architecture of the Forum in the architecture of the Markets; the history of the city in the history of one of its districts”.