Here you see the Roman soldiers. And you can just barely make out here–if you look, see this curved wall, down here, that curved wall is in fact that hemicycle with the–for the theatrical performances that I showed you, just before. and this perhaps spurred Caesar’s ambition to construct a new forum complex. phase was decorated with painted plaques of architectural terracotta, clearly indicating both elite function and investment. Plaster casts of the 155 scenes in the Museo della Civiltà Romana / Wikimedia Commons. Proceeds are donated to charity. Column of Trajan- date. This frieze, as far as we can tell, does belong to the Trajanic renovation of the building, but it probably does look back to an earlier Julian frieze that decorated the original temple in Rome. These changes, coupled with population decline, spelled the gradual demise of spaces like the Forum Romanum. and 113 C.E., with continuing additions, restorations, and modifications through late antiquity. For centuries, the Roman Forum (Forum Romanum) was the civic, juridical, and social heart of the ancient city of Rome, a place where civic buildings, sacred buildings, and monuments were to be both found and admired. One of the key tenets of Vespasian’s new administration was the restoration of the city, including the construction of new buildings and monuments. The sixth century B.C.E. The archaeological remains of the Forum Romanum itself continue to provide important insights into the phases and processes associated with urbanism and monumentality in ancient Rome. The Curia served as the council house for the Roman Senate, although the Senate could convene in any inaugurated space (i.e. 47-55. It’s very interesting to see them depicting, the Romans depicting, the Dacians in such a heroic way on this column. And that makes a lot of sense, again given that you could view it best from the two libraries on either side. So there’s this extension of the bath, from being just a place where you went for wellness essentially, to bathe and to relax and to have social interaction with your friends. And then at the end, a temple. The long sides of the forum square, flanking the temple, housed two storeys of rooms that may have served political and/or mercantile functions. a space ritually demarcated by Roman priests). The Forum of Julius Caesar (also known as the Forum Iulium or Forum Caesaris) was the first of the imperial fora complexes to be built. It looks like they’re quite solid, and that they project into the spectator’s space. This innovative complex was deemed one of Rome’s most beautiful monuments by Pliny the Elder and housed not only significant spoils from Jerusalem but also masterworks of Greek art that had previously been hoarded by the emperor Nero. You can see the facing with–the brick facing, although we do believe this was stuccoed over, in this case. Surely then our citizens will proclaim you as their best ruler, the Optimus Princeps. With the deification of Julius Caesar, Augustus’ adoptive father, a temple dedicated to Caesar’s cult (templum divi Iulii) was constructed on the edge of the forum square (15 in the diagram below). Model of the Forum of Trajan by Paul Bigot in MRSH / Photo by Pascal Radigue, Wikimedia Commons. You’ll also remember–and I remind you of his portrait above–you’ll also recall that he was a member of the Senate, and that he was chosen by the Senate, one of their own, to become emperor of Rome, the first emperor to come from the senatorial ranks in the history of Rome, and he was very popular with the Senate. But much more important to us today are two buildings, the first a bath, and the second a forum, that are examples of the devotion that Trajan had to public architecture during his reign. It’s always locked, and you have to get special permission to do that. 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And what’s interesting about this, if you look, if you Google this and look at the website for the Fireman’s Memorial in New York, you will find out that the designer for this talks unabashedly of his admiration for the Column of Trajan in Rome, and that he used, as an artistic model, for the way in which he massed figures here, showing them in relationship to buildings, he used, as his model, the figures on the Column of Trajan, in Rome. Many of them are these hemicycle type shapes, screened with columns from the larger central space, but some of them also look like the tabernae that we’ve become used to in plan. 123-38 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990). Column of Trajan with St. Peter statue and coin with original Trajan statue at top / Wikimedia Commons. Plotina, his wife, was–she had no children of her own; she was crazy about Hadrian, very much his sponsor, and wanted to see him succeed Trajan. According to the historian Dio Cassius, Hadrian’s accession was solely due to the actions of empress Plotina, kept Trajan’s death a secret for several days. And that is actually the entrance — for anyone going to Rome over break, that’s actually the entrance to the Domus Aurea. One middle Republican development is the continued elaboration of the Rostra, the platform from which orators would speak to those assembled in the forum square. The scrolls would have been placed on those shelves, and then have cupboards in front of them. And this large rectangular precinct has a series of rooms around it, as you can see, real rooms, and rooms that take all kinds of shapes. When Trajan died in 117 C.E., sources tell us that the Roman Senate allowed a special dispensation whereby Trajan’s cremated remains could be deposited in the base of the column and that a temple to his cult (Templum Divi Traiani et Plotinae) was added to the forum complex between 125 and 138 C.E. Context: The patron of this forum … He’s doing it here also, through architecture, by placing those exedrae on either side of his forum. View of the Forum from the slope of the Capitoline to the Palatine Hill, By Dr. Jeffrey A. Becker / 12.09.2015 It’s not that difficult to climb the Column the Trajan because there’s a spiral staircase in the center of it, that goes up to the top. Even as the Forum Romanum changed over time, it remained an important space. The Dacians down below. He has decided–you can see the Romans; he’s got Romans to the left of him, Romans to the right of him. The open square of the forum is flanked by porticoes that contain exedrae and point viewer attention toward the main structure, the massive Basilica Ulpia. saw rebuilding of structures and monuments that had been damaged by fire, including the rebuilding of the Curia Julia by the emperor Diocletian in the late third century C.E. On the western side of the basilica was another courtyard, flanked by two libraries (one Greek and one Latin), that contained a monumental honorific column, known today as the Column of Trajan. Forum of Trajan model / Wikimedia Commons, Column of Trajan spiral staircase and burial chamber / Wikimedia Commons. But it is, at his death, it is taken over by Nerva and renamed the Forum of Nerva. We see 150 shops here, on a variety of levels. Forum of Trajan basilica entrance on coin / Photo by Roger Pearse, Wikimedia Commons. The main reason that I show it to you today, besides to show that the Flavians again served–Flavian architecture served as an important model for Trajanic architecture, is that a couple of the scenes in the attic above are very interesting, and tell us something about the succession. This is quite different from the Forum at Pompeii, where you’ll remember the basilica was splayed off, to the side. Just to remind you that it began to be restored–that is, the Forum of Julius Caesar–under Domitian, and that that restoration was completed by Trajan at some point during his reign, between 98 and 117 A.D. And I remind you of that here. You’d enter into the forum down here. Cupids, frieze-architrave, Temple of Venus Genetrix, Forum of Julius Caesar, 113 C.E., marble (Mercati di Traiano Museo dei Fori Imperiali). Individual pages signify the copyright for the content on that page. Originally published by Smarthistory under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. Form: Use of equestrian sculpture showing Trajan on horse. And some scholars have suggested, and I think very convincingly, it’s an intriguing idea, that because this was located between two libraries, the likelihood–and that the Romans had scrolls–the likelihood is what we are dealing with here is one of these scrolls, sort of wrapped around the column, from base to top, unfurled and wrapped around the column from base to top, with the text removed, with images instead of text. R. Krautheimer, Three Christian capitals: topography and politics (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983). He wanted, above all, to disassociate himself from Nero, and from Domitian, who had favored palatial architecture, as you’ll recall. The architect Apollodorus of Damascus was responsible for the innovative design. And actually these were borders that were never gone beyond. He puts a temple to his patron goddess, Minerva, in that forum. In this latter group, the Arch of Augustus (#16 above) and the Porticus of Caius and Lucius are notable. She says: “We’re not going to announce Trajan’s death. Arch of Trajan and attic relief, Benevento / Wikimedia Commons. The forum of Trajan included markets, a basilica, an equestrian statue of the emperor and even a temple to himself. And then at the apex, we see a good view of the top, with a statue of St. Peter; but we have coins depicting Trajan on–depicting the original statue–the base, the shaft, a portrait of Trajan, a naked portrait of Trajan, a heroicized portrait of Trajan, depicted after death, divinized at the apex of the column. At the Battle of Philippi in 42 B.C.E., Augustus vowed a temple to Mars in exchange for help in avenging the slain Caesar (Suet. They are adding an intellectual element to the bath buildings, so that you can also go there if you want to read–if you want to go to the library and read Greek books, read Latin books–go to lectures, go to seminars, have conversations, intellectual conversations, are also beginning to happen here. You can see how skilled they are in using ramps, with polygonal masonry, as well as sidewalks and stairs, so that you can make your way up with either alternative here. Here’s a plan of the Basilica Ulpia, where we can see all of its major features. The exedrae on either side, mimicking those of the Forum of Augustus. This is the Basilica Ulpia here. We should also not underestimate the psychological effect of these grandiose, soaring, bedecked complexes, based around massive open plazas, on the minds and experiences of city dwellers (many of whom lived in crowded squalor). And then otherwise we saw here the rest of the precinct, with an elaborate entranceway over here. He took on Augustus’ hairstyle and his manners, and so he was trying to associate himself, in his life, with Augustus. The Romans had created a kind of pointing machine, which they used to make exact replicas of originals. This entrance gate, down here. Pontoon bridge with Roman soldiers (detail), Column of Trajan, Carrara marble, completed 113 C.E., Rome (photo: ElissaSCA © All rights reserved, by permission). He dedicated a forum complex that housed a temple dedicated to Peace (Pax) in 71 C.E., completing it by 75 C.E. And actually that one, the one that’s up here, actually has niches in the wall, with shelves, which indicates to us that that was used as one of the libraries. We see a personification of the Danube River, in that area up north, in Dacia, where the Romans went to conquer those tribes. This was explicit in the dedicatory inscription. Marble statue of Trajan / Photo by Thomas Thie, Colonia Ulpia Traiana, Wikimedia Commons. F. Coarelli, Il foro romano, 2 v. (Rome: Edizioni Quasar, 1983-1992). Brewminate uses Infolinks and is an Amazon Associate with links to items available there. PATRON/AUDIENCE (who was it made for? So the bath becomes even more of a mecca for people who are interested in intellectual life, as well as bathing and social life, which is a very important development culturally for the Romans. They are attacking the camp. Two urns were found in that burial chamber; the urns of Trajan and Plotina, which tells us, of course, that this also served as Trajan’s tomb. Temple of Venus Genetrix (plan), Forum of Caesar. To read the story, the viewer must physical circle the Column, making following the narrative quite difficult. as the Basilica Paulli. The temple was rebuilt in 42 B.C.E. So he does continue this Flavian interest in very elaborate architectural decoration. So Trajan continues the Flavian tradition of bringing marbles from all over, from places outside of Italy–from Africa, from Asia Minor, from Egypt and so on–for the decoration of these buildings, and an interest in multicolored marbles as facing. ​The column carries an helical frieze of historical relief that provides a pictorial narrative of the events of Trajan’s wars in Dacia (101–102 and 105–106 C.E. Constantine I officially relocated the administrative center of the Roman world to Constantinople in 330 C.E. But Plotina decides–she consults with advisors. The Forum of Augustus provided additional room for the meeting of law courts and was built on land acquired by Augustus. HN 36.102.5). Another early Republican temple is the Temple of the Castors (a.k.a. The hilltops became the focus of settlement beginning in the Early Iron Age; the development of the settlement continued during the first millennium B.C.E., with the traditional Roman account holding that the city herself was founded in 753 B.C.E. And he chose very carefully. The investigations of the burials themselves, and the patterns they followed, have allowed archaeologists to understand not only funeral customs but also social dynamics during Rome’s proto-urban phases. Restored again after a fire in 14 B.C.E., the famous basilica was deemed by Pliny the Elder to be one of the three most beautiful monuments in Rome (Plin. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010). We have already looked at the Forum of Julius Caesar, with its Temple of Venus Genetrix. And once again, how fortunate we are that we have coins that say BASILICAVLPIA, Basilica Ulpia. Described as the “sphinx of the Campus Martius”—referring to enigmas presented by its appearance and history, and to the location in Rome where it was built—to visit it today is to be almost transported back to the Roman Empire itself. ), culminating with the death of the enemy commander, Decebalus. And his name says a lot about him: Apollodorus from Damascus, modern Syria. So bringing in some of those elements from sanctuary design, into bath design, in the Baths of Trajan in Rome. Now that was no small feat in this particular part of the city, because most of this area was occupied by a hill; the so-called Quirinal Hill, in Rome, occupied most of this space. You can also see here the very large windows; the semi-dome, that I’ll show you in detail in a moment. In his play Curculio, the Latin playwright Plautus offers perhaps one of the most comprehensive and insightful descriptions of the Forum Romanum ever written (ll. The column’s frieze may draw inspiration from earlier Roman triumphal art, the tradition of which was inclined to depict scenes from the foreign campaigns and, in so doing, glorify the accomplishments of the commander and his soldiers. They can lift their vault on top of individual piers, as they have done so spectacularly here; lift them up. Speculation is that they contained the soldier-emperor's account of the Roman-Dacian Wars. Rafała Taubenschlag, 2004). The Forum Romanum in the Late Republican period: 1) Tabularium; 2)Temple of Concord; 3) Basilica Opimia; 4)Tullianum; 5) Basilica Porcia; 6) Curia and Comitium; 7) Temple of Saturn; 8) Senaculum; 9) Volcanal; 10) Lacus Curtius; 11) Basilica Sempronia; 12) Basilica Fulvia; 13) Shrine of Venus Cloacina; 14) Temple of the Castors; 15)Fountain of Juturna; 16) Temple of Vesta; 17) Regia (Source image, CC BY-SA 3.0). At the Column, making following the narrative quite difficult Via Biberatica ; that name is on your List... 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