Trajan’s Forum
Quick Summary
Trajan's Forum, located in Rome, Italy, was a significant public space commissioned by Emperor Trajan and designed by Apollodorus of Damascus in the early 2nd century AD. This forum was a multipurpose, centrally located open area surrounded by public buildings and colonnades, serving as a public gathering place. It was an adaptation of the Greek agora and acropolis.1
Trajan's Forum measured approximately 920 by 620 feet and covered about 25 acres. Visitors entered through a triple gateway into a colonnaded open space with merchants' booths. The forum was flanked by two semicircular, colonnaded exedrae and featured the Basilica Ulpia, with Trajan's Column depicting his victories located beyond it. The forum's design influenced subsequent town planners. Emperor Trajan was known for extensive public works, including roads, bridges, aqueducts, and buildings, with Trajan's Forum being a notable example in Rome.12
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ancient RomeRome and Italy…structures: the Colosseum, Palatine palaces, Trajan’s Forum, the Pantheon, the Castel Sant’ Angelo (Hadrian’s mausoleum), the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina, Aurelius’ Column, as well as the aqueducts whose arches spanned across Campagna to keep the city and its innumerable fountains supplied with water.
Read More…structures: the Colosseum, Palatine palaces, Trajan’s Forum, the Pantheon, the Castel Sant’ Angelo (Hadrian’s mausoleum), the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina, Aurelius’ Column, as well as the aqueducts whose arches spanned across Campagna to keep the city and its innumerable fountains supplied with water.
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RomeContributions of later emperorsTrajan’s Forum, with its complex of buildings and courtyards, and his market, with its tiers of shops and its great market hall, represent in the judgment of many historians the supreme achievement of city planning in Rome. Trajan’s Column, which narrates his victories beyond the…
Read MoreTrajan’s Forum, with its complex of buildings and courtyards, and his market, with its tiers of shops and its great market hall, represent in the judgment of many historians the supreme achievement of city planning in Rome. Trajan’s Column, which narrates his victories beyond the…
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