Trajan sought to expand the frontiers of Rome and reduce the potential threats from northern tribes. And so he pressed forward to the Danube River areas and beyond into the realm of Dacia, which was then under the command of a brave warrior named Decebalus, D-E-C-E-B-A-L-U-S. These wars between 101 and 102 CE, and 106 and 107 following a brief truce, led to the destruction of the Dacian homeland and eventually to the suicide of their king. Despite the fact that the Dacians were merely trying to preserve their homeland, Trajan celebrated a magnificent triumph. And had his architect engineer, Apollodorus of Damascus build his forum, Trajan's Forum, which was dedicated in 112 CE. To make his forum, Trajan had to cut away a significant portion of the Quirinal Hill to flatten out the land. The exact arrangement of the forum is still contested today, but it had a vast porticoed entry space modeled after the Forum of Augustus. But with Dacian captives in the attic spaces of the portico. There was a massive basilica, or covered hall, known as the Basilica Ulpia after Trajan's family name. Beyond it were two smaller buildings, possibly libraries. In between which was an enormous column, dedicated in 113. Which had figural reliefs winding around it, and telling the story of the two major Dacian campaigns. The base contained a dedication, which commemorated the great amount of hillside that had to be removed to make this monument. The carving on the columns owes more to local popular art than it does to the classical tradition. The figures seem ill-proportioned and even stumpy. There were combinations of nearly overhead and side views within the same, singular, single image. And there are figures which are too large for their backgrounds. Perhaps it was done in the style of contemporary military triumphal paintings. Intended to show quickly a particular scene without worrying about how classical the images were. And instead emphasizing specific actions and gestures. Major figures are larger than subsidiary figures. Crowds are shown as small clusters of people. True perspective is disregarded in favor of giving each scene its own best viewpoint, or multiple viewpoints. The theme of the column seems to be Gloria Exercitus, the industry and discipline, the glory of the Roman troops in tracking down and eliminating a dangerous foe. The images of barbarian heads being shown to the emperor, tend to stay in the mind to show the barbarity of war, but the almost matter-of-factness of the Roman army in pursuing it. Beyond this all, there may have been a temple dedicated to the Divine Trajan that was put up sometime after his death. But this is hotly contested and it's difficult to verify, due to later churches having been erected right over the alleged temple site. The Column of Trajan was to have contained the ashes of Trajan himself, whose statue graced the top of it. There was a stairwell inside of it which allowed access to a glorious view from the very top. The column, carved like a colossal book scroll, or rotulus was actually made up of 18 blocks of Carrara marble from northern Italy. The 625 feet of sculpted reliefs are among the largest amount of such sculpture that survives for us on any single monument anywhere. Trajan's military engineer, the architect Apollodorus of Damascus, further outdid himself with another amazing complex built just to the north of the Forum of Trajan. Trajan's Markets took advantage of the hillside to rise five stories up, and it contained a variety of shops and administrative offices. But the most extraordinary part of it was a huge Aula, or hall, which had shops on two sides at upper and lower levels. The central space, which must have been filled with people, was growing vaulted at the top. That is, made up of a series of intersecting barrel vaults that sprung from enormous corbels on the side of the hall. The upper row of shops was separated from the Aula by a series of flying buttresses, more elaborate than those used in the Golden House of Nero. And looking very much like the sort employed to bolster Gothic cathedrals in the middle ages.
