Trajan’s Forum and Markets

The construction of Trajan’s Forum was started in 107 AD to celebrate Trajan’s final conquest of Dacia (modern day Romania), after the successful campaigns of 101-2 and 105-6. This was meant to be the most ambitious forum, with a vast colonnaded open space overlooking at an equestrian statue of the emperor, a massive basilica, and two large libraries. The most important remnants in the archeological site today is Trajan’s Column, which originally stood between the two libraries. The Column spirals at 30 m, and in it there are minutely detailed scenes of the Dacian campaigns. The market complex, directly behind the forum, was built sometime earlier. Like the forum, it was likely designed by Apollodorus Damascus, and it was the Roman equivalent of a shopping mall, having around 150 shops selling anything from fruits to silks, from spices to fish and flowers.
Tip: To examine the scenes reported in Trajan’s Column in more detail, head to the Museo della Civiltà Romana which holds casts of them.