The Imperial Forums and Trajan's Markets

The Imperial Forums and Trajan's Markets lie between Piazza Venezia and Via Cavour, along the Via dei Fori Imperiali opposite the Roman Forum. Trajan's Forum with the Markets and Trajan's Column is the most interesting complex.

The Imperial Forums were built from the 1st century BC to the 2nd century AD to relieve congestion and enlarge the Roman Forum by extending it. Unfortunately for an understanding of these sites and the interest of their remains, Mussolini, for the glory of the Fascist regime, had the whole neighbourhood demolished and part of the Forums covered over to create the Via dell'Impero, 800 m long and 60 m wide, running from Piazza Venezia to the Colosseum.

Getting there : As the Imperial Forums stand near the Monument to Victor Emmanuel II and Piazza Venezia, the most practical access is by metro, Colosseo station. You reach the sites by walking up the Via dei Fori Imperiali with the Colosseum behind you.
You can also take one of the many bus lines that serve Piazza Venezia station.

Of the five Imperial Forums, only the complex of Trajan's Markets, which houses the Museum of the Imperial Forums, is open to the public.

Opening hours of Trajan's Markets: Tuesday to Sunday from 9:00 to 19:00, closed on Monday.

Ticket prices for Trajan's Markets : €13, increased during temporary exhibitions.

Address : The Imperial Forums can be seen from the Via dei Fori Imperiali and the Via Alessandrina.
Access to Trajan's Markets is at no. 94 Via Quattro Novembre.

FORUM OF CAESAR

This first Imperial Forum was built and entirely funded by Julius Caesar from 51 to 46 BC. Along this square, 160 m long and 75 m wide, a portico framed the temple dedicated to Venus Genetrix, from whom the gens Julia (the Julian family to which Julius Caesar belonged) claimed descent.

The equestrian statue of Caesar stood at the centre of the square and the whole also served as a place for exhibiting works of art. During its restoration in 113 under Trajan, the Basilica Argentaria was added, the headquarters and sales place for silver and bronze craftsmen.

Of this Forum only 3 columns of the temple remain, the double colonnade of one of the two porticoes and the façade of shops.

FORUM OF AUGUSTUS

Dedicated to Mars Ultor — Mars the Avenger — the temple had 8 Corinthian columns on the façade and on its sides and was preceded by a statue of Augustus as an auriga (charioteer). The forum was bordered on both sides by a portico with an exedra.

Today only the steps of the imposing podium, 3 Corinthian columns and the remains of the 2 exedrae are still visible.

FORUM OF PEACE

The Forum of Peace was built between 71 and 75 by Vespasian to commemorate his victory over the Jews of Judaea. It took the form of a rectangle 145 m by 88 m surrounded on 3 sides by a high wall and porticoes of red granite. The temple itself, preceded by a garden in which water ran from basin to basin, displayed the treasures of the Temple of Jerusalem and many other works of art. A library held the city's archives and the writings of Galen.

Today one can see only the podium of the temple with a few steps and a few columns of the south-west portico.

FORUM OF NERVA

This forum was begun by Domitian in 85 and finished by Nerva in 97. It occupies a narrow space 120 m long and 45 m wide, which prevented the construction of the classic porticoes, replaced by walls with detached columns. Of the Temple of Minerva that occupied the far end nothing remains, having been destroyed in the 17th century by Pope Paul V to reclaim its marble.

Only the base of the temple survives, and above all 2 magnificent Corinthian columns with friezes and a representation of Minerva with her shield.

FORUM OF TRAJAN

The last of the Imperial Forums, designed by the architect Apollodorus of Damascus, was built between 106 and 113 by the emperor Trajan with the booty acquired during the second war against the Dacians.

The forum, grandiose at 300 m long and 185 m wide, required the levelling of a rocky spur 38 m high between the Capitoline and Quirinal hills. The complex took the form of a great square paved with marble slabs, bordered by porticoes with Corinthian columns and with at its centre an equestrian statue of Trajan of which only the base remains. In the wall separating it from the Forum of Augustus an entrance was cut, treated as a triumphal arch surmounted by a statue of the emperor in a chariot drawn by 6 horses. Of this monument, known from its representation on coins, nothing remains.

BASILICA ULPIA

The Basilica Ulpia, named after Trajan's gens, was built between the central square of the forum and Trajan's Column. 107 m long and 59 m wide, it ended in an apse at each extremity. Three doors, one of them monumental, allowed entry. All the exterior walls were adorned with statues and a frieze celebrating Trajan's exploits against the Dacians.

The interior, with a marble floor, was divided into a central nave and two smaller side aisles on each side. Here too, statues of Dacian prisoners and friezes celebrated Trajan's victories. Today columns re-erected on their bases at the position of the naves are still visible. The remains of the two apses were covered over during the construction of the Via dei Fori Imperiali and the Via Magnanopoli.

TRAJAN'S COLUMN AND LIBRARY

Behind the basilica two twin buildings measuring 20 m by 27 m framed Trajan's Column. Inside, on two storeys, Corinthian columns framed the niches where the volumina were placed. A brick wall behind the marble ensured ventilation. The height of these two libraries made it easier to read the frieze of Trajan's Column.

Traditionally one library is attributed with holding works in Latin and the other in Greek.

Emblematic of this forum, Trajan's Column is a masterpiece of architecture and sculpture.

Work began in 107 and the column was dedicated to the emperor by the Senate in 113. It rests on a pedestal 5.27 m high and 5.50 m wide bearing trophies on three faces.

The fourth is the entrance door giving access to a spiral staircase lit by windows invisible from outside and to the funerary chamber where the ashes of Trajan and his wife Plotina lay in golden urns.

The height of the shaft is 39.78 m, made of 18 hollowed Carrara marble blocks around which a frieze of 200 m runs along the 23 spirals. The sculptors are thought to have rough-hewn the blocks on the ground and finished them as the column was erected. Each block was linked to the next by lead dowels. The frieze illustrates the two wars waged by Trajan against the Dacians, separated by a winged Victory. It comprises 155 scenes animated by more than 2,570 figures. Each scene illustrates an event of the campaign, from its preparation to the final victory, with great fidelity, which was to prove very useful to future historians. The frieze was certainly painted and the figures carried weapons and objects in metal for greater realism, but these have now disappeared.

The capital and attic supported a gilded bronze statue of Trajan. This statue, like others from the forum, was removed by the Eastern emperor Constans II, who had them melted down to pay his troops. In 1587 Pope Sixtus V had a statue of St Peter erected at the summit of the column.

TEMPLE OF THE DIVINE TRAJAN

Literary and epigraphic sources suggest that Hadrian, Trajan's successor, had a temple raised to him, thus closing this square. But all trace of it is lost from the 6th century. Recent excavations under the Palazzo Valentini suggest that the remains of this temple may lie there.

The remains of Trajan's Forum, the most interesting of the Imperial Forums, can be seen from walkways overlooking it.

TRAJAN'S MARKETS AND MUSEUM OF THE FORUMS

Trajan's Markets form topographically and historically part of the Imperial Forums. Remember that the entrance is not from the Via dei Fori Imperiali, from which it is visible, but from the rear on Via Quattro Novembre.

Excavated in 1920 and cleared of the medieval buildings that disfigured it, it was given the name Market, but it is now established that while shops opening onto the exterior were indeed commercial, the interior rooms were intended for the Imperial Administration, the management of the forum and the Annona (the public service charged with the distribution of grain).

The architect Apollodorus of Damascus built a hemicycle 200 m long with 170 rooms that hid and supported the part of the Quirinal hill left bare after the levelling works needed for the extension of the forum. From the outside it appears as a hemicycle of red brick closed at each end by a large semicircular hall with a hemispherical vault that may have served as a meeting room or auditorium. At the rear, opening by a few steps onto the Via Biberatica, the great central hall two storeys high served the interior spaces.

On the ground floor eleven shops opened directly onto the forum square. The frames and architrave of the square doorways are in travertine and these tabernae were lit by a window above the doors.

On the first floor many windows, separated by brick pilasters and with travertine ends, light a vaulted corridor serving about ten rooms before joining other corridors.

On the second floor, on a terrace supported by a vaulted corridor, a group of tabernae, essentially devoted to the wine trade, gave its name to the Via Biberatica (from biber, to drink).

MUSEUM OF THE IMPERIAL FORUMS

This museum, opened in 2007 after major fitting-out works, offers an excellent didactic circuit.

The life and functioning of the five forums are evoked through models, casts, antique fragments and various objects found on site.

After wandering — and even getting lost — in the corridors and rooms of this immense monument, take time to admire the view from the terrace over the monuments of ancient Rome.