History of Architecture

Roman Architecture- Trajan's Forum- Basilica of Ulpia and Columns

REPUBLICAN ROME 2nd BC - 3rd BC
● Conquering and expanding
● Came to an end with the Civil Wars – accession of Emperor Augustus in 27BC
● New form of architecture: Greek Classical style + roman building methods(Etruscan)
JULIUS CAESAR: 101-44 BC
● End of glorious age, beginning of Imperial Age for Ancient Rome
● Introduced a new town planning scheme
● Deviation of the course of the Tiber to enlarge the city.
● Built new Forum - to meet needs of population of 1million
AUGUSTAN BUILDING: 27 BC – 69AD
● Augustus (27BC - 14 AD), Marcus Agrippa (Augustus’s son-in law)
● “I found a city of bricks and I left a city of marble”.
● Pax Romana: 200 years
● Rebuilding the infrastructure of Rome, roads, bridges,, aqueducts (Pont Du Gard).
● Advances in the use of cement
● Secular buildings, temples(opulent marble).
● Fire in 64AD under Nero. Destroyed most of Rome. Reconstruction started – Robust buildings, ,
porticoes along street etc.
THE FLAVIANS
● Emperor Vespian (69-79 AD , Titus (79-81 AD), Domitian (81-96 AD)
● Legacy of extravagance
● Reconstruction of city
● Domestic and palatial architecture
● Experimental new room and vault architecture. Esp. Bath complexes, The Colosseum, Arch of Titus

TRAJAN: 98 – 117 AD
● Built Trajan's forum (imitates the Forum of Augustus) – markets, shops, libraries and the towering, Trajan’s
Basilica and Column.

HADRIAN: 117 – 138 AD

● Mausoleum (todays Castel Sant’ Angelo), Temple of Venus and Rome Pantheon

THE SEVERAN AGE: 193 – 305AD

● Emperors Caracalla, Diocletian
● Baths of Caracalla, Arch of Septimius Severus, Diocletian's palace.

THE LATE EMPIRE 305 – 340 AD

● Emperor Constantine recognized Christianity in AD 313 and made Constantinople capital in AD 303.
● The Late Empire was a point of transition between Imperial and Byzantine world.
TRAJAN’S
FORUM:
BASILICA
ULPIA AND
TRAJANS
COLUMN
 ANCIENT
ROME
3rd BC (BCE) –
340 AD (CE)
 TRAJAN’S
DACIAN WARS
In back-to-back wars fought between A.D. 101 and 106, the emperor Trajan mustered
tens of thousands of Roman troops, crossed the Danube River on two of the longest
bridges the ancient world had ever seen, defeated a mighty barbarian empire on its
mountainous home turf twice, then systematically wiped it from the face of Europe.

Trajan’s war on the Dacians, a civilization in what is now Romania, was the defining
event of his 19-year rule. The loot he brought back was staggering. One contemporary
chronicler boasted that the conquest yielded a half million pounds of gold and a million
pounds of silver, not to mention a fertile new province.

The booty changed the landscape of Rome.

To commemorate the victory, Trajan commissioned a forum that included a spacious

plaza surrounded by colonnades, two libraries, a grand civic space known as the Basilica
Ulpia, and possibly even a temple.
TRAJANS
FORUM
 BASILICA ULPIA 106 – 113 AD
The complex was created in 106 - 113 AD by Apollodorus of Damascus, the most famous architect
• The basilica contained a central hall or nave with colonnaded aisles lit by a clerestory.
• Dedicated to public use as law courts and a place of business, it became the preferred architectural
type for the Christian church.
• Unlike previous imperial fora, in which a temple was placed frontally in the square, the Basilica
Ulpia was set transversely to the axis of the forum and enclosed by two ambulatory colonnades.
• At either end of the basilica were two semicircular apses (which had the same diameter as the
hemicycles off the colonnades) and, at the center of the façade, a tetrastyle (four-column) porch.
• The Basilica Ulpia separates the temple from the main courtyard in the Forum of Trajan with
the Trajan's Column to the northwest.

• It was named after Roman emperor Trajan whose full name was Marcus Ulpius Traianus.

• It became perhaps the most important basilica. With its construction, much of the political life
moved from the Roman Forum to the Forum of Trajan. It remained so until the construction of
the Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine.

• It was dedicated to the administration of justice, commerce and the presence of the emperor. It
was the largest in Rome measuring 117 by 55 meters (385 x 182 ft).

• The many rows of columns separating the side aisles are a traditional means of structure for
basilicas.
BASILICA ULPIA:
VIEW FROM
COURTYARD
BASILICA ULPIA:
INTERIOR VIEW
BASILICA ULPIA (TRAJAN'S COLUMN IN THE
BACKGROUND)
The Markets of Trajans Forum
THE COLUMN OF TRAJAN
(112 AD)