Saturday, June 9, 2012

The Imperial Fora: Trajan's Column


Upon skimming over the topics that we could choose from to write our report on I was immediately drawn to the Imperial Fora because of the picture of Trajan’s Column.  I did not necessarily know what it was, what it meant or why it was constructed, but it enthused me enough to choose the Imperial Fora as my project.  After reading more into the Fora itself I was quite happy with my choice as it had a multitude of purpose behind its construction, many ornate monuments and a few of the most recognizable Roman emperors scattered throughout.  However, the Column of Trajan was still the most interesting piece and the portion that this report will most heavily cover. 

I expected that the Forum would be huge in size and a fairly barren landscape with few remaining architectures still standing.  I hoped that there would be a lot; however, the likeliness of that rock buildings would survive two centuries is fairly slim. From seeing the Column of Trajan during our tour of the Domus Romane I had a better picture of what was to come but from a basement window that permitted a skewed view I assumed that there was much more detail that would not be noticed until a clearer view was offered.

My initial impression when we were waiting for our special tour of the Fora was very overwhelming as from where we were seated we had a spectacular view of the Column.  As expected, there were scattered remains of what once was and the size was absolutely enormous once we had seen all that is the Imperial Fora.   Moreover, even more impressive is that our first impression of how large it is was actually terribly skewed as the Fora was cut in half by the Via dei Fori Imperiale.  Looking more closely at the Column it was apparent that the completion of this masterpiece had to take a great amount of time, effort and planning to construct such a monstrosity.  The detail in the artwork showing the Daecian campaigns was a marvelous and witty way of telling the story as it spirals up the 100 Roman foot shaft.  I am not too pleased that there is a Christaian statue atop the Column and would have been much more pleased to see Trajan himself holding up his staff triumphantly, but it is what it is and I guess it is better than not having the Column there at all.  The rest was fairly boring and mostly piles of the rubble and debris that had fallen or been burned down by a plethora of reasons so it was not too appealing to eye.  It was, however, intriguing to hear the stories about Caesar, Pompey and the Venus Genetrix and seeing where Marcus Aurelius held auctions to raise money for war efforts.  I enjoyed the stories but hardly enjoyed the scenery.

Knowing who had once walked in these Fora and pondering how many millions of people had walked these same paths before was a very humbling experience.  The thought that the Marcus Aurelius, Caesar and Trajan roaming these places once in time was incredibly awesome, as well.  I also seriously enjoyed learning about how they constructed these monuments with what technologies they used in their day. Being an engineer, figuring our ways out ways to get projects done the fastest, easiest and most efficient way is very interesting to me.  To be able to watch the construction of something like the Column of Trajan or the Temple to Venus Genetrix would be something I would love to do.  The fact that the Column was painted as well as carved into marble blew my mind as that would add an entire new facet to how glorious it would have looked when it was completed. 

My opinion of the Fora, and especially the Column, after seeing them truly changed immensely.  Knowing that the Column was painted and seeing just how grand the buildings and structures still standing looked in the past is a shame and renders it sort of unbecoming and/or boring.  However, with the knowledge of what it was in the past and seeing the visual recreations I definitely think it was one of the greatest sights to ever be gazed upon and whoever did get the chance to se it was quite a lucky person.  

~Sam Enerson


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