Basilica Ulpia - Trajan’s Forum, Rome - Columns across the Ancient Forum

Tall columns rise above the remains of the Basilica Ulpia in Trajan’s Forum, revealing the scale of one of ancient Rome’s greatest civic buildings.

The Basilica Ulpia formed the monumental northern boundary of Trajan’s Forum and was one of the largest and most important civic buildings of ancient Rome. Inaugurated in AD 112 during the reign of Emperor Trajan, the basilica served judicial, administrative and commercial functions and was divided internally into five naves by rows of granite and cipollino marble columns. In this photograph, surviving and reconstructed column shafts rise above the exposed foundations, paving and scattered architectural fragments of the complex. The different colours and materials of the columns hint at the rich decorative scheme that once characterized the building. Trajan’s Forum itself was the last of the Imperial Fora to be completed and represented one of the most ambitious urban projects of the Roman Empire. The view captures both the monumental scale of the basilica and the fragmented archaeological character in which it survives today.