Basilica Ulpia

The Bibliotheca Ulpia ("Ulpian Library") was a Roman library founded by the Emperor Trajan in AD 114 in his forum, the Forum of Trajan, located in ancient Rome. It was considered one of the most prominent and famous libraries of antiquity and became the major library in the Western World upon the destruction of the Library of Alexandria in the 3rd century. It was the only Roman library to survive until the Fall of Rome in the mid-fifth century.

The Cloaca Maxima (Latin: Cloāca Maxima, lit. Greatest Sewer) was one of the world's earliest sewage systems. Its name derives from Cloacina, a Roman goddess. Built during either the Roman Kingdom or early Roman Republic, it was constructed in Ancient Rome in order to drain local marshes and remove waste from the city. It carried effluent to the River Tiber, which ran beside the city. The sewer started at the Forum Augustum and ended at the Ponte Rotto and Ponte Palatino. It began as an open air canal, but it developed into a much larger sewer over the course of time. Agrippa renovated and reconstructed much of the sewer. This would not be the only development in the sewers. By the first century CE all eleven Roman aqueducts were connected to the sewer. After the Roman Empire fell the sewer still was used. By the 1800s it became a tourist attraction. Some parts of the sewer are still used today. Whilst still being used it was highly valued as a sacred symbol of Roman culture, and Roman engineering.

Trajan's Column (Italian: Colonna Traiana, Latin: Columna Traiani) is a Roman triumphal column in Rome, Italy, that commemorates Roman emperor Trajan's victory in the Dacian Wars. It was probably constructed under the supervision of the architect Apollodorus of Damascus at the order of the Roman Senate. It is located in Trajan's Forum, north of the Roman Forum. Completed in AD 113, the freestanding column is most famous for its spiral bas relief, which depicts the wars between the Romans and Dacians (101–102 and 105–106). Its design has inspired numerous victory columns, both ancient and modern. The structure is about 30 metres (98 feet) in height, 35 metres (115 feet) including its large pedestal. The shaft is made from a series of 20 colossal Carrara marble drums, each weighing about 32 tons, with a diameter of 3.7 metres (12.1 feet). The 190-metre (620-foot) frieze winds around the shaft 23 times. Inside the shaft, a spiral staircase of 185 steps provides access to a viewing deck at the top. The capital block of Trajan's Column weighs 53.3 tons, and had to be lifted to a height of about 34 metres (112 feet).Ancient coins indicate preliminary plans to top the column with a statue of a bird, probably an eagle. After construction, a statue of Trajan was put in place; this disappeared in the Middle Ages. On December 4, 1587, the top was crowned with a bronze figure of Saint Peter the Apostle by Pope Sixtus V, which remains to this day.Trajan's Column was originally flanked by two sections of the Ulpian Library, a Greek chamber and a Latin chamber, which faced each other and had walls lined with niches and wooden bookcases for scrolls. The Latin chamber likely contained Trajan's commentary on the Roman-Dacian Wars, the Dacica, which most scholars agree was intended to be echoed in the spiralling, sculpted narrative design of Trajan's Column.

The Church of the Most Holy Name of Mary at the Trajan Forum (Italian: Santissimo Nome di Maria al Foro Traiano, Latin: Ss. Nominis Mariae ad forum Traiani) is a Roman Catholic church in Rome, Italy. This church should not be confused with the church Santissimo Nome di Maria in Via Latina in south-east Rome. The pale marble church stands in front of the Column of Trajan, a few dozen steps from the similarly domed, but externally more colorful, church of Santa Maria di Loreto. The feast of the Holy Name of Mary was instituted by Pope Innocent XI after the victory of the Austrian-Polish armies under the command of John III Sobieski over the Turks at the Battle of Vienna in 1683. Abbot Giuseppe Bianchi instituted devotion to the most holy name of Mary in 1685 at Santo Stefano del Cacco, and soon afterwards established the Congregation of the Most Holy Name of Mary, which was formally approved in 1688.

The Saint Susanna is a marble sculpture by François Duquesnoy. The work is one of four sculptures of Roman virgin martyrs commissioned by the Bakers' Guild to decorate the church of Santa Maria di Loreto in Rome. It was completed in the course of four years from 1629 to 1633. Giovanni Pietro Bellori, comparing Duquesnoy's achievement with the Saint Susanna to that of Polyclitus with his Doryphoros and its Kanon, commented [Duquesnoy has] left to modern sculptors the example for statues of clothed figures, making him more than the equal of the best ancient sculptor. The statue is considered by modern scholars an exemplification of Duquesnoy's 'Greek ideal,' which included an approach to drapery unpopular at the time, established through the study of antique models selected by Duquesnoy.Duquesnoy's maniera greca would later influence Johann Joachim Winckelmann, and through him the Neoclassicism movement. Jacob Burckhardt regarded the sculpture as "the best statue of the 17th century." With its clinging drapery juxtaposed to her modest gaze and clothing, Duquesnoy's Santa Susanna was considered by contemporaries an "admixture of eroticism and modesty." The figure follows the concept whereby "the drapery should not be so thick as to make it appear like stone, but must be arranged around the body in folds, so that the nude underneath is sometimes discernible but sometimes artfully concealed without any hardness which can obscure the members of the figure." Such approach was at odds with the spectrum of contemporary sculpture, specifically Bernini's expressive use of heavy, billowing drapery. Duquesnoy's St. Susanna doesn't look upwards to heaven, but down at humanity, with her hand pointing down to the altar. This, too, was at odds with Bernini's exuberance and mystification of naturalness and humanity.The Santa Susanna made a powerful impression on contemporary artists and critics, provoking "admiration as well as critical debate over its style and relation to the antique." However, the sculpture did not become widely recognized outside Rome until 18th century. In the early 18th century, Domenico de Rossi's engraving of the statue helped to initially increase its celebrity, which was consolidated internationally when a copy by Coustou was completed and sent to the Paris' academy at the Louvre in 1739.

Santa Maria di Loreto is a 16th-century church in Rome, central Italy, located just across the street from the Trajan's Column, near the giant Monument of Vittorio Emanuele II.

The Temple of Trajan was a Roman temple dedicated to the emperor Trajan and his wife Plotina after his deification by the Roman Senate. It was built in the Forum of Trajan (Rome), by Trajan's adoptive son and successor Hadrian, between 125 and 138. The architect was Apollodorus of Damascus. The temple was destroyed in the Middle Ages.

Palazzo Valentini is a palazzo in central Rome, Italy, not far from Piazza Venezia. Since 1873 it has been the base of the provincial and prefectural administration of Rome.

Trajan's Forum (Latin: Forum Traiani; Italian: Foro di Traiano) was the last of the Imperial fora to be constructed in ancient Rome. The architect Apollodorus of Damascus oversaw its construction.

The Temple of Venus Genetrix (Latin: Templum Veneris Genetricis) is a ruined temple in the Forum of Caesar, Rome, dedicated to the Roman goddess Venus Genetrix, the founding goddess of the Julian gens. It was dedicated to the goddess on September 26, 46 BCE by Julius Caesar.

The Basilica Argentaria is a portico with pillars lining the Temple of Venus Genetrix in the Forum of Caesar in Rome (Italy). The name only appears in late sources of the age of Constantine. The building was erected under Trajan, with the purpose of adapting the slopes of the Capitoline Hill after the removal of the gap between it and the Quirinal Hill. It was higher than the level of the square and the access was through two staircases on the south-west end of the portico. The portico had two rows of pillars made of tuff stones and its naves were covered with barrel vaults, partially preserved. As the basilica rose in an obligated space, it has an irregular drawing, turning round the temple and probably continuing out of the present archaeological area, close to the south-west exedra of the Trajan's Forum. The plaster covering the back wall of the building, still preserved, displays several graffiti, some of which quote lines of the Aeneid: this detail makes possible that the basilica housed a school, mentioned by late sources about the Trajan's Forum and the Forum of Augustus.

The Imperial fora (Fori Imperiali in Italian) are a series of monumental fora (public squares), constructed in Rome over a period of one and a half centuries, between 46 BC and 113 AD. The fora were the center of the Roman Republic and of the Roman Empire. The Imperial fora, while not part of the Roman Forum, are located relatively close to each other. Julius Caesar was the first to build in this section of Rome and rearranged both the Forum and the Comitium, another forum type space designated for politics, to do so. These fora were the centres of politics, religion and economy in the ancient Roman Empire. During the early 20th century, Mussolini restored the Imperial Fora as part of his campaign to evoke and emulate the past glories of Ancient Rome. But he also built the Via dei Fori Imperiali across the middle of the site. The modern street and its heavy traffic has proved a source of damage to the buildings because of vibration and pollution. There have been a number of proposals to remove the road, but none have taken effect.