Dido, Queen of Carthage

Colonne Trajane, Rome

Scenes from the Roman Arch of Trajan, Benevento, ca. 114-117 AD.

Photos courtesy of Roger Ulrich.

Trajan’s Kiosk of the Philae Temple Complex on Agilika Island as seen from the Nile River, Egypt

Eugène Delacroix - The Justice of Trajan

Ancient Roman Art - Column of Trajan, 113 AD 

ancientromebuildings: Tabula Traiana is an inscription carved in the rock commemorating the completion of Trajan’s military road along the Danube. (Serbia / Romania border)

IMP. CAESAR. DIVI. NERVAE. F NERVA TRAIANVS. AVG. GERM PONTIF MAXIMUS TRIB POT IIII PATER PATRIAE COS III MONTIBVS EXCISI(s) ANCO(ni)BVS SVBLAT(i)S VIA(m) F(ecit)

Imperor Caesar son of the divine Nerva, Nerva Trajan, the Augustus, Germanicus, Pontifex Maximus, invested for the fourth time as Tribune, Father of the Fatherland, Consul for the third time, excavating mountain rocks and using wood beams has made this road.

Temple of Jupiter in the snow, Baalbek, Lebanon

Baalbeck is in the Beqaa Valley of Lebanon. Known as Heliopolis during the period of Roman rule, it was one of the largest sanctuaries in the empire and contains some of the best preserved Roman ruins in Lebanon. The history of settlement in the area of Baalbeck dates back about 9,000 years, with almost continual settlement of the tell under the Temple of Jupiter, which was a temple since the pre-Hellenistic era. After Alexander the Great conquered the Near East in 334 BC, the existing settlement was named Heliopolis from helios, Greek for sun, and polis, Greek for city. The city retained its religious function during Greco-Roman times, when the sanctuary of the Heliopolitan Jupiter-Baal was a pilgrimage site. Trajan’s biographer records that the emperor consulted the oracle there. Trajan inquired of the Heliopolitan Jupiter whether he would return alive from his wars against the Parthians. In reply, the god presented him with a vine shoot cut into pieces. Starting in the last quarter of the 1st century BC (reign of Augustus) and over a period of two centuries (reign of Philip the Arab), the Romans had built a temple complex in Baalbeck consisting of three temples: Jupiter, Bacchus and Venus. On a nearby hill, they built a fourth temple dedicated to Mercury.

Italica, Spain

The city of  Italica, north of modern day Santiponce was founded in 206 BC by the Roman general Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus in order to settle Roman soldiers wounded in the Battle of Ilipa, where the Carthaginian army was defeated during the Second Punic War.

Italica was the birthplace of the Roman emperor Trajan. Hadrian was generous to his settled town, which he made a colonia; he added temples, including a Trajaneum venerating Trajan, and rebuilt public buildings. Italica’s amphitheater seated 25,000 spectators—half as many as the Flavian Amphitheatre in Rome— and was the third largest in the Roman Empire.

A shift of the Guadalquivir River bed, probably due to siltation— a widespread problem in antiquity that followed removal of the forest cover—left Italica isolated, high and dry. The city started to dwindle as early as the 3rd century. Later Seville grew nearby, and no modern city covered most of Italica’s foundations. The result is an unusually well-preserved Roman city of Hispania Baetica, and unexpected riches in the Museo Arqueologico of Seville, with its famous marble colossus of Trajan. In Italica, cobbled Roman streets are visible, and mosaic floors still in situ. The excavation of Italica began in 1781 and continues.

Julius Caesar dedicated the Temple of Venus Genetrix in Rome on this day in 46 BCE. Caesar traced his ancestry to Aeneas, son of the Roman goddess of love and beauty. In dedicating the temple to Venus Genetrix, Caesar drew attention to her role as mother. Typical of Roman temples, the sanctuary was raised on a high podium and held a cult statue of Venus as well as portrait statues of Caesar himself. The original temple was destroyed by fire in 80 CE and was rebuilt by Emperor Domitian and restored by Trajan. Three columns survive from the second temple.

Temple of Venus Genetrix, rebuilt by Trajan 113 CE, Rome

Plan of Imperial Fora, Rome

Silver denarius of Julius Caesar, reverse: Aeneas carrying palladium and his father Anchises, 47-46 BCE. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Rogers Fund, 1908.170.80

Pergamon - Temple of Trajan

The Temple of Trajan was a 2nd century temple in Corinthian order, dedicated to Trajan, built by his successor Hadrian. Both emperors were worshipped there. The temple was built of marble, probably on the site of a previous Hellenistic building.

In ancient times, Pergamon was in Aeolis, an area that comprised the west and northwestern region of Asia Minor. Today it is located 16 miles from the Aegean Sea near Bergama, Turkey.

by nisudapi on Flickr.

Arch of Trajan

114-117 AD 

Benevento, Italy