Today we walked to Trajan’s Column, and to the Pantheon for our presentations. Again there was the threat of rain but luckily (unlike our trip to the Forum) it never really evolved into an actual downpour. We assembled at a vantage point from which we could see the Forum, Markets, and Column of Trajan, and Cami gave us an introduction to Trajan’s life and deeds. Trajan was a military leader even before he became emperor, and this skill as a general shaped his reign. Namely, he lead the conquests of Dacia, from which he acquired the spoils to build this grand structure; the biggest of the Fora. Many, however, had mixed feelings about his conquests and a major role of the forum was to legitimize this war. He did this in many cases by downplaying the violent element of war and concentrating on the more peaceful elements such as building projects, victory sacrifice, etc. This can be seen in the scenes chosen for his column. By far (in my opinion) the most important message of the forum and column, which can be evidenced by the carvings on the column base, is that the empire became opulent from the spoils of this Dacian war. My favorite scene though, is the depiction of the Roman "testudo" or turtle formation, used in warfare.
Many costly materials were used in the building of the forum, and the grand scale itself draws attention to this. In addition to the column, the forum contained the Basilica Ulpia (a large law court that was given his family name), libraries, and most importantly, the Markets of Trajan. This market was essentially the first shopping mall. It was a grand structure containing stalls for everything from groceries to exotic and expensive wares. A building like this would have been a great gift to the people, reinforcing again that the wars in Dacia were ultimately beneficial to the populus.
After discussing these buildings of Trajan, we walked to the Pantheon. On the way, Lisa treated us to coffee at Tazza d’oro, arguably one of the best coffee shops in Rome. I have to say that my macchiato was excellent and the service was very good, especially considering that we were a relative stampede of people.
Alex presented the Pantheon to us; a stunning monument that is made even more amazing by the fact that it is still standing. This can be attributed to its appropriation as a Christian church. The original Pantheon was built by Marcus Agrippa during the reign of Augustus but the building that stands today was built much later by Hadrian and is completely different architecturally. The original structure was a traditional temple in form, but was struck by lightening and destroyed enough times over the years that people began to think the monument displeasing to the gods. When Hadrian built (and designed) his version, it had a completely different orientation, design, and function. The function of the new building is not completely known but because it does not follow a typical temple form, many believe that it was more of an audience hall from which Hadrian could orate or dispense justice.
Architecturally the building is miraculous. It has a solid concrete dome that was not surpassed in size until quite recently. Many theories have evolved about how this was actually done, but historians do believe that great wooden scaffolding was used in some manner to help in the casting of the dome.
Hadrian, was a follower of astrology, divination, and philosophy, especially that of the Pythagoreans. Because of his interest in these fields, the Pantheon is wrought with number symbolism that reflects ideas of celestial order. By counting architectural elements in the dome, rotunda, and porch, one finds representations of the sun, moon, marriage, justice, and a myriad of other elements. Even if one does not understand these mystical codes, the building itself is a marvel to behold. One needs only to watch the progression of sunlight that streams in from the oculus onto and around the dome above, to feel the grandeur and magnificence of roman imperial architecture.
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