
84 ARCHITECTURE. 
beautiful remains of the various orders, among others the fine Doric order _ 
of which jig. 4 shows the capital, and which, to all appearance, served 
Vignola afterwards as the type of his Roman Doric style. We shall return 
to this order. | 
9. Nerva. After the long peaceful reign of Augustus which was so foster- 
ing to the development of art, the palmiest art-days of the Roman empire 
were those which fell in the reigns of Nerva to Commodus, the unworthy 
son of Marcus Aurelius, that is from the year 96 to 180 of the Christian 
era; and art took in this time its highest sweep, to fall so much the more 
quickly. Nerva was too old when he ascended the throne, and reigned too 
short a time to complete any important edifices, and we have already 
spoken of the completion and dedication of the Forum begun by Domitian. 
10. Trasan. Although no buildings illustrated the first years of Trajan’s 
reign, yet they increased afterwards so rapidly that Constantine the Great 
was accustomed to call Trajan the wall plant (Herba parietaria), because his 
name was so universally engraved upon the buildings he had erected. 
Trajan’s first great work was the enlargement of the Circus Maximus, which 
then held 260,000 spectators, but afterwards, according to Publius Victor, 
could contain 385,000 people. Trajan wished that the Roman people should 
have place in the circus, and he extended the circus, which was then 41 
stadia (2300 paces) long, that he might increase the number of seats. 
Other important buildings were the Baths and the Odeon, of which 
Apollodorus was the architect. New temples and halls were not built in 
his reign, and his works of this kind were limited to restorations. 
Trajan’s greatest work in the city was the forum, named from him, a work 
which has always excited universal wonder. The great triumphal column 
erected to the emperor by the senate and the people, yet remains, and 
recently the ground around it has been excavated, and a great number of 
granite pillars as well as fragments of statuary and architectural details have 
been brought to light, and again erected upon their old sites. But in 
this excavation the whole extent of the old forum has not been revealed, and 
remains still undetermined. In order to obtain the requisite space, Trajan 
had a part of the Quirinal hill removed and the space levelled as deep as 
the height of the column in the middle of the forum. The buildings which 
adorned this forum, were the column in its midst, the Basilica Ulpia, the 
Libraries, the Triumphal Arches, the Temple of Trajan, and the Colonnades 
leading directly across the place. 
Like all the Roman forums, it was a long quadrangle. The column is a 
magnificent relic of Roman greatness. Pl. 18, figs. 24 to 30, are devoted 
to its representation; jig. 24 gives the general view, jig. 28 is the bronze 
statue of the emperor, which stood upon the summit, where now that of the 
Apostle Peter stands (23 feet in height); fig. 25, is the section of the column 
with the staircase; jig. 26, is a horizontal section through the founda- 
tion; jig. 27, the same through the shaft; fig. 29, is a Roman coin, upon 
which the column is represented; jig. 30, a perspective view with Trajan’s 
Temple to the right. Including base and capital the column is 92 
feet high, the substructure on which it rests is 17 feet. high, and the round 
84 
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