This is where you begin — the Forum of Trajan, the last and greatest of Rome's imperial forums.
Built between AD 107 and 112, it was commissioned by Emperor Trajan to celebrate his conquest of Dacia — modern-day Romania.
At the time of its completion, it was considered one of the wonders of the world.
The complex was enormous: a vast colonnaded square, a great basilica, two libraries, a temple, and at its heart, Trajan's Column.
The architect was Apollodorus of Damascus — the greatest engineer of his age, who had also designed the bridge Trajan used to cross the Danube into Dacia.
The forum was paid for entirely with the spoils of the Dacian wars.
Trajan's Column is the ancient world's greatest comic strip.
This 30-metre marble column tells the story of Trajan's military campaigns in a continuous spiral narrative that wraps around it 23 times.
There are 2,662 individual figures carved into the marble.
You can see Roman soldiers building camps, crossing rivers, negotiating with enemies, and fighting pitched battles.
It was imperial propaganda carved in stone — made to last forever.
It has.
To your right, carved into the Quirinal Hill, is Trajan's Market — a multi-storey complex of shops and offices sometimes called the world's first shopping centre.
The figure on top of the column is not Trajan — the original statue was replaced in 1587 by Pope Sixtus V with a figure of Saint Peter.
Trajan's ashes were kept in a golden urn inside the column's base.
Fun fact: the column records exactly how much of the Quirinal Hill had to be cut away to create this flat space.
The inscription reads: 'to show how high a hill and place has been removed for these great works.'
Inside the column is a spiral staircase of 185 steps, lit by 43 tiny windows — you can no longer go in, but it's there.
