It is the Ides of March, the day Julius Caesar was assassinated, and what a better day than to post my recreation of one of the largest and greatest structures made by arguably the greatest Roman emperor who ever lived... This is the Forum of Trajan.

The Forum of Trajan was the largest and last forum built in the Imperial Fora complex in Rome, which bordered the famous Roman Forum and rested under the Capitoline Hill. The forum was commissioned by the Emperor Trajan and designed by Apollodorus of Damascus, who also designed the famous Markets of Trajan and Baths of Trajan. Opened in 112 AD, the Forum of Trajan marked what many architects and historians consider the beginning of the shift from traditional to baroque Roman architecture as Apollodorus pushed the boundaries of what was possible for Romans.

The Forum of Trajan was simply massive -- both Trajan and Apollodorus took the expression "bigger is best" to heart when designing this structure. It was so large to the point where a part of the Quirinal Hill -- another one of the seven hills of Rome -- had to be removed in order to make space. The Forum of Trajan was unlike any of the other four fora in the complex: it had a basilica, libraries, and the largest forum courtyard. In addition, after Trajan died in 117 AD, a temple was dedicated to him and connected to the forum on the opposite side of the basilica -- called the Temple to the Divine Trajan. All parts of the forum are in this recreation, including the Temple to the Divine Trajan.

In order to account for extra detail, this recreation is in a 2:1 scale. However, taking into account the in-game visual effects of first-person perspective, it will feel like the forum is to a perfect 1:1 scale. In other words, the size of the forum will not take away the experience of feeling like you have been transported back in time.

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In total, the Forum of Trajan took 22 days to make -- this includes time spent building and researching. I wanted to make this as accurate of an interpretation as possible in a 2:1 scale, and I had to conduct extensive research on the structure given the significant amount of varied renderings and existing interpretations online.

I'd first like to thank all of the support I've received along this build journey. I've kept a few minecraft community discords updated on my progress, and after each update, I was bombarded with positive comments and sometimes very helpful feedback. I'd like to especially thank the Agora minecraft discord and Trydar himself for all of their support. I'd also like to thank the Builder's Hub discord for their support and feedback along the way.