TIMGADIn 100 CE, Trajan founded a new colony for army veter-
ans at Timgad, ancient Thamugadi (FIG. 10-42), in what is today
Algeria. Like other colonies, Timgad became the physical embodi-
ment of Roman authority and civilization for the local population
and served as a key to the Romanization of the provinces. The town
was planned with great precision, its design resembling that of a
Roman military encampment or castrum.(Scholars still debate
which came first. The castrum may have been based on the layout of
Roman colonies.) Unlike the sprawling unplanned cities of Rome
and Pompeii, Timgad is a square divided into equal quarters by its
two main streets, the cardo and the decumanus. They cross at right
angles and are bordered by colonnades. Monumental gates once
marked the ends of the two avenues. The forum is located at the
point where the streets intersect. The quarters are subdivided into
square blocks, and the forum and public buildings, such as the the-
ater and baths, occupy areas sized as multiples of these blocks. The
Roman plan is a modification of the Hippodamian plan of Greek
cities (FIG. 5-76), though more rigidly ordered.
The fact that most of these colonial settlements were laid out in
the same manner, regardless of whether they were in North Africa,
Mesopotamia, or England, expresses concretely the unity and cen-
tralized power of the Roman Empire at its height. But even the Ro-
mans could not regulate human behavior completely. As the aerial
view reveals, when the population of Timgad grew sevenfold and
burst through the Trajanic colony’s walls, rational planning was
ignored, and the city and its streets branched out haphazardly.
FORUM OF TRAJANTrajan completed several major build-
ing projects in Rome, including the remodeling of the Circus Max-
imus (FIG. 10-2,no. 2), Rome’s giant chariot-racing stadium, and the
construction of a vast new bathing complex near the Colosseum
constructed on top of Nero’s Golden House. His most important
undertaking, however, was a huge new forum (FIGS. 10-2,no. 7, and
10-43), roughly twice the size of the century-old Forum of Augus-
tus (FIG. 10-2,no. 10)—even excluding the enormous market com-
plex next to the forum. The new forum glorified Trajan’s victories in
his two wars against the Dacians (who lived in what is now Roma-
nia) and was paid for with the spoils of those campaigns. The archi-10-42Aerial view of Timgad (Thamugadi), Algeria, founded 100 ce.
Timgad, like other new Roman colonies, was planned with great
precision. Its strict grid scheme features two main thoroughfares,
the cardo and the decumanus, with the forum at their intersection.1332456
10-43Apollodorus of Damascus,
Forum of Trajan, Rome, Italy, dedicated
112 ce(James E. Packer and John Burge).
(1) Temple of Trajan, (2) Column of Trajan,
(3) libraries, (4) Basilica Ulpia, (5) forum,
(6) equestrian statue of Trajan.
With the spoils from two Dacian wars, Trajan built
Rome’s largest forum. It featured an equestrian statue of the emperor,
statues of Dacian captives, two libraries, and a basilica with clerestory lighting.264 Chapter 10 THE ROMAN EMPIRE