Continuing towards Piazza Venezia, let us cross towards Trajan's Forum, of which there are very sizable remains but which do not give anything near the idea of what this, the greatest of the Imperial Forums, once was. Fortunately, the admirable column has survived almost perfectly intact, as it is one of the most significant of Roman monuments. Erected in 113 B.C. to celebrate the conquest of Dacia by Marcus Ulpius Trajan between 101 and 107 B.C., the column of solid marble from Paros is 30 metres high (excluding its base) and has a diameter of 3.5 meters at its fust. The frieze running up to the top is 200 metres long and about a meter high, with 2500 figures in 150 episodes. The base holds within it a golden urn with the ashes of Trajan, and at its summit was a solid gold statue of the Emperor. It has been rightly observed that the frieze running around it much resembles a film to be projected with a modern cinema projector. But unfortunately the human eye cannot follow the unraveling of this ancient film sculpted in marble (and not captured on celluloid) nor can it appreciate the infinite beauty of such a large number of sculptures especially since today the column is deprived of its original colours which brought out the individual figures. Only in 1940 were direct photographs taken to reveal the intimate beauty of these marvellous sculptures which for their power of expression and nobility of concept can be considered inferior only to those of the Parthenon. Aside from the column, remains of the Trajan Forum include the Basilica Ulpia, an immense structure of 5 naves and two great porticos covered with precious marble, and the Trajan Markets, a grandiose construction of porticos on several stories with numerous shops nearly perfectly conserved. During the medieval period, two mullioned windows were added which together with the tower above (another medieval addition) render the whole ensemble even more picturesque. There is, however, no other trace of the grandiose forum which was dominated by the equestrian statue of Trajan, and which two centuries later stupefied Constance II. Nor is there any remains of the great temple of precious marble raised in honour of Trajan's adoptive parents, aside from the Basilica Ulpia, nor of the two libraries (one Greek, the other Latin), from atop which it was possible to admire the stupendous sculptures of the column. A Roman stairway separates the Trajan Forum from the Augustan Forum, and it is dominated by a loggia in the Palazzo of the Knights of Rhodes. In the background is a medieval tower, the Tower of the Cricket. Nowhere else are Roman grandeur and medieval art so admirably combined. And if the 15th century loggia above the Trajan Forum is graceful, even more impressive is the medieval construction above the Augustan Forum, for the contrast of airy lightness and refined elegance of the balcony and the pointed arched windows with the colossal structures of powerful Roman construction.