FRIEZE FRAGMENT, 107-110 CE. PASSAGE UNDER VIA DEI FORI IMPERIALI We don't know very clearly from what part of the Basilica Ulpia this came from, but it seems likely to have once formed part of the façade of this huge enclosed public space, part law court, part piazza, built by Trajan and given his family name. Discovered as recently as 2007, it shows a delicate vegetal motif similar to a stylised acanthus. (We're probably looking at it upside down.) This massive monumental structure probably continued to play a role in Roman public life until it was destroyed by one of the earthquakes of the C9. After that, it was fair game for the scavatori, the marble-diggers, who broke up the remnants and put them in the lime kilns.

A belated #ReliefWednesday extra offering: in the labyrinth of surviving basements that form a passage for pedestrians under via dei #ForiImperiali in #Rome, a curlicued fragment of a #frieze from the #BasilicaUlpia, 107-110 CE. #AncientBluesky 🏺