The art of building a masterpiece:
Trajan's Column

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Rome, 107 C.E. The campaign in Dacia (modern Romania) has just ended. In Rome, construction work begins on Trajan’s Forum, the site that will celebrate the emperor who conquered the region and annexed it to the Empire. Two thousand nautical miles to the north, quarry workers are busy in the Apuan Alps, the marble mountains above Carrara. They are extracting the blocks to be used for erecting a monument that will stand out for its unique and innovative design in the art and architecture of its time: an ornamented helical column dedicated to Trajan and his conquest...