Apollodorus of Damascus
Damascene architect and engineer, chief architect of Emperor Trajan
An architect from Damascus who built Trajan's Forum and a Danube bridge among Rome's greatest engineering feats.
Apollodorus was born in Damascus around the mid-first century CE; little is known of his early life. He distinguished himself as an engineer and architect at the court of Emperor Trajan (98–117 CE), becoming one of his closest advisers on building matters.
His most famous work is Trajan's Bridge over the Danube (103–105 CE), built to carry Roman armies into Dacia; it stretched for over a kilometre on twenty stone piers and is counted among the greatest feats of Roman engineering. In Rome he designed Trajan's Forum, the Basilica Ulpia, and the adjoining Markets; the design of Trajan's Column is usually attributed to him, and the sources mention triumphal arches at Benevento and Ancona.
He also wrote a treatise on siege engines (the Poliorcetica), excerpts of which survive. The Roman historian Cassius Dio recounts that Apollodorus bluntly criticised Emperor Hadrian's architectural designs, and was banished and then executed around 130 CE; some modern scholars, however, question the accuracy of this story or its motives.
Apollodorus remains the clearest example of the contribution of Syrian engineers to Rome's monumental architecture; the standards he set in design and construction left a mark on Western architecture for centuries.
“Be off, and draw your gourds. You don't understand any of these matters. — as quoted by Cassius Dio, addressing Hadrian”
