View of the Remains of the Dining Room of Nero's Golden House, commonly called the Temple of Peace

Today’s visitors to the Roman Forum can still see remnants of this looming edifice. Piranesi thought the space was the dining room of the fabled Golden House of Emperor Nero. But in fact it was the remains of a later project, an enormous basilica begun in 306 CE under Emperor Maxentius and completed under Constantine six years later. At the time, the basilica—a large public hall rather than a Christian church—was the largest building in Rome. Far in the distance, at the right, we can glimpse the Colosseum.