Roman Military Standards: Trajan’s Column

Roman military standards (signa) are depicted regularly on the Column with careful attention to detail.

EXAMPLES:

The numbers below each of the images refer to the Cichorius Scene numbers.  This set shows standards as seen in the episodes connected with the First Dacian War.

Scene 8/VIII: three signa with horizontal wreaths (coronae), town/fortress walls with gates, eagles and portraits (imagines) at the center of circular frames (some of which are shields).

Scene 33/XXXIII: two signa with horizontal and vertical coronae, portraits (imagines) in circular frames, topped by rectangular shields.

Scene 51/LI: two signa similar in appearance to Scene VIII, including the walls and gates.

Scene 77/LXXVII: libation dishes (paterae) placed vertically, topped by open hands (manus) framed by wreaths.  The appearance of the hand “is now generally taken to be a relic of the days when the ‘maniple’ was the tactical subdivision of a legion, though this had long been replaced by a system of cohorts and centuries, each century being about half the strength of the old ‘maniple’ (Lepper/Frere 1988: 98). Among the standards, second from the left, is an eagle (aquila) standard.

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