Trajan's Column in Rome Trajan's Column in Rome
The history, archaeology and iconography of the monument
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Images of Trajan in Situ (SE)

Representations of Trajan on the southeast side of Trajan’s Column in Rome.

 

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Scene 1/I: Sentries stand alongside signal towers on the Roman side of the Danube at the beginning of the Dacian War in 101 CE. A composite image from the Column in situ. The waves of the river flow below the feet of the soldiers. Woodpiles and haystacks are ready to provide light and smoke for signaling. The window on the left corresponds to the NE axis of the Column. RBU2013.2077-2080 Scene 25/XXV: The burning of a Dacian town. Note the planked houses built on piles in the foreground (left), and the sharpened sticks in pits used as traps (lilia) against Roman attackers. Skulls on poles lining the fortifications allude to Dacian atrocities against the Romans. A Dacian "draco" standard flies prominently in the background. The actual relief in situ. Scene 26 begins to the right of the trees. Ref: RBU2013.2046 Scene 61/LXI: Trajan, surrounded by four senior officers (the two behind him wear helmets) receives a Dacian nobleman outside the walls of a Roman fort. Coarelli suggests that the two bare-headed officers are meant to represent Licinius Sura and the Praetorian Prefect Claudius Livianus (2000: 106). From cast 147, now in the Museo della Civiltà Romana, Rome. Compare Cichorius Pl. XLII, scene 61 and Coarelli Pl. 62. RBU2011.7136. Scene 90/XC: Trajan, at the head of a group of horsemen, arrives in Dacian territory that has been "pacified." He rides at the lead, focus achieved by placing his head against a plain background. Dacian men and their children reach out to him with gestures of welcome. From the Column in situ. Compare Cichorius Pl. LXV scene 90 and Coarelli Pl. 105. RBU2013.3811. Scene 137/CXXXVII: Adlocutio Scene. Trajan, standing on a tribunal, addresses his troops; a walled Dacian town, protected by a gate and tower, forms the backdrop. From casts 364-365, now in the Museo della Civiltà Romana, Rome. Compare Cichorius Pl. C, scene 137 and Coarelli Pl. 163. Ref: RBU2011.8271-137. Parallel (left, right) stereograph of the casts of the sculpted drums from the Column of Trajan in Rome (Museo della Civiltà Romana). Museo della Civiltà Romana, EUR, Rome. RBU2012.1000106-p The visibility of Trajan's Column from distances today would have been impossible in antiquity when the Column was enclosed in a courtyard situated on the northwest side of the Basilica Ulpia. Ref: RBU1997.239 On the Column of Trajan, from left to right (profile top and side/three-quarter view bottom). 1. (Left, top and bottom): A seated Trajan greets and rewards auxiliaries (Scene 44). Compare Cichorius Pl. XXXIV and Coarelli Pl. 48. 2. (Middle, top and bottom): Trajan is petitioned by Dacians (Scene 46). Compare Cichorius Pl. XXXV and Coarelli Pl. 49. 3. (Right, top and bottom): Trajan receives a group of legionaries at a mountain fortress (Scene 50). Compare Cichorius Pl. XXXVI and Coarelli Pl. 52. Images from casts in the Museo della Civiltà Romana. (Photos by Ulrich; Image Grid by Z. Mei). A view of the southeast side of the pedestal of the Column of Trajan. A pair of winged victories appear to support the dedicatory inscription over the door. In the middle zone captured arms are represented in low relief. RBU2013.2097 Scene 62: Soldiers and a tholos-type structure in the mountains. Compare Cichorius Plate XLIII. From the original publication of 1865; Ref: F-D-62det.

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