The Connecticut labor press., 1919-11-08

TaHERE is a movement in Kan
sas City for the erection Of a
memorial to the American
soldiers who took part in the
world war, in the form of some monu-
vocates, says the Kansas City Star,
will find a historic precedent worthy
of study and pregnant with sugges-
ton in the famous Trajan's column at
Rome, which remains today after eight
cen centuries one of the worlds me-
mortal wonders. In its original setting
it was but part of a magnificent sys-
tenn of public buildings-two libraries,
the Basilica Ulpia and the temple Of
Trajan-which composed the forum
erected by the Roman emperor Trajan
to commemorate his reign and to en-
blazon his victories for posterity. The
designer of the great forum of Trajan
was Appo1odorus, the Greek architect.
The name Of the artist under whose
inspired hand the column grew from
base to capital and who recorded in its
stones the martial deeds Of his i'm
perial master has been forgotten. That
he was Roman, however, is attested
by the fact that the column itself is
distinctively Roman In it's design and
in it's inspiration. Today, of all. the
splendid buildings and monuments that
composed the forum of Trajan but one
remains intact, the great column which
tells the story Of Trajan's achieve
ments.
1t was after his return from the Da-
clan wars that Trajan, in 113 A. D.,
caused to be erected in the midst of
the forum he had built this column,
which was designed not only to per-
petuate the memory Of his Dacian vic
tories, but also to afford a repository
for his ashes. which were placed in
golden urn in a chamber under the
column. Surviving eighteen centuries
Of wars and the corroding touch of
time and Of "broils that root out the
work Of masonry" the column of
Trajan is today one of the most beau
tiful Of Roman works of art and
document in stone Of priceless value
to the historian.
Is Of Greeian Marble.
The ancient name of this famous
column was the Columna Colchis, so
called from its winding stairs like the
spiral Of a shell, by which ascent was
made from pedestal to top. It is built
of huge blocks Of Greek marble. The
shaft, base and capital, not counting
the pedestal, which measured eighteen
feet in height, are exactly 100 Roman
feet high (ninety-seven and a half
modern English). In diameter the
shaft measures twelve feet at the bot
tom, tapering gently to about ten feet
under the capital. On the top Of the
capital, in it's original form, stood a
colossal gilt bronze statue of the en-
peror. nearly twenty feet high, hold
ing an orb in one hand and a spear
in the other. This statue was stolen
and carried away during one Of the
inroads Of the Byzantine emperors in
the fifth century, and was replaced In
the sixteenth century by the statue Of
St. Peter, which now surmountS the
column.
The tall pedestal on which the col
umn is built is richly decorated with
reliefs of armor and trophies taken
from the Dacians. On one side Is q
tablet carried by two figures Of Vic
tory and upon it Is the dedicatory in
scription. At each angle above the
cornice Of the pedestal is an eagle sup
porting a garland of flowers. Imme-
diately beneath the tablet is the door
way to the spiral staircase, lighted by
forty-two small openings. The wind
ing stairs consist of 1874 steps around
a central newell, all Of solid marble.
AS beautiful work of sculptured
beauty as is the pedestal itself, the
part of the column which most moves
the modern beholder to wonder and
establishment is the shaft, which,
standing on the tomb Of the emperor,
rises with it's mass of relief wrought
figures a hundred feet in the air. It
is formed of twenty-three drums of
marble, arranged in spiral bands of
reliefs, which climb the column to the
feet of the statue of the emperor which
formerly stood upon it's capital.
Wrought into these stones are more
than $500 figures, besides a great num-
Der Of background accessories, worked
out with great mfnuteness of detail,
the figures varying in height from
three feet at the bottom to nearly four
feet at the top. The sculptures repre-
sent the complete history of Trajan's
two Dacian campaigns, upon which
his military renown rests, and the
story is told in stone as a historian
might tell it by the written word