page_title: Trajan's Column
section_title: Purpose
hierarchical_section_title: Trajan's Column / Purpose
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Traianssäule um 1896 English: Trajan's Column circa 1896
context_page_description: Trajan's Column is a Roman triumphal column in Rome, Italy, that commemorates Roman emperor Trajan's victory in the Dacian Wars. It was probably constructed under the supervision of the architect Apollodorus of Damascus at the order of the Roman Senate. It is located in Trajan's Forum, built near the Quirinal Hill, north of the Roman Forum. Completed in AD 113, the freestanding column is most famous for its spiral bas relief, which artistically represents the wars between the Romans and Dacians. Its design has inspired numerous victory columns, both ancient and modern.
  The structure is about 30 metres in height, 35 metres including its large pedestal. The shaft is made from a series of 20 colossal Carrara marble drums, each weighing about 32 tons, with a diameter of 3.7 metres. The 190-metre frieze winds around the shaft 23 times. Inside the shaft, a spiral staircase of 185 steps provides access to a viewing platform at the top. The capital block of Trajan's Column weighs 53.3 tons, which had to be lifted to a height of c. 34 metres.
context_section_description: It is unclear whether the Column was meant to serve a commemorative function or as a propaganda piece. Traditional scholarship held that the Column was a glorifying monument, upholding Trajan as Rome's great emperor. However, recent reconstructions of Trajan's Forum have determined that any wide view of the Column would have been mostly obstructed by two libraries in the Forum which tightly bookended it. Also, because it would have been difficult to follow the spiral frieze from end to end (walking in circles with head inclined), the Column's narrative power would have been fairly limited.
  On the other hand, as French archaeologist Paul Veyne notes, the relief could be read "vertically" from below, with the figure of the emperor recognizable across the bands of images—just as, on the Colonne Vendôme, Napoleon's figure can be picked up, scene after scene. Additionally, the two libraries surrounding it provided platforms from which to observe the Column if the viewer stood on the top floors, making the complete view of frieze much more visible.
  While there is certainly evidence that the Column was not put in an ideal spot for visibility, it is impossible to reject the Column as some form of a glorification structure. There is the significant point that the Column was extremely challenging to construct, and so it is unlikely that it would have been placed in the Forum with the intentions of being hidden or out of plain sight.
  There is also the important idea of the Column as a symbol for Trajan. Trajan's ashes were buried in a chamber at the base of the Column. At the top of the Column was a statue of Trajan. The ground level of the Forum, which is a center of life for Romans, is where the earthly remains of Trajan are buried. The Column from the base goes up, taking a viewer through Trajan's triumph in the Dacian wars, and (as originally constructed) finishes with a statue of Trajan above the forum. Considering the practice of deification of emperors which was expected during this time period, especially of glorious Trajan, the symbolism may be interpreted as Trajan's earthly remains staying in the Forum with the Roman people while his conquests ascend him up into the heavens.
  The Column acting as a funerary monument has also been considered. After Trajan's death in 117, the Roman Senate voted to have Trajan's ashes buried in the Column's square base, which is decorated with captured Dacian arms and armor.  His ashes and those of his wife, Plotina, were set inside the base in golden urns (which later disappeared from the monument). One reading of this is that Trajan may have intended the Column to be his final resting place from the project's inception, and that the similarities in design to other funerary structures made it a natural choice for the Roman Senate. In particular, the circumambulation demanded of onlookers of the Column's frieze is evocative of Roman funerary practice, drawing attention toward the center – and consequently, the finial of Trajan.
  Perhaps the simplest interpretation is provided by the inscription written above the entrance (translated below): that the mere existence of Column was an engineering marvel due to the immense excavation efforts necessary for its construction.
caption: Trajan's Column around 1896
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