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The Representation on Trajan's Column of Trajan's Rock-cut Road in Upper Moesia: The Emperor's Road to Glory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2011

L. Rossi
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Extract

It is common knowledge that in the reliefs on Trajan's Column the technical skill and achievements of the Roman Army received as much attention and space as did its military prowess and successes. It is clear that emphasis laid upon military engineering was felt to be one of the most effective means of conveying the triumphal concept attached to this marble volumen. Since both Trajan, to whom the reliefs were dedicated, and Apollodorus, his architect, who is likely to have drawn the cartoons for them, were inclined to regard craftsmanship and power as equivalent expressions of Roman glory, one would expect to find in the commemorative sculpture some allusion to specific technical achievements or, at least, to the most important of these.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 48 , Issue 1 , March 1968 , pp. 41 - 46
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1968

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References

page 41 note 1 See Cichorius, C., Die Reliefs der Trajanssäule, Berlin, 1896–1900Google Scholar; Davies, G. A. T., J.R.S. vii (1917), 74–97Google Scholar; Paribeni, R., Optimus Princeps, Messina, 1926Google Scholar; Stuart-Jones, H., Papers Brit. School Rome, v (1910), 435–59Google Scholar.

page 41 note 2 See Lehmann-Hartleben, , Die Trajanssäule, ein römischer Kunstwerk zu Beginn der Spätantike, Berlin-Leipzig, 1926Google Scholar; Picard, G. C., Les trophées romains, Paris, 1957Google Scholar.

page 41 note 3 Richmond, I. A., Papers Brit. School Rome, xiii (1935), 18–22Google Scholar.

page 41 note 4 Picard, G. C., op. cit., p. 392.

page 41 note 5 Rossi, L., Numismat. Circ. (London) lxxv (1967), 130Google Scholar.

page 41 note 6 C. (for Cohen, H., Description historique des monnaies frappées sous l'empire romain, Paris, 1880) 42Google Scholar; R.I.C. (for Mattingly, H., and Sydenham, E. A., The Roman Imperial Coinage, London, 1960) 246Google Scholar.

page 41 note 7 C. 167; R.I.C. 255.

page 41 note 8 C. 555–9; R.I.C. 579, 239.

page 41 note 9 C. 545–6; R.I.C. 571.

page 41 note 10 C. 3O5; R.I.C. 471.

page 41 note 11 Hill, P. V., Numismat. Chron. v (1965), 155Google Scholar.

page 42 note 1 C. 542–3; R.I.C. 569.

page 42 note 2 C. 20–1; R.I.C. 463.

page 42 note 3 C. 647–8; R.I.C. 266, 636.

page 42 note 4 Hinted at in the dedicatory inscription of Trajan's Column; stated in C.I.L. iii, 1699, 8267.

page 42 note 5 In Cichorius, C., op. cit.: scenes nos. xci–xcii.

page 42 note 6 Rossi L., op. cit., p. 130.

page 44 note 1 The numbering (Roman numeral) of scenes is taken from Cichorius, C., op. cit.

page 44 note 2 See the reverse of bronze coins C. 503, R.I.C. 534, and the Metope XXVIII of the Tropaeum Traiani at Adamklissi (in Florescu, F. B., Das Siegendenkmals von Adamklissi, Bucarest-Bonn, 1965)Google Scholar; see also one of the Traianic reliefs of the Arch of Constantine in Rome (in Becatti, G., L'arte romana, Milan, 1962, fig. 75)Google Scholar.

page 44 note 3 It is fair to add that Daremberg and Saglio (Dictionnaire des Antiquités, s.v. ascia) interpret this scene as mortar-mixing for which the ascia was used (fig. 563) but the suggestion is not very convincing (Ed.).

page 44 note 4 Susini, G. C., Il Lapicida Romano, Bologna, 1964, p. 30Google Scholar.

page 44 note 5 C.I.L. iii, suppl., 8267.

page 45 note 1 Ibid.

page 45 note 2 See Davies, G. A. T., op. cit., pp. 78–82; Paribeni, R., op. cit., i, 239.

page 45 note 3 Davies, G.A.T., op. cit., p. 85.

page 45 note 4 Petersen, E., Atti Congr. Intern. Sc. Storiche, Rome, 1903, p. 6Google Scholar.

page 45 note 5 In Paribeni, R., op. cit., i, 292, fig. 27.

page 46 note 1 The remnants of the Trajanic road will be under the level of an artificial lake at the inlet of an hydroelectric barrage now in advanced construction: the Tabula Traiana will be ‘excised’ anew out of the rock, for preservation at a higher level.