Trajan's Column
Trajan's Column is a Roman triumphal column in Rome, Italy. It was built to remember Roman emperor Trajan's victory in the Dacian Wars. It was probably built by the architect Apollodorus of Damascus at the order of the Roman Senate. It is in Trajan's Forum, near the Quirinal Hill, north of the Roman Forum. It was completed in AD 113. It has a spiral bas relief, which shows the wars between the Romans and Dacians (101–102 and 105–106). Its design has inspired numerous victory columns, both ancient and modern.
The column is about 30 metres (98 ft) in height, 35 metres (125 ft) including its large pedestal. It is made from a series of 20 hollow Carrara marble pieces. Each one weighs about 32 tons,[1] with a diameter of 3.7 metres (11 ft). The 190-metre (625 ft) frieze winds around the column 23 times. Inside the column, a spiral staircase of 185 steps gives 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 m.[2]
Ancient coins show plans to put a statue of an eagle on top of the column.[3] However it was built with a statue of Trajan. This statue disappeared in the Middle Ages. On December 4, 1587, the top was crowned by Pope Sixtus V with a bronze figure of St. Peter. When it was built the column was next to two libraries, which perhaps held the soldier-emperor's account of the Roman-Dacian Wars.
Trajan's Column Media
Two examples of Dupondius struck 114–116 AD, showing Trajan's column with the original statue on top and his portrait
Trajan's Column around 1896
Location of the inscription plate, above the entrance to the interior (upper image)
Section view of the pedestal and the interior stairway (click on image)
The plaster casts laid out at eye level in the Museum of Roman Civilization in Rome
Front side of the Karlskirche in Vienna, flanked by two columns styled after the Roman archetype
References
- ↑ Jones, Mark Wilson (1993), "One Hundred Feet and a Spiral Stair: The Problem of Designing Trajan's Column", Journal of Roman Archaeology 6: 23–38
- ↑ Lancaster, Lynne (1999), "Building Trajan's Column", American Journal of Archaeology (Archaeological Institute of America) 103 (3): 419–439, doi:10.2307/506969, JSTOR 506969
- ↑ Platner 1929