Trajan's Column

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Trajan's Column from the Southeast (2008)

The Trajan Column ( Italian Colonna Traiana , Latin Columna Traiana ) is an honorary column that was erected in 112/113 AD for the Roman Emperor Trajan (98-117 AD) on his forum in Rome . The monumental column is still in its original position and is visible from afar and represents the most impressive and best-known remnant of the Trajan's Forum . It was erected in the name of the Roman Senate to honor the achievements made in building the forum. In its history it has served as a model for many other columns of honor and victory , both ancient and modern.

relief

The monumental honorary column stands between two library wings, so that one had a good view of the numerous pictures of the column from the windows there. Scenes from the successful wars against the Dacians in the years 101/102 and 105/106 are depicted on the spiraling frieze, which with 23 turns reaches a total length of 200 meters . A total of 2500 human figures about 60-75 centimeters high are depicted. The emperor himself can be identified around sixty times. The representations provide interesting information about clothing and weapons in the 2nd century. It shows archers from the east of the Roman Empire , cataphracts , Sarmatians and Dacians. There are also depictions of the Danube crossing and the suicide of the Dacian king Decebalus . The walls show traces of encaustic painting , which suggests that the reliefs were originally colored.

In the meantime, many of the relief representations have been so eaten away by environmental pollution that you can hardly see anything. Even so, the column is considered to be one of the best preserved ancient monuments. In the Museo della Civiltà Romana there are 125 plaster casts of the relief, which were made at the time of Napoleon III. and show the reliefs in a better state of preservation. In the Victoria and Albert Museum in London , the casts were put together to form two half-columns; further specimens are in the Archaeological Collection of the University of Zurich and in the National Museum of the History of Romania in Bucharest. Many of the motifs in the relief can be seen more clearly on the casts than on the damaged original.

At the top of the platform was originally a colossal, gilded statue of the emperor. This was melted down in the Middle Ages . In 1587, Pope Sixtus V had the statue of the Apostle Peter that has survived to this day erected there.

The stacked blocks were secured against shifting with lead dowels. For this purpose, cavities in the respective upper and lower block were used, which formed a single cavity when placed on top of one another. This was filled with lead through small holes from the outside. In the Middle Ages, lead robbers forcibly widened the openings in order to gain access to the lead. What remained were large, often conical holes, which have recently been bricked up. One of these holes can be seen in the illustration below on the right.

The four-sided pedestal , which is decorated with trophies, bears a dedicatory inscription , which says that the Trajan column is exactly the same height as the hill that Trajan had removed for his forum. This pedestal also kept the urn with the emperor's ashes.

inscription

The inscription on the base is in the Roman script Capitalis monumentalis . The letters (Roman capital letters ) were drawn with a brush and then - as is assumed due to the manual elaboration - marked with a chisel and carved out in a V-shape (after Edward Catich).

Inscription of the Trajan Column

Text of the inscription:

“SENATVS · POPVLVSQVE · ROMANVS
IMP · CAESARI · DIVI · NERVAE · F · NERVAE
TRAIANO · AVG · GERM · DACICO · PONTIF
MAXIMO · TRIB · POT · XVII · IMP · VI · COS · VI
· PAN · P AD · DEC QVARANDVM · ALTITVDINIS
MONS · ET · LOCVS · TANT <IS · OPER> IBVS · SIT · EGESTVS ”

“The Senate and the people of Rome [consecrate this monument] to the Emperor Caesar Nerva Traianus Augustus, son of the deified Nerva, conqueror of the Teutons and the Dacians, Pontifex Maximus , holder of the tribunician authority for the 17th time, victorious general for the sixth time, consul as sixth time, P [ater] P [atriae] , to show how high the hill was and the terrain that was removed for this extensive construction. "

The naming of the titles and offices of Emperor Trajan dates the inscription to the year 112/113, in which the construction work on the Trajan's Forum came to an end; the inauguration took place according to the Fasti Ostienses on May 14, 113.

Spiral staircase

Exploded drawing of the column base with staircase (click on the picture)

The Trajan's Column is hollow inside. Accessible via a small entrance on one side of the pedestal, a spiral staircase leads 185 steps up to the platform, where the ancient visitor was offered a magnificent view of the surrounding Trajan's Forum. On the way up, 43 narrow slits in the column jacket illuminate the path.

Measured from the ground, the Trajan column reaches a height of 35.1 m to the top of the column and 38.4 m to the top of the statue base. Not least because of the close proximity to the huge Basilica Ulpia , such a column height was necessary in order to function as a viewing point and to give the forum its own visual note. The actual column, i.e. the shaft without the base, the statue and its pedestal, is 29.76 m high; the spiral structure of the stairs starts slightly above the base and is 8 cm less. According to one theory, the innovative spiral staircase, the height of which is almost exactly one hundred Roman feet , was the actual starting point for the Roman architects when determining the column proportions.

The column was composed of 29 blocks of Lunensian marble (later called Carrara marble ) and weighs a total of more than 1100 tons. The spiral staircase itself was cut out of 19 blocks and turns every fourteen steps. This arrangement was based on a more complex geometric calculation than the usual alternatives of twelve or sixteen levels. The high quality of the stone processing is demonstrated by the fact that the staircase is practically even and the joints of the huge blocks still fit together exactly today. Despite numerous earthquakes, the Trajan's Column is now less than half a degree off the perpendicular.

The Trajan's Column, and in particular its spiral staircase shape, had a considerable influence on subsequent Roman architecture . Spiral staircases were previously a rare sight in Roman buildings, but from then on the space-saving type of staircase became more and more popular in the empire.

  • Details of the relief representation of the Trajan Column

  • Pedestal of the Trajan Column around 1860

  • Trajan's column on the reverse of the denarius of Emperor Trajan

  • Trajan's Column around 1896

Establishment

It is believed that the individual column drums were hoisted into place by cranes. Ancient written documents and numerous archaeological evidence show that Roman engineers were technically capable of lifting heavy loads vertically. The average drum of the Trajan column weighs about 32 tons; the capital , the heaviest block above the base, even weighs 53.3 t, which had to be heaved up 34 m. In order to keep the load to be handled as low as possible, the stairs were probably cut out of the stone beforehand in the quarry or on site, which meant a weight saving of up to 30 percent.

Nevertheless, the typical Roman step-wheel crane , which could only reach a maximum height of 15-18 m, was not suitable for such loads . Instead, a tower-like wooden structure was erected around the building site, in the middle of which the marble blocks were pulled up using a system of pulleys , ropes and anchor winches ; the necessary muscle strength was provided by pulling crews and possibly also pulling animals that were spread around the ground. According to modern calculations, eight anchor winches were required to lift the 55-tonne base block , while the cable length for the top column drums would have been around 210 m using 2- pulley hoists .

Such a lifting tower was used very effectively later in the Renaissance by the architect Domenico Fontana to translocate obelisks in Rome . From his report it can be seen that the coordination between the individual pulling teams required a considerable amount of concentration and discipline, since if the pulling forces were unevenly exerted, the ropes would have torn due to the extremely heavy load. In the case of the Trajan Column, the difficulties were compounded by the simultaneous work on the neighboring Basilica Ulpia, which restricted the available space so that the crews at the anchor winches only had suitable access on one side.

Dimensions

All information according to Mark Wilson Jones.

+Height of the base : 1.7 m
+ Height of the column shaft : 26.92 m
+ Height of the capital : 1.16 m
= Height of the actual column: 29.78 m (height of the spiral staircase: 29.68 m, approx. 100 Roman feet)
+Height of the column without plinth : 28.91 m
+ Height of the pedestal , with plinth: 6.16 m
= Height of the top of the column above ground: 35.07 m

The diameter of the column shaft is 3.695 m, the typical height of the column drums 1.521 m.

reception

literature

  • Martin Beckmann: The 'Columnae Coc (h) lides' of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius. In: Phoenix. Volume 56, number 3/4, 2002, pp. 348-357.
  • Julian Bennett : Trajan. Optimus Princeps. Routledge, London / New York 1997, ISBN 978-0-415-16524-2 .
  • Conrad Cichorius : The reliefs of the Traian's column. Reimer, Berlin 1896–1900.
  • Filippo Coarelli : La Colonna Traiana. Ed. Colombo, Rome 1999, ISBN 88-86359-34-9
    English edition: The column of Trajan. Ed. Colombo, Rome 2000, ISBN 88-86359-37-3 .
  • Björn Gesemann: On the location of the Trajan Column in Rome. In: Yearbook of the Roman-Germanic Central Museum Mainz . Volume 50, number 1, 2003, pp. 307-328 ( digitized version ).
  • Lynne Lancaster: Building Trajan's Column. In: American Journal of Archeology . Volume 103, Number 3, 1999, pp. 419-439
  • Karl Lehmann-Hartleben : The Trajan Column. A Roman work of art at the beginning of late antiquity. De Gruyter, Berlin a. a. 1926.
  • Frank Lepper , Sheppard Frere: Trajan's Column. A new edition of the Cichorius plates. Sutton, Gloucester 1988, ISBN 0-86299-467-5 .
  • Fritz Mitthof , Günther Schörner (ed.): Columna Traiani - Trajan column. Victory monument and war report in pictures. Contributions from the conference in Vienna on the occasion of the 1900th anniversary of the inauguration, 9. – 12. May 2013 (= Tyche . Special volume 9). Holzhausen, Vienna 2017, ISBN 978-3-902976-53-6 (collection of articles on the context, construction, content and reception of the Trajan column). Digitized version (PDF, 22 MB)
  • Ritchie Pogorzelski: The Traian's Column in Rome. Documentation of a war in color. Nünnerich-Asmus Verlag, Mainz 2012, ISBN 978-3-943904-00-0 .
  • Salvatore Settis (Ed.): La Colonna Traiana. Einaudi, Turin 1988, ISBN 88-06-59889-9 .
  • Alexandre Simon Stefan: La Colonne Trajane. Édition illustrée avec les photographies exécutées en 1862 for Napoléon III. Avec la collaboration d'Hélène Chew. Éditions A&J Picard, Paris 2015, ISBN 978-2-7084-0946-0 .
    • German edition: Alexandre Simon Stefan: The Trajan column. Shown based on the 1862 for Napoleon III. made photographs. With a contribution by Hélène Chew. Compilation of the panels by Alexandre Simon Stefan. Translated from the French by Birgit Lamerz-Beckschäfer, Dieter Hornig as well as Fritz Mitthof and Julian Gabriel Schneider. Scientific Book Society-Philipp von Zabern, Darmstadt 2020, ISBN 978-3-8053-5223-9 .
  • Mark Wilson Jones: One Hundred Feet and a Spiral Stair: The Problem of Designing Trajan's Column. In: Journal of Roman Archeology . Volume 6, 1993, pp. 23-38.

Web links

Commons : Trajan's Column  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ CIL 6,960 .
  2. ↑ CIL 14,4543 .
  3. ↑ Julian Bennett: Trajan. Optimus Princeps. Routledge, London / New York 1997, p. 158.
  4. ^ Lynne Lancaster: Building Trajan's Column. In: American Journal of Archeology. Volume 103, No. 3, 1999, pp. 419-439, here: p. 419.
  5. ↑ Mark Wilson Jones: One Hundred Feet and a Spiral Stair: The Problem of Designing Trajan's Column. In: Journal of Roman Archeology. Volume 6, 1993, pp. 23-38, here: p. 27.
  6. ↑ Mark Wilson Jones: One Hundred Feet and a Spiral Stair: The Problem of Designing Trajan's Column. In: Journal of Roman Archeology. Volume 6, 1993, pp. 23-38, here: p. 28.
  7. ↑ Mark Wilson Jones: One Hundred Feet and a Spiral Stair: The Problem of Designing Trajan's Column. In: Journal of Roman Archeology. Volume 6, 1993, pp. 23-38, here: pp. 37 f.
  8. ^ Lynne Lancaster: Building Trajan's Column. In: American Journal of Archeology. Volume 103, No. 3, 1999, pp. 419-439, here: p. 419.
  9. ↑ Mark Wilson Jones: One Hundred Feet and a Spiral Stair: The Problem of Designing Trajan's Column. In: Journal of Roman Archeology. Volume 6, 1993, pp. 23-38, here: pp. 31-32, Fig. 9.
  10. ↑ Mark Wilson Jones: One Hundred Feet and a Spiral Stair: The Problem of Designing Trajan's Column. In: Journal of Roman Archeology. Volume 6, 1993, pp. 23-38, here: p. 31.
  11. ↑ Mark Wilson Jones: One Hundred Feet and a Spiral Stair: The Problem of Designing Trajan's Column. In: Journal of Roman Archeology. Volume 6, 1993, pp. 23-38, here: p. 31.
  12. ↑ Beckmann (2002), pp. 353-356.
  13. ^ Lynne Lancaster: Building Trajan's Column. In: American Journal of Archeology. Volume 103, No. 3, 1999, pp. 419-439, here: pp. 426-428; Mark Wilson Jones: One Hundred Feet and a Spiral Stair: The Problem of Designing Trajan's Column. In: Journal of Roman Archeology. Volume 6, 1993, pp. 23-38, here: pp. 34-36.
  14. ↑ Mark Wilson Jones: One Hundred Feet and a Spiral Stair: The Problem of Designing Trajan's Column. In: Journal of Roman Archeology. Volume 6, 1993, pp. 23-38, here: p. 32.
  15. ^ Lynne Lancaster: Building Trajan's Column. In: American Journal of Archeology. Volume 103, No. 3, 1999, pp. 419-439, here: pp. 426-428.
  16. ↑ Mark Wilson Jones: One Hundred Feet and a Spiral Stair: The Problem of Designing Trajan's Column. In: Journal of Roman Archeology. Volume 6, 1993, pp. 23-38, here: p. 31; Lynne Lancaster: Building Trajan's Column. In: American Journal of Archeology. Volume 103, No. 3, 1999, pp. 419-439, here: p. 424.
  17. ^ Lynne Lancaster: Building Trajan's Column. In: American Journal of Archeology. Volume 103, No. 3, 1999, pp. 419-439, here: pp. 426-428.
  18. ^ Lynne Lancaster: Building Trajan's Column. In: American Journal of Archeology. Volume 103, No. 3, 1999, pp. 419-439, here: pp. 428-437.
  19. ^ Lynne Lancaster: Building Trajan's Column. In: American Journal of Archeology. Volume 103, No. 3, 1999, pp. 419-439, here: p. 435.
  20. ^ Lynne Lancaster: Building Trajan's Column. In: American Journal of Archeology. Volume 103, No. 3, 1999, pp. 419-439, here: pp. 436-437.
  21. ^ Lynne Lancaster: Building Trajan's Column. In: American Journal of Archeology. Volume 103, No. 3, 1999, pp. 419-439, here: pp. 430-431, Figs. 9-10; Mark Wilson Jones: One Hundred Feet and a Spiral Stair: The Problem of Designing Trajan's Column. In: Journal of Roman Archeology. Volume 6, 1993, pp. 23-38, here: p. 35.
  22. ^ Mark Wilson Jones: Principles of Roman Architecture. Yale University Press, New Haven 2000, ISBN 0-300-08138-3 , p. 220.


Coordinates: 41 ° 53 ′ 45 ″  N , 12 ° 29 ′ 3 ″  E