Tropaeum Traiani
The Roman victory monument of Adamklissi or Tropaeum Traiani is located in Dobrudscha in today's Romania , near an ancient place that was called like the monument Tropaeum Traiani (later Adamklissi). The Tropaeum Traiani, as can be seen from the inscription belonging to the building, was consecrated to Mars Ultor and built in 108/109 AD, so it dates from the time of Emperor Trajan and is related to the armed conflicts between the Roman Empire and the Dakern .
The original structure of the tropaeum is reconstructed as follows: A large cylinder rose on a seven-step, circular staircase , and above it stood a truncated cone that was covered with scale tiles. Above each other were two hexagonal prisms , which served as the basis for the statue of the actual 4.75 m high tropaeum. The total height of the building was about 40 m, the diameter at the base was about the same.
The whole building was richly decorated with sculptures , a considerable part of which is still present today, so that one can reconstruct where which pieces were probably placed. The lower half of the "cylinder" was undecorated and consisted of only six rows of hewn ashlar stones . The upper half, however, consisted of two surrounding friezes and a metope ribbon . Both friezes originally consisted of 56 panels each approx. 1.76 m in length, resulting in a total length of around 98 m per frieze. The lower frieze consists of acanthus tendrils , which are framed above and below by an olive and lentil stick, birds are depicted in between. The upper frieze consists of a double spiral, which is surrounded by a leaf ornament (palm leaves?). In between, the metope tape with 54 metope plates with dimensions of about 1.58 m high and 1.16 m wide, which were separated from each other by as many pilasters or half pillars, extended. These pilasters are either provided with vertical tendril ornaments or with fluting . The contents of the 49 metopes still preserved today are scenes from the war between the Romans and Dacians. You see Roman armored horsemen with lances, battle scenes between Romans and barbarians , Dacian refugees and prisoners in chains accompanied by victorious Roman soldiers.
Above the upper frieze was a cornice on which the so-called crenellated attic sat. This consisted alternately of battlements and parapets. The 25 pinnacles, each approximately 1.56 m × 1.10 m in size, each show a prisoner who is tied to a tree. Based on the clothing and other features of these figures, it can be seen that three different ethnicities of barbarians are represented here. But it is difficult to answer to which peoples they can be assigned exactly. In any case, it is clear that it is either the Dacians themselves or peoples or tribes who were connected to the Dacians and the Dacer Wars. The approximately 0.91 m high parapet blocks were arranged between the battlements. These were simply decorated with geometric patterns, namely circles, diamonds and rosettes . At every second parapet there was a lion, which served to drain the water from the roof.
At the “top” of the roof, which was covered with over a thousand scale-shaped stone slabs, the substructure for the actual tropaeum, consisting of two hexagonal prisms, rose. Both prisms were undecorated on their outer surfaces, only the vertical edges were worked out in the form of pilasters with stylized Corinthian capitals . The plate with the building inscription was probably only attached to one outer surface. The upper end of the prisms was formed by a frieze with weapons carved in stone: spears, lances, swords, etc.
The tropaeum sculpture rises above it with a total height of approx. 4.75 m. It corresponds to the typical representation of a tropaeum from the Roman Empire. The tropaeum wears the clothing and armament of a Roman soldier. On the shields to the right and left were the heads of Medusa and behind them, now lost, lances. The statue's breastplate was richly decorated with acanthus tendrils, a rider at a gallop, an eagle with outspread wings, and a sword with a scabbard. Three prisoners were depicted at the foot of the tropaeum: two women lying down and a man standing with his hands tied behind his back.
The core structure of the Tropaeum Traiani made of stone and mortar and the base of seven rows of stairs and the lower walkway have been preserved in their original location from ancient times to the present day. Next to it is a model of the Tropaeum Traiani on a scale of 1:20, the numerous metopes and pilasters that have been preserved are arranged in a cyclical order as an attempt to reproduce the representations in their original relationships.
Other monuments that are close to the Tropaeum Traiani and have some relation to it are the remains of a mausoleum for a Roman general who fell on the battlefield and an altar with an inscription in which soldiers are named.
literature
- Florea Bobu Florescu: The Adamklissi Victory Monument. Tropaeum Traiani . Academy Publishing House, Bucharest 1965.
- Wilhelm Jänecke : The original shape of the Tropaion from Adamklissi . Winter, Heidelberg 1919.
- Adrian V. Rădulescu: The Adamklissi Victory Monument . Constana 1972 and more.
- Ian Archibald Richmond : Adamklissi . In: Papers of the British School at Rome 35, 1967, pp. 29-39.
- Lino Rossi: A Synoptic Outlook of Adamklissi Metopes and Trajan's Column Frieze. Factual and Fanciful Topics Revisited . In: Athenaeum 85, 1997, pp. 471-486.
- Grigore Tocilesco : The Adamklissi Monument, Tropaeum Traiani . With the participation of Otto Benndorf and George Niemann Edited by Gr. G. Tocilesco. Hölder, Vienna 1895.
Web links
Coordinates: 44 ° 6 ′ 6.9 ″ N , 27 ° 57 ′ 18.3 ″ E