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Ancient Mediterranean + Europe
Course: Ancient Mediterranean + Europe > Unit 9
Lesson 7: Early empire- Augustus as Pontifex Maximus
- Augustus of Primaporta
- Augustus of Primaporta
- Augustus of Primaporta
- Ara Pacis
- Ara Pacis
- Ara Pacis
- The Mausoleum of Augustus and the Piazza Augusto Imperatore in Rome
- Gemma Augustea
- The art of gem carving
- Pont du Gard
- Obelisks and ancient Rome
- Lateran Obelisk
- Preparations for a Sacrifice
- The Domus Aurea, Nero’s Golden Palace
- The rediscovery and impact of the Domus Aurea
- Portrait of Vespasian
- Colosseum (Flavian Amphitheater)
- Colosseum
- The Arch of Titus
- Relief from the Arch of Titus, showing The Spoils of Jerusalem being brought into Rome
- Silver shekel of the Second Jewish Revolt
- Portrait Bust of a Flavian Woman (Fonseca Bust), part 1 of 2
- When there is no archaeological record: Portrait Bust of a Flavian Woman (Fonseca bust)
- Forum and Markets of Trajan
- The Forum of Trajan
- Markets of Trajan
- Column of Trajan
- Column of Trajan
- Column of Trajan
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Column of Trajan
The Imperial Fora in Rome showcases Trajan's Forum, celebrating his military victory over the Dacians. The Basilica Ulpia, triumphal arch, and Column of Trajan are key features. The column's relief sculpture tells stories of the Dacian campaigns, highlighting the Roman army's engineering feats and daily work. Speakers: Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker. Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.
Want to join the conversation?
- What were the Dacian wars which the column commemorates and who were the Dacians?(16 votes)
- Trajan fought the Dacian Wars between A.D. 102 and A.D. 106. They ended with Dacia becoming a Roman province. As for Dacia itself, it lies within the borders of present-day Romania, in Eastern Europe, just north of the Danube River. The 'Romanization' of Dacia is one of the reasons the Romanian language is among the Romance languages today.(35 votes)
- This column was painted before it was carved? So it was a mural before it was a sculpture? How many people did it take to create this column? Did they have one artist, or a bunch of them? How long would something like this have taken to build?(6 votes)
- More like layout markings, showing the images and where they intersected the drums that made up the column.(1 vote)
- Atshe says that the bearded man is a representation of the Danube river. How can we know that? 2:10(3 votes)
- In order to march to Dacia, crossing the Danube was necessary. The personification of the river god follows standard iconography for representing river deities.(6 votes)
- Would this column have been an inspiration for the Vendome Column in Paris? Are there other Roman columns like this?(3 votes)
- Yes - an example is the column of Marcus Aurelius, quite close by, and still standing today. It's another column which celebrates the military achievements of the emperor who had it put up, although it differs in that Trajan's Column was surrounded - indeed, almost obscured from the outside - by the tall buildings of the Basilica Ulpia and the libraries to either side. The column of Marcus Aurelius, on the other hand, was unobscured by tall buildings around it, taking all the viewer's attention for itself - a great example of the kind of one-upmanship that went on throughout Roman imperial architectural history. (As for modern columns - I don't know about the Vendome Column. But yes, Roman victory columns were imitated in the wave of neo-Classicism in Europe - check out Nelson's Column in London if you're interested.) Hope that helps!(5 votes)
- A general question on columns: The greeks and romans seem to have been obsessed with them. Why is that? I'm guessing the romans copied them from the greeks (like a lot of other things), but where did the idea originally come from?(1 vote)
- The vertical support is fundamental to the earliest architecture (trabeated system) - the column is in its first instance a primary structural unit, used by all iron Age cultures. Freestanding columns are weight-bearing members in Graeco-Roman architecture. Engaged, non-weight-bearing columns and pilasters are used for aesthetic value. The freestanding column is only abandoned as a primary architectural technique in the Middle Ages. But look around you today and you will find contemporary structures that use columns as weight-bearing members - go to a parking garage, a stadium, a structure with an open atrium and you will find columns still in use.(7 votes)
- We always see the personification of the Danube in descriptions of this work. Are there other equally interesting parts of this scheme that are not as easily seen from the ground?(2 votes)
- Sure! The easiest way to see plaster castings of the whole thing is to just google the images.
Try this url-
https://www.google.com/search?q=column+of+trajan+relief+casting+museum&client=firefox-a&hs=pPd&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=3dbCUae-O4Pu9ATvzoGwAg&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1600&bih=709#client=firefox-a&hs=bkI&rls=org.mozilla:en-US%3Aofficial&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=column+of+trajan+relief+casting&oq=column+of+trajan+relief+casting&gs_l=img.3...2793.2793.0.3118.1.1.0.0.0.0.82.82.1.1.0...0.0...1c.1.17.img.5bhjDTk7tAo&bav=on.2,or.r_cp.r_qf.&bvm=bv.48175248,d.dmg&fp=35b924191e015ac5&biw=1600&bih=709(2 votes)
- what was the column made of and was is polychromed ?(2 votes)
- The column is made of marble and was likely painted. Read more here: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ancient-art-civilizations/roman/early-empire/a/column-of-trajan.(2 votes)
- why were designs so important back then?(1 vote)
- It was a way of preserving history in a creative way. Think of multi-media today. We are looking for different ways to express ourselves.
We are just like them, bored with what is and looking forward to what's next.(1 vote)
- What is the sculpture on the very top of the Column of Trajan? Nothing is said about it. Was it added later?(1 vote)
- The Column was originally topped with a bronze eagle, but upon Trajan's death it was replaced with a statue of the Emperor himself. In 1588 the Pope replaced the statue of Trajan with one of St. Peter.(1 vote)
- Atthere was a bust of a person. Was that the emperor or just an important person? They did not mention him in the movie. 4:42(1 vote)
- It is probably Trajan since he is the one who had the column built and they were just talking about him.(7 votes)
Video transcript
(upbeat music) - [Beth] Standing in the middle of the Imperial fora in Rome, that is the series of
forums of public spaces built by the emperors of Rome. This is distinct from
the older Roman Forum. - [Steven] The place
we're actually standing is in a footprint of what
was once the Basilica Ulpia, a major building that
occupied a central position in Trajan's Forum. This was the largest of the Imperial fora. - [Beth] This celebrated
Trajan's great military victory, specifically his victory over the Dacians. - [Steven] Now, Dacia corresponds roughly with present day Romania. - [Beth] In fact, it's under Trajan that the Roman Empire
reaches its greatest extent. So he's a conquering hero in Rome, and this forum celebrates that. - [Steven] Let's retrace
what it would've been like to walk into the Forum of Trajan. You would have walked under
a large triumphal arch surmounted by six horses pulling a chariot with the emperor being crowned by victory. - [Beth] In the center, was a gilded equestrian
sculpture of Trajan. - [Steven] And all along the forum were large sculptures of
captured Dacian soldiers. - [Beth] So he's a
conquering hero in Rome, and this forum celebrates that. - [Steven] As you walked into the forum, you would've seen just
over the Basilica Ulpia an enormous heroic
sculpture of the emperor on top of a column. - [Beth] But also gilded, so this is a richly colored space with different colored
marbles being brought in from all parts of the Roman Empire. - [Steven] And we should note that the enormous expense that was required to build this forum came from the conquest of Dacia. - [Beth] And that was made explicit when you walk within the forum, you saw the booty that was taken in Dacia. - [Steven] Sadly, the
majority of the forum is gone, it's been sacked, it's been pillaged for its stone. What we see now are the
ruins of medieval houses, scattered classical fragments, but still standing proudly
is the Column of Trajan. - [Beth] Today, as we
look up at the column, we see it framed by two baroque churches, and the column itself no
longer has Trajan on top. Instead, in the 16th century, a sculpture of St.
Peter was erected there. In a way, we're in the middle of Pagan Rome surrounded by Christian Rome. - [Steven] So the column is
really made of three parts. You have a base, you have the shaft, which as this wonderful ribbon of carving, and at the top, a capitol which forms the
base for the sculpture. - [Beth] We know that Trajan's ashes were once inside the base. - [Steven] And the base is almost completely
covered with carvings. You see these wonderful
garlands hung from the corners, each with an eagle perched, and below that, Nikes, that is figures of victory, and most prominently, you see representations of arms and armor. This is booty that had been
taken from the Dacians, this is a symbol of Trajan's victory. And there are two winged victories framing a large plaque with a deep, beautiful inscription, which has actually become very famous, not so much for what it says, that this is erected in honor of Trajan by the Senate and the people of Rome, but for the quality of the lettering, the model for a type face known as Trajan. - [Beth] Above that, an enormous victory wreath
that the column rises from, but the most famous part of the column is the relief sculpture
that winds around it, telling us various stories
of the two Dacian campaigns. - [Steven] The first
war against the Dacians begins at the bottom, and what I find interesting is that we are not shown
a triumphal victory. Instead, what we see
across the entire column are images of the army marching, constructing garrisons, building bridges. The engineering and the day to day work that's required for a
successful military adventure. - [Beth] Roughly 21% of the sculpture represents battle scenes, so when you're thinking
about a victory monument, you would think about
scenes of military victory. But here we'd have that day
to day work of the army, and of course the army was, in Imperial Rome, along with the Senate, one of the great centers of power. - [Steven] And it's a reminder that the Romans were unparalleled in terms of their engineering. And so, we should mention
Trajan's famous architect, Apollodorus of Damascus, who is often credited not
only with the architecture that made these military
campaigns successful, but also with being the architect of the forum itself. - [Beth] And the column. - [Steven] Now, the area
where the forum is located, it was actually a kind of saddle between the Capitoline
Hill and the Quirinal, and Apollodorus of Damascus was tasked with removing an enormous amount of earth. The column, one of the
inscriptions tells us, is precisely the height
of the top of the saddle. That is, we can get a sense
of how much earth was removed by looking up to the top. - [Beth] This is not a literal document, on the other hand, it does show us various
moments of the campaigns, but it's also filled with stock scenes that we would find in
any Imperial monument where the emperor's addressing his troops or the emperor's making sacrifices, the emperor's leading his troops. Using those types of scenes helped to make the column readable. - [Steven] Recent analysis has revealed that the column was painted
with the primary colors, red, yellow and blue, but also with black. But I have to say that
even if this was painted, it would be a difficult story to follow, in large part because it
turns around the column. But that's a reminder that this was originally
surrounded by viewing platforms. There was a Greek library and
a Latin library flanking it, and so you could stand almost 1/2 way up. - [Beth] Some of the
scenes are very moving. We see scenes of battle, we see scenes of wounded Roman soldiers who are being attended to. - [Steven] And at the very top, very much the climax of
the story that's unfolding, we see Decebalus, the general in charge of the Dacians, who commits suicide rather
than be captured by the Romans. - [Beth] So let's have a closer look at one of the scenes toward
the bottom of the column of the Roman army crossing
the very wide Danube River. - [Steven] We've climbed up some stairs and are now standing about
as close as you can get to the bottom few drums, and we can clearly see the large figure of the river god Danube. Now, the Roman soldiers needed
to cross the Danube river in order to reach Dacia, and what we see is a
famous engineering feat where the Romans constructed
a temporary pontoon bridge floating over the river, and we can see the soldiers crossing. - [Beth] You can see the waves in the water of the Danube river, you can see the boats that are used as the base of the bridge, and you can see the soldiers crossing it in a very orderly fashion. - [Steven] Each of the
soldiers is carrying supplies, you can make out bags and
perhaps some pots and pans, but that's replaced as
you move to the right with soldiers carrying military standards. - [Beth] In some ways, this relief is so naturalistic. The figures move and stand and
interact so naturalistically as they build and listen to the emperor. But on the other hand, there are these shifts of scale so that the architecture is
too small for the figures, and also the emperor Trajan appears larger than his soldiers. So all of these things help
us to read the narrative on the Column of Trajan. - [Steven] Some day, I would like to be able
to ascend to the top. There is a door, and inside is where the ashes of the emperor and his wife were located, but there's also a staircase. Each one of the drums that
make up this column is hollow, stacked one atop another, but it allows you to go all the way up to the viewing platform, up to the feet of St. Peter. - [Beth] We see at the bottom, this war booty, on top of that, these symbols of victory, the hard work of the army
to ensure these victories. Originally, at the very
top, Trajan himself. - [Steven] And I think it's worth noting that the Romans who would have seen this would not have been for the most part the people who would have had access to the military victories
against the Dacians, so this is bringing that story here, back to the capital. (upbeat music)