(VRoma: Lisanne Marshall)
Typical among outstanding historical reliefs are those on the column of the emperor Trajan, erected during his lifetime in AD 113 in the forum which bears his name, to celebrate his conquest, and acquisition for the empire, of Dacia. It is 30 metres high, with a staircase inside lit by forty-three slit windows.
Trajan’s column, detail.(VRoma: Leslie Flood)
A spiral band about 1 metre deep and 200 metres long winds twenty-three times round the shaft from bottom to top, carrying 155 continuous scenes. Though there is not a great deal of attention given to perspective, the effect is of activity and action in which there are more than 2500 different human figures.
The story of Trajan’s campaign is built up stage by stage, from the commissioning of the army, its march and crossing of the fast-moving Danube on a bridge which took a year to construct, through preparations for the fighting, the siege, and battle, to the grim aftermath of the torture of prisoners-of-war and the suicide of the Dacian chief.
