The Trajan’s Column was shown for the first time on May 12 113 AD as a triumphal column that commemorated Roman emperor Trajan’s victory in the Dacian Wars.
It was probably constructed under the supervision of the architect Apollodorus of Damascus at the order of the Roman Senate. It is located in Trajan’s Forum, built near the Quirinal Hill, north of the Roman Forum. Completed in AD 113, the freestanding column is most famous for its spiral bas relief, which artistically describes the epic wars between the Romans and Dacians (101–102 and 105–106). Its design has inspired numerous victory columns, both ancient and modern.
Ancient coins indicate preliminary plans to top the column with a statue of a bird, probably an eagle,[4] but after construction, a statue of Trajan was put in place; 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, which remains to this day. Filippo Coarelli, a noted Italian archaeologist, explains that: When it was built, the column stood between two libraries, which perhaps held the soldier-emperor’s account of the Roman-Dacian Wars. Working under the supervision of a maestro, Coarelli says, sculptors followed a plan to create a sky-scraping version of Trajan’s scroll on 17 drums of the finest Carrara marble.
Source: Wikipedia
Donate