The Historical Interpretation of the Reliefs of Trajan's Column

Abstract

The object of this paper is neither to discuss the artistic significance of the reliefs which adorn the Column of Trajan, nor to solve the problem raised by the inscription on its base, but solely to treat the sculptures as embodying an historical narrative in stone, and to present certain conclusions differing from those of earlier interpreters. These conclusions were originally formed during my residence in Rome as Director of the British school; they were first tentatively expressed at a meeting of the School held on April 4, 1906 (when I had ceased to hold the office of Director) and developed with greater detail in a paper read before the Oxford Philological Society on March 15, 1907 (see Class. Rev. 1907, p. 125) and finally in a communication made to the International Historical Congress at Berlin on August 8, 1908. It is unnecessary to say that the great publication of Cichorius (and the incisive criticisms of that work by Petersen) have brought the question here to be discussed into the foreground of archaeological debate; the views since put forward by von Domaszewski and Weber appear to me (as will presently be shewn) to betoken a retrogression in the direction of theories which should have been recognised as put definitely out of court by the researches of Cichorius and Petersen.