Trajan’s Army on Trajan's Column

Abstract

The best illustrations of the army which extended and protected the Roman Empire are to be seen on Trajan's Column. They are not, however, thoroughly known to classical students, for reasons which are worth stating. The primary reason is undoubtedly the scarcity of Cichorius's reproductions of the reliefs and the still greater rarity of plaster casts; but an important contributory factor is the bewildering quantity and peculiar quality of the material. The reliefs tell the story of two wars, the first a series of expeditions leading up to great battles, not unlike Agricola's campaigns in Britain; the second an organised conquest, ending in the burning of the hostile capital, the suicide of the nobles and their King and the enslavement of a people. This narrative picture, as dramatic as the Bayeux tapestry but unprovided with a text, has attracted historians, because it seems to fill a gap in their literature, and students of art, as being among the most extensive and detailed examples of such Roman sculpture.