Civilization under Construction: Depictions of Architecture on the Column of Trajan

Abstract

More than 300 depictions of architectural structures appear throughout the Column of Trajan, illustrating both Roman and Dacian fortifications and settlements. Despite the prevalence of architectural depictions on the column, there has been littie attention specifically devoted to these important components of the frieze. While recent scholarship has focused on the composition and message of the column as a whole, for the most part this work has not contributed to the interpretation of architecture on the frieze. Previous discussions of the architectural repre sentations have focused almost exclusively on reconciling the pictorial record with the archaeological record and on explaining away what has been seen as a series of mistakes in the architecture on the frieze. This article demonstrates that the many features traditionally interpreted as misun derstandings actually form consistent patterns that draw a purposeful contrast between a supposedly superior Ro man culture and a primitive, barbarian Dacian culture.* * This article is derived from my master's thesis, written at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Sheila Dil lon and Nicola Terrenato gave much helpful advice as thesis committee members, for which I am very grateful. I would like to extend special thanks to my committee chair Moni ka Truemper, who has been an unfailing source of detailed reviews, advice, and enthusiasm throughout all stages of my thesis and this article. Thank you also to the editors and anon ymous reviewers of the AJA for their invaluable comments. Any mistakes that remain are of course my own. I am very grateful to Antonio Di Tanna and the Museo della Civilt? Ro mana for permission to use my photos of their casts in this article. I would also like to thank my family and everyone in the Department of Classics at the University of North Caro lina at Chapel Hill for their tireless enthusiasm and support over many years. In this article, I follow the scene divisions and numbering system established by Cichorius (1896,1900), the traditional reference system for the Column of Trajan frieze. A catalogue covering select architectural structures on the frieze of the Column of Trajan is available on the AJA Web site (http://www.ajaonline.org), under "Supplemental Data." 1 For a summary and discussion of the debate over the au thorship and artistic forces behind the Column of Trajan, see

Depicting barbarism on fire: architectural destruction on the Columns of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius

“…35 For discussion of the importance of the depictions of Roman construction activity on the frieze, see, e.g., Richmond 1982;Lepper and Frere 1988;Coulston 1990a;Coarelli 2000;Wolfram Thill 2010. 2 and 8).…”

Trajanic Trees: The Dacian Forest on Trajan's Column

“…First, I will explore the role of trees in the column's depiction of the Roman army in a foreign landscape, focusing on their appearances in deforestation or tree-felling scenes, which usually lead into construction scenes, as in the road construction of scene XCII 9 . These trees are almost always felled by Roman soldiers, 10 although the extent of deforestation is only partially represented by the column's frieze, as Thill (2010) has shown, and should perhaps be understood synecdochally. Thill identified that the majority of Dacian structures on the column's relief (55.7 per cent) are made entirely of wood, while only 16 per cent of the Roman structures on the column are exclusively wooden.…”

“… 7 For recent discussions of these individualized and highly stylized depictions on the column, see on costumes: Goldman, 1994; Coulston, 2003; urban architecture: Coulston, 1990b, and more recently Thill, 2010.…”

“…For recent discussions of these individualized and highly stylized depictions on the column, see on costumes: Goldman, 1994;Coulston, 2003;urban architecture: Coulston, 1990b, and more recently Thill, 2010. concentrating on an interpretation of the scenes that is allegorical rather than literal. The article will then move to an examination of the context in which the opposing leadersthe Dacian king, Decebalus, and the Roman emperor, Trajanappear on the relief.…”