ARCHEO TOUR - TRAJANS COLUMN

Trajan's Column is much more than a great work of art, it is the extraordinary evidence of Roman civilization.

Here we see represented the ancient rites, exalted the indefatigability of legionaries, not only builders of fortifications, but also roads and bridges, we still see exalted the Emperor Pietas (= mercy). And the war shown without any rhetoric in all its raw ferocity. Finally the 130 scenes of the column follow one another with the liveliness and realism that is the peculiarity of Roman art.

Yet this work, unmatched and original, escapes most of the tourists and Romans themselves.
The explanation is logical, the history of the conquest of Dacia by Trajan, takes place through 130 scenes, which rise up from the base to the summit along 24 spirals, then to follow the plot we should go around the column 24 times, bearing binoculars. Moreover, for those who are not a specialist, many scenes are incomprehensible, since they are not accompanied by a caption.
For the ancient Romans things were simpler, and because they knew to interpret the meaning of each scene, and because the column was painted, but also because it was in front of the basilica Ulpia (Marcus Ulpius Trajan), flanked by the two buildings of the Greek and Latin libraries, then the Romans passing through the their terraces could see up close.

In recent times the great archaeologist Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli, through chemical analysis was able to detect the color of the column and, made a cast of a scene, he painted, as noticed.
Following his directions, attested by photographs, we painted and show 90 between scenes and episodes.

Those interested can use the option “A bit in deep”.

Finally it will be available the e-book “De Bello Dacico”, accompanied by maps and images taken from Trajan's column.

back