Trajan's Column, (113 CE)
"And he set up in the Forum an enormous column, to
serve at once as a monument to himself and as a
memorial of his work in the Forum. For that entire section
had been hilly and he had cut it down for a distance equal
to the height of the column, thus making the Forum level."
Cassius Dio, Roman History (LXVIII.16.3)
With abbreviations expanded, the inscription at the base
of the column reads,
SENATUS POPULUSQUE ROMANUS
IMPERATORI CAESARI DIVI NERVAE FILIO NERVAE
TRAIANO AUGUSTO GERMANICO DACICO PONTIFICI
MAXIMO TRIBUNICIA POTESTATE XVII IMPERATORI
VI CONSULI VI PATRI PATRIAE
AD DECLARANDUM QUANTAE ALTITUDINIS
MONS ET LOCUS TAN<TIS OPE>RIBUS SIT EGESTUS
Written when Trajan held tribunican power for the
seventeenth time, which was assumed on December 10, AD 112 and ended a year later, the
column, itself, was dedicated in May AD 113, more than sixteen months after the forum,
presumably just before Trajan's departure for Parthia. The last two lines of the inscription are
problematic: "...to demonstrate how lofty a hill and [what area of] ground was carried away for
these mighty works." The assumption is that the reference refers to the excavation of the Quirinal
hill, which was cut back one-hundred Roman feet to provide level ground for the Markets of
Trajan, a figure commemorated by the height of the column (columna centenaria), which matches
that of the hill's face.
The lettering inscribed on the base of the column is termed scriptura monumentalis or capitalis
monumentalis, a form of majuscular (capitals) used for larger architectural inscriptions. Like all
capital letters in the Latin alphabet since the second century BC, it is shaded, the vertical strokes
twice as thick as the horizontal ones. Here, too, the height of the letter is approximately eight and
one-half to nine times the width of the vertical stroke, an ideal ratio for the letter type.
By studying the inscription on Trajan's Column, Father Edward Catich reconstructed how the
Romans made their capital letter shapes. He hypothesized that the forms first were sketched
using a flat square-tipped brush, using only three or four quick strokes to form each letter, the
characteristic variations in line thickness formed by the changing cant of the brush. The letters
then were cut in the stone by the same person (and not, Catich contended, separately by scribe
and stone mason), the illusion of form being created by shadow.
This detail from the lower left corner of the
inscription shows the letterforms in detail.
Incised on a marble slab measuring four-anda-half by ten feet, the lower edge is ten-and-ahalf feet above the ground. This requires that
the letters, themselves, vary in size, which
they do by an inch, the first lines of the
inscription, the ones farthest away from the
viewer, being larger than those which are
closer. Too, the same letter can vary in
thickness and width to maintain the correct
proportion between other letters. Such
symmetry and balance convinced Catich that
"the Trajan alphabet is the best roman letter
designed in the Western world, and the one
which most nearly approaches an alphabetic
ideal." And, indeed, the inscription has served
as the model for all subsequent Roman
capital letterforms.
One example is "Trajan," a typeface
developed by Carol Twombly for Adobe
Systems. Modified for printing on paper, the
font has stronger serifs than the original, with
different stem and bowl weights, the letter "N"
being narrower and "S" wider.
Depicted in low relief, the weapons and armor
of the conquered Dacians are portrayed on
the pedestal frieze in wonderful detail. On the cornice, swags of oak leaves tied with fluttering
ribbons are held at the corners in the talons of eagles, two of which survive. Inside the square
base, which was accessed by bronze doors, a vestibule leads to a landing and stairs on the right
and, on the other side, behind another set of doors, to the sepulcher that held the ashes of Trajan
in a golden urn (Aurelius Victor, De Caesaribus, XIII.11; Eutropius VIII.5) and later his wife,
Plotina.
Like an unrolled scroll, a spiral frieze winds twenty-three times around the column, depicting the
campaigns of Trajan in Dacia in AD 101-102 and AD 105-106. It likely illustrates the emperor's
own commentary on the wars, a book, now lost, that was housed in the adjacent library. Depicted
in low relief, there are one hundred and fifty-five scenes, in which more than twenty-five hundred
figures are represented, no less than sixty of Trajan, himself. Only eighteen scenes actually
depict battles; most show the day-to-day activities of the army. Situated between the two libraries
and enclosed by a peristyle, only the elaborately decorated base was not obstructed from view,
and it is not certain if these scenes could be appreciated or even were ignored once the column
had been erected.
At the top was a statue of the emperor in gilt bronze, access to which was by a spiral staircase
illuminated by a series of slit windows cut into the marble.