Papers of the British School at Rome http://journals.cambridge.org/ROM Additional services for Papers of the British School at Rome: Email alerts: Click here Subscriptions: Click here Commercial reprints: Click here Terms of use : Click here The Historical Interpretation of the Reliefs of Trajan's Column H. Stuart Jones Papers of the British School at Rome / Volume 5 / January 1910, pp 434 - 459 DOI: 10.1017/S0068246200005353, Published online: 09 August 2013 Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0068246200005353 How to cite this article: H. Stuart Jones (1910). The Historical Interpretation of the Reliefs of Trajan's Column. Papers of the British School at Rome, 5, pp 434-459 doi:10.1017/S0068246200005353 Request Permissions : Click here Downloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/ROM, IP address: 169.230.243.252 on 03 Apr 2015 PAPERS OF THE BRITISH SCHOOL AT ROME VOL. V. No. 7 THE HISTORICAL INTERPRETATION OF THE RELIEFS OF TRAJAN'S COLUMN BY H. STUART JONES, M.A. Formerly Director of the British School af Rome; Member of the German Imperial Archaeological Institute LONDON: 1910 F F THE HISTORICAL INTERPRETATION OF THE RELIEFS OF TRAJAN'S COLUMN. 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 Con- gress at Berlin on August 8, 1908. It is unnecessary to say that the great publication of Cichorius1 (and the incisive criticisms of that work by Petersen2) have brought the question here to be discussed into the fore- ground of archaeological debate ; the views since put forward by von Domas- zewski3 and Weber4 appear to me (as will presently be shewn) to betoken a retrogression in the direction of theories which should have been recog- nised as put definitely out of court by the researches of Cichorius and Petersen. 'No attempt has been made in this paper to enter into full topo- graphical detail, except where such is essential to the argument. I have not had an opportunity of visiting the scenes of Trajan's campaigns, and 1 Die Keliefs dcr Trajayissciule, 1896-1 goo. 2 Trajans dakischc Kriege nach dem Saulenrelief erzahlt, 1899-1903 (two vols., referred to below as ' Petersen i and ii'). 3 Philologus, 1906, pp. 321 ff. 4 Untersuchungen zur Geschichie des Kaisers Haariamts, pp. 18 f. F F 2 436 THE BRITISH SCHOOL AT ROME. without such personal inspection of the sites an adequate commentary on the reliefs cannot be written. We may assume at the outset that the designer of the reliefs was an innovator, seeking for a means of expression under fresh material conditions aud obliged to create new conventions with this end in view. The history of the spiral column in ancient architecture has been traced by M. Victor Chapot,1 but he has not been able to furnish any example of such decoration as we here see applied to a helicoid surface. But in the reign of Trajan the time was ripe for such an experiment. Whatever the merits of Roman art, it must be conceded that it had the defect of overloading the field of decoration with ornament. The function of the artist was to tell with the least possible omission the story of the Imperial triumphs (whether in peace or war) which he was called to celebrate ; and since the Flavian period the restraining influence of the classical Hellenic standards was growing weaker. A comparison of the Arch of Trajan at Beneventum with that of Titus at Rome will do more than any words to make this point clear. Nor can we be surprised that the spiral column seemed to afford too good an opportunity for the perpetuation of Trajan's military exploits to be lost. Thus it is not necessary to search for models in the earlier history of sculpture or painting, nor to appeal to the remoter analogies of the book-roll or the cncvTaKrj. The style thus brought into being is commonly known—after Wickhoff —as 'continuous.' This term is not altogether well chosen. If it expresses more than the bare fact that a continuous band of relief is here used to depict a connected narrative, it must imply that there is an unbroken background upon which the events unfold themselves ; and this is very far from being true. To the historian the breaks and pauses in the narrative revealed by attentive study are of the first importance; and it is essential to the right understanding of the monument that we should distinguish three modes by which the artist unfolds his story : (a) The episodic, successive, or isolating style, where we have a series of incidents clearly marked off as individual scenes : of this the most obvious examples are to be found at the beginning of the several campaigns, where the Allocutio, the Lustratio exercitus, and the council of war are successively shewn, or again in the disconnected episodes which follow the great crisis of the action, such as the Allocutio (Cich. xlii.), the interment of 1 La colonne torse et le dtcor en hilice dans I'art antique, Paris, 1907. INTERPRETATION OF THE RELIEFS OF TRAJAN'S COLUMN. 437 the Dacian chiefs (Cich. xliii.), the distribution of the dona militaria (Cich. xliv.), and the torture of Roman prisoners (Cich. xlv.) : (6) The continuous style, properly so called, where the march of events proceeds in the foreground without abrupt transitions (the back- ground being represented as continuous) in such a manner that the spectator is carried on through a series of scenes adroitly linked together to the climax of the narrative : the journey of Trajan at the outset of the second war is the classical example of this : (c) The panoramic style—a bold experiment, in which the artist, assuming in the spectator some acquaintance with the subject-matter of the narrative and also with the principles of symmetrical composition, inherited from Greek art, unfolds in a comprehensive picture a series of events or moments not in reality contemporaneous; it will be shewn that we have a striking instance of this procedure in the Second War. A careful study of the reliefs leads to the conclusion that the designer became only gradually aware of the potentialities inherent in the style which he was creating, and that in the treatment of the Second War he attained greater freedom of composition and ventured on bolder and more successful experiments than in the earlier stacje of his work. It will not be amiss here to give a very brief resume of the story as he tells it; marking the changes of method. The numbering of scenes follows that of Cichorius, but is adopted solely for convenience of reference, since (as Petersen pointed out) the divisions are often arbitrary. Where the artist has not clearly indicated a break in the narrative by such conventional signs as a tree, a change of direction, or a repetition of the principal figures, subdivision is perilous and often misleading. I.—FIRST WAR (A.D. 101-2). (a) First Campaign (A.D. 102). § 1. Introductory (i.-iii.). The Danube frontier line. § 2. Crossing of the river (iv., v.). § 3. Advance and clearing of route (vi.-xx.) ; episodic. § 4. Final advance and engagement (xxi.-xxiv.) ; continuous. § 5. Later operations (xxv.-xxx.); episodic. 438 THE BRITISH SCHOOL AT ROME. (b) Winter Campaign (A.D. 102-3). § 1. Dacians take the offensive (xxxi., xxxii.). § 2. Trajan proceeds to the scene of action and drives off the raiders (xxxiii.-xxxvii.); continuous. § 3. Operations in Lower Moesia (including battle-scene) and return of Trajan (xxxviii.-xlvii.). (c) Second Campaign (A.D. 103). § 1. Crossing of the Danube (xlviii.). § 2. Advance by fresh route and storm of Dacian positions (xlix.-lxxiii); mainly episodic. § 3. Fall of Sarmizegetusa and submission of Decebalus (lxxiv.-lxxvi.); panoramic. § 4. Final allocutio (lxxvii.). II.—SECOND WAR (A.D. 105-6). {a) First Campaign (A.D. 105). § 1. Journey of Trajan to Moesia (lxxix.-xc.); continuous. § 2. Sacrifice at Six Altars (xci.). § 3. Relief of Roman garrisons (xcii.-xcviii) ; panoramic. (b) Operations Suspended {Winter, A.D. 105-6). § I. Trajan at Pontes (xcix.). § 2. Trajan at Drobetae (a). (c) Second Campaign (A.D. 106). § I. Preliminary scenes (ci.-cv.); episodic. § 2. Advance in two columns (cvi.-cx.) ; continuous. § 3. Dacians' alarm ; first contact of the armies (cxi., cxii.). § 4. Siege of Sarmizegetusa (cxiii.-cxviii.) ; continuous. § 5. Fall of Sarmize^etusa (cxix.—cxxii.) ; panoramic. § 6. War in the mountains (cxxiii.-end); mainly episodic (some scenes treated in the continuous manner). In translating the narrative whose outlines have been thus traced from picture-language into that of prose history, it is to be assumed that the INTERPRETATION OF THE RELIEFS OF TRAJAN'S COLUMN. 439 designer endeavoured to make his record of fact as plain and as straight- forward as the conditions of his art allowed. Sometimes, it is true, especially in the great panoramic chapter which relates the story of the timely relief given by Trajan to his hard-pressed garrisons in A.D.