05-03-2007, 01:58 AM
To deal with a couple of points;
firstly, Tarbicus' point about the hairstyle - both the column and theTT show three distinct styles of dress, beard and hairstyle which have been identified as Dacian, Germanic (Bastarnae) and Sarmatian ( Roxolani).The Germanic type, trousers,bare chested,suebian hair-knot etc are the only ones who wield the two-handed falx. The Dacian type (trousers and tunic) are only ever armed with the single-handed 'sica' and shield.
So,unless there were Dacian re-enactors portraying Bastarnae.....!!! - but that would ruin the iconographic message the Romans were depicting.
Secondly, who built it and why?
At the site of Adamklissi, near the mouth of the Danube (Roman lower moesia) are three monuments. The first two are 200 yards or so apart, and face each other.One is a large mausoleum aprox 125 feet (40 metres) in diameter and is built over a sacrificial pit containing ox-bones. The second is an altar aprox 40 ft (12 metres) and on this altar are engraved the names of the fallen.(around 3000 - it was a major defeat for Rome) These are dated to the reign of Domitian by various means ( including e.g a senior officer whose name, at the top, is all but illegible described as from Naples, formerly of Pompeii, which makes the date post 79A.D - he is likely to be Oppius Sabinus, governor of Moesia).As described in literature, these monuments would have been at opposite ends of a parade ground where annual sacrifices would likely have been held.
The third is the T.T. - a massive drum around 100ft(30 metres) in diameter,originally around 40 ft (12 mtres) high and topped by a stone stylised "trophy" in classical style.There were 54 panels (metopes) originally, around the drum which tell a story of Trajan's campaign in lower Moesia ( I'll save the history for another day ). The monument is very different to the other two and clearly commemorates a huge victory. Significantly, it is dedicated to "Mars Ultor" ( Mars, god of war, the Avenger). It is also significant that it is erected not on the site of a victory, but the site of the defeat. It proclaims a powerful message - Rome's ability to ruthlessly avenge her fallen.
In design, it is particularly Roman in style, and there can be little doubt that all three were erected by the Army of Lower Moesia. For example, the metopes are very similar to military funerary monuments. Of the 54 metopes, 49 still exist, a fiftieth fell into the Danube while being moved and the survivors vary considerably in their degree of erosion etc. You will notice I have used the term "Army" rather than legionaries or auxiliaries ! Probably all were involved in the construction, which took place in 107/108 a.d, shortly after the end of the second Dacian War. The T.T thus precedes the column by about five years.
Most of the information above comes via lectures of professor Ian Richmond at the British School in Rome,Lepper and Frere's book I referred to earlier, personal research and the Romanian professor Florescu's 'Tropaeum Traiani'
Hope this is of interest, and that I haven't rambled too much !!
Paullus Scipio/Paul McDonnell-Staff
firstly, Tarbicus' point about the hairstyle - both the column and theTT show three distinct styles of dress, beard and hairstyle which have been identified as Dacian, Germanic (Bastarnae) and Sarmatian ( Roxolani).The Germanic type, trousers,bare chested,suebian hair-knot etc are the only ones who wield the two-handed falx. The Dacian type (trousers and tunic) are only ever armed with the single-handed 'sica' and shield.
So,unless there were Dacian re-enactors portraying Bastarnae.....!!! - but that would ruin the iconographic message the Romans were depicting.
Secondly, who built it and why?
At the site of Adamklissi, near the mouth of the Danube (Roman lower moesia) are three monuments. The first two are 200 yards or so apart, and face each other.One is a large mausoleum aprox 125 feet (40 metres) in diameter and is built over a sacrificial pit containing ox-bones. The second is an altar aprox 40 ft (12 metres) and on this altar are engraved the names of the fallen.(around 3000 - it was a major defeat for Rome) These are dated to the reign of Domitian by various means ( including e.g a senior officer whose name, at the top, is all but illegible described as from Naples, formerly of Pompeii, which makes the date post 79A.D - he is likely to be Oppius Sabinus, governor of Moesia).As described in literature, these monuments would have been at opposite ends of a parade ground where annual sacrifices would likely have been held.
The third is the T.T. - a massive drum around 100ft(30 metres) in diameter,originally around 40 ft (12 mtres) high and topped by a stone stylised "trophy" in classical style.There were 54 panels (metopes) originally, around the drum which tell a story of Trajan's campaign in lower Moesia ( I'll save the history for another day ). The monument is very different to the other two and clearly commemorates a huge victory. Significantly, it is dedicated to "Mars Ultor" ( Mars, god of war, the Avenger). It is also significant that it is erected not on the site of a victory, but the site of the defeat. It proclaims a powerful message - Rome's ability to ruthlessly avenge her fallen.
In design, it is particularly Roman in style, and there can be little doubt that all three were erected by the Army of Lower Moesia. For example, the metopes are very similar to military funerary monuments. Of the 54 metopes, 49 still exist, a fiftieth fell into the Danube while being moved and the survivors vary considerably in their degree of erosion etc. You will notice I have used the term "Army" rather than legionaries or auxiliaries ! Probably all were involved in the construction, which took place in 107/108 a.d, shortly after the end of the second Dacian War. The T.T thus precedes the column by about five years.
Most of the information above comes via lectures of professor Ian Richmond at the British School in Rome,Lepper and Frere's book I referred to earlier, personal research and the Romanian professor Florescu's 'Tropaeum Traiani'
Hope this is of interest, and that I haven't rambled too much !!
Paullus Scipio/Paul McDonnell-Staff
"dulce et decorum est pro patria mori " - Horace
(It is a sweet and proper thing to die for ones country)
"No son-of-a-bitch ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country" - George C Scott as General George S. Patton
Paul McDonnell-Staff
(It is a sweet and proper thing to die for ones country)
"No son-of-a-bitch ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country" - George C Scott as General George S. Patton
Paul McDonnell-Staff
