Close up of the banded armour on Trajan\'s Columnn

[Crispvs]

Thanks frater crispe for the website - interesting reading. I am not sure that I am comfortable about all of their conclusions though. They say, for instance, that many hands were drilled to accept metal weapons but that some of these were left empty. How do they know this? It seems like an assumption to me. Similarly the statement that the reliefs were carved during assembly contains a number of assumptions. Firstly, they say that it would not have been possible to establish the exact area available for each scene prior to construction. I would suggest that it would be easier to measure the drums while still on the ground and establish the available areas for the various scenes than after they had been placed in position and were thus less accessable.<br>
Secondly, they say that the alignment of the groundline in certain places shows that the sculpture may have been executed during constuction. Certainly this is possible but there are also other possible reasons for this, especially when it can be shown that certain of the sculpters were less carefull than others in their attention to detail.<br>
Thirdly, they suggest that the variation in the height of the freize shows that the sculpters did not know how much space they would have available and state that this argues for the sculpture having been done prior to completion. I would suggest that in fact it argues for the opposite: if the sculpture had been planned prior to construction there would have been the opportunity to measure the height of the drums accurately and work out a suitable standard height for the sculpters to employ for the freize. If the freize was not concieved until the column was already standing the height of the column itself would have made it much more difficult to make the accurate measurements which would allow for the much neater sculpture which we know the Romans were capable of. A team of sculpters, all working at different heights on scaffolding around the column may have found it difficult to co-ordinate the sculpture as accurately as they could have if it had been planned prior to construction.<br>
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The article which proposed a Hadrianic date for the spiral frieze was published in 1993 or 1994. I don't remember the author's name or which journal I found it in, but I do remember that it was entitled: 'Hadrian's Column of Trajan'. Interestingly, much of the evidence used by the author was numismatic. It is ten years now since I read it so I am a little hazy about the exact arguments now but if you can get hold of it you might find it an interesting read, even if only to check the coin evidence. Jon Coulston may be able to help in tracking it down.<br>
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Crispvs <p></p><i></i>