Trajan\'s Column V Adamklissi

[tlclark]

Crispus,

Sorry to take so long to reply.

I asked my prof the other day about the date of the column. She said that nothing is more spurious than coin dates.

Still, She figures that's about when the column was done but that it's obvious that large portions of the Basilica Ulpia and the Forum of Trajan are much later.

I asked her when the Adamklissi monument was and she said "either before or after that"

Typical archaeologist. Won't commit to anything. What a dodge.

About soldier/artisans:

I think it's a matter of timing. During the campaign and initial phases I'm betting that most soldiers had more important things to attend to, however, during the long occupation phases, which admittedly, were endless, there are any number of skills that a soldier could pick up, that seems reasonable, but there is no way to know for sure. As far as sculptors in the military, this is a hard one to answer. A lot of things that we would think of as unnecessary to the military do show up.

As evidence I offer this:

http://mdfay.blogspot.com/

This guy is the official ARTIST for the US marine corps. Who knew? So maybe they did have artists! Although that brings up another issue. The idea of an "Artist" is really a post-renaissance phenomenon, but that's another debate.

On the accuracy of a soldier/artist, that is a thorny one for me, but as I said, Tarbicus is slowly (very slowly) converting me to this view, but as I mentioned, the thing that turned me around on the Adamklissi thing is the chain links, which look exactly like depictions on the Arch of Septimus Severus.

Now here's the rub. The Arch of Septimus Severus was certainly not made by soldiers. So that argues for the reliefs being the works of sensitive artists and not soldiers. Every time I look this thing gets more complicated.

I have some longer comments on the methodological differences of Art historians and military historians, but I need to get back to work.

Thanks again,

Travis