Editing Trajan's Column (section)

== Frieze ==

===Design===
The column shows 2,662 figures and 155 scenes; Trajan himself appears on the column 58 times.<ref name="Curry">{{cite web|last1=Curry|first1=Andrew|title=Trajan's Amazing Column|url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/trajan-column/article.html|access-date=11 April 2018|website=National Geographic}}</ref>

The continuous helical frieze winds 23 times from base to capital and was an architectural innovation in its time.<ref name="Dillon">{{cite book|last1=Dillon|first1=Sheila|title=Representation of War in Ancient Rome |publisher=Cambridge University Press|pages=244–270}}</ref> The design was adopted by later emperors such as [[Marcus Aurelius]]. The narrative band expands from about {{convert|1|m|ft|abbr=off}} at the base of the column to {{convert|1.2|m|ft|1|abbr=off}} at the top.<ref>{{cite book |title=Art History |author1=[[Marilyn Stokstad]] |author2=Michael W. Cothren |year=2011 |edition=4th |location=Boston |publisher=Prentice Hall}}</ref> 
The scenes unfold continuously. Often a variety of different perspectives are used in the same scene, so that more can be revealed (''e.g.'', a different angle is used to show men working behind a wall).

=== Historical content portrayed ===

The relief portrays Trajan's two victorious [[Trajan's Dacian Wars|military campaigns against the Dacians]]; the lower half illustrating the first (101–102), and the top half illustrating the second (105–106). These campaigns were contemporary to the time of the column's construction. The frieze repeats standardized scenes of imperial address (''adlocutio''), sacrifice (''lustratio''), and the army setting out on campaign (''profectio'').<ref>{{cite book |last1=Holscher |first1=Tonio |date=2001}}{{full citation needed|date=March 2021}}{{page needed|date=March 2021}}</ref> Scenes of battle are very much a minority on the column; instead it emphasizes images of orderly soldiers carrying out ceremony and construction. The aim of the Dacian campaigns was to incorporate and integrate Dacia into the Roman Empire as a province. On Trajan's Column, imagery related to wartime violence in general seems to have been downplayed and depictions of violent action towards foreign women and children are nonexistent.<ref name="Dillon"/> Some scholars suggest the lack of battle scenes and large number of construction scenes was meant to speak to the urban population of Rome (the primary audience), addressing their fear and distrust of the army by depicting its warfare as one with little collateral damage.<ref name="Dillon"/> The portrayal of the Roman army as relatively gentle may have been designed to support Trajan's image as a man of "justice, clemency, moderation, and restraint".<ref name="Spiral" /> Others have argued that the number of tree-felling scenes on the Column (48 of the 224 trees on the Column are being felled) work alongside the bridging of the Danube at the base, and are meant to speak to a more total conquest of the province than had previously been achieved.<ref name="Fox">{{harvnb|Fox|2019}}</ref> Key specific events portrayed are the first crossing of the Danube by the Roman legion, Trajan's voyage up the Danube, the surrender of the Dacians at the close of the first war, the great sacrifice by the Danube bridge during the second war, the assault on the Dacian capital, and the death of the Dacian king [[Decebalus]].<ref name="Trajan">{{cite web|title=Trajan's Column|url=http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/antiquity/trajans-column.htm|website=visual-arts-cork.com|access-date=11 April 2018}}</ref> The two sections are separated by a personification of [[Victoria (mythology)|victory]] writing on a shield flanked on either side by trophies.

[[File:046 Conrad Cichorius, Die Reliefs der Traianssäule, Tafel XLVI (Ausschnitt 01).jpg|thumb|Roman [[carroballista]], a cart-mounted field artillery weapon (relief detail)]]

Great care was taken to distinguish the men and women from both sides of the campaign as well as the ranks within these distinct groups. The scenes are crowded with sailors, soldiers, statesmen and priests, showing about 2,500 figures in all. It also exists as a valuable source of information on Roman and barbarian arms and methods of warfare (such as forts, ships, weapons, etc.) and costume. The relief shows details such as a [[ballista]] or catapult. This detail is evident in the variety of trees on the Column, each individually stylised following 37 types, which has led some scholars to identify particular species.<ref name="Stoiculescu 85-7">{{harvnb|Stoiculescu|1985|pp=85–7}}</ref> The precise details create a strong effect of [[Effect of Reality|verisimilitude]]; the designer presents the images as objective historical truth.<ref name="Dillon"/> The emperor Trajan is depicted realistically in the veristic style, making 58 appearances as the central hero among his troops.<ref name="Spiral">{{cite web|title=Introduction to the Spiral Frieze of Trajan's Column in Rome|url=http://www.trajans-column.org/?page_id=404|website=Trajan's Column in Rome|access-date=11 April 2018}}</ref>

Women for the most part occupy and define the margins of the scenes. However, mortal females in Roman state art are so rare it is remarkable that they are included at all in a war monument. In the male discourse of warfare, women are a visual trope that develops further the idea of subjugation by feminizing the foreign conquered.<ref name="Dillon"/> However, on the column is "one of the most unusual, disturbing, and violent depictions of women in Roman art, the torture scene."<ref name="Dillon"/> In this unusual scene, four Dacian women are depicted torturing two naked men.