Editing Roman art (section)

===Narrative reliefs===
While Greek sculptors traditionally illustrated military exploits through the use of mythological allegory, the Romans used a more documentary style. Roman reliefs of battle scenes, like those on the [[Column of Trajan]], were created for the glorification of Roman might, but also provide first-hand representation of military costumes and military equipment. Trajan's column records the various [[Trajan's Dacian Wars|Dacian wars]] conducted by [[Trajan]] in what is modern day [[Romania]]. It is the foremost example of Roman historical relief and one of the great artistic treasures of the ancient world. This unprecedented achievement, over {{convert|650|ft|m}} of spiraling length, presents not just realistically rendered individuals (over 2,500 of them), but landscapes, animals, ships, and other elements in a continuous visual history&nbsp;– in effect an ancient precursor of a documentary movie. It survived destruction when it was adapted as a base for Christian sculpture.<ref name="Piper, p. 256">Piper, p. 256</ref> During the Christian era after 300 AD, the decoration of door panels and sarcophagi continued but full-sized sculpture died out and did not appear to be an important element in early churches.<ref name="Piper, p. 261"/>