#CLST6 The continuative narrative on Trajan's column leaves us with many small scenes to look at when examining this monument! One of the themes I found very interesting that I will elaborate on in this #RR17 is the insertion of Trajan into almost every scene. /1 https://twitter.com/FlintCLST6/status/1323682034322231296

I noticed this when reading the titles that Prof. Ulrich used to label scenes. These labels include "Additional fort construction with Trajan as overseer" and "Fort construction with Trajan's supervision." (1) These titles seem to separate Trajan from the actual action. /2

The images of these scenes highlight this clearly. Below are the images from scene XII (1). In the image of the full scene, we see many Romans working together to build the fort. Trajan, however, is just standing there, not participating in the actual efforts of construction. /3

Below are the images from scene XX (1). Once again the Roman's are working hard to build a fort: they carry heavy parts and lay bricks. Meanwhile, Trajan stands there as overseer again not participating. His insertion in this scene seems almost irrelevant to the storyline. /4

In considering that this is a victory monument for Trajan built by his official architect (2), it makes sense that he would want to be featured frequently. However, this also seems to be misleading because he was not actively participating in these aspects of the victory. /5

Citations:
(1) http://www.trajans-column.org/?page_id=107 
(2) Kleiner, Roman Art. Chapter 12. Page 190.