Roman achievements: the purpose of the memorial columns

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Triumphal columns, also known as memorial columns, have been erected in Rome from time to time to capture and remember the victories and achievements of the great emperors. Does everyone know this?

This is not entirely true. First of all, columns were built not so much for memory - for “O quam cito transit gloria mundi” and the Romans from time immemorial did not count on immortality - but for honoring the emperor with honors, exalting and describing the victories he brought in the name of Rome. Secondly, the triumphal columns had not only aesthetic and educational functions. The directly resulting, indirect function of such monuments is propaganda, a kind of performance that promotes the enemy's stigma on the ones described in the plot, the “barbarization” of barbarians and the triumph of civilization into the consciousness. In addition, it is a demonstration of the power of the ruling ruler, the consolidation of his legacy. Although the consciousness of citizens previously did not tolerate this kind of insolence, which was clearly demonstrated by Tiberius Gracchus, behind the veil of already ossified republican traditions, something supernatural was not seen in this, certainly the emperors of the principate era tried to hide such aspirations as much as possible. There is no need to talk about the purpose of the dominate and post-dominate monuments.

Trajan's Column at Forum Romanum

The architectural form and appearance of all subsequent columns, of course, was set by Trajan's Column - the first triumphal column in Rome. The commander was motivated, perhaps, by the desire to distinguish himself from his predecessors. The thirty-five-meter column impressed (and still impresses) with its 190-meter frieze that bends around the column for 23 circles, describing Trajan's two victorious military campaigns against the Dacians (101-102 and 105-106). This building made a great impression on contemporaries. The question is fair - how could all this beauty of the scenes be seen from the ground? The entire frieze was not visible from the ground, but it was surrounded on three sides by two flanking libraries and the Ulpia Basilica, and from the balconies one could see the scenes closer. Such columns were either solid structures or were composed of drums; in the latter case, they were hollow and contained inside spiral staircases leading to the upper landing.

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Rise and platform

However, some of the functions described above were previously performed by the more ancient Triumphal Arches. However, what is characteristic is that if the arches carried a more applied, if I may say so, in the ceremonial sense of the word function - the passage of the triumphant through them, and were installed at the expense of citizens, then the triumphal columns, on the contrary - at the expense of private funds, often by the emperors themselves. Curiously, during the reign of Octavian Augustus, the practice of triumphal processions was strictly limited to members of the imperial family. Thus, the princeps monopolized the construction of such monuments in the minds of citizens, on which their appearance no longer depended on the wishes of the people.

Column of Pompey (Diocletian)

Today, only a few ancient columns have survived in Rome, such as the column of Marcus Aurelius, the column of Phocas, and the most famous of them is Trajan's column and part of the column of Antoninus Pius. However, not only in Rome itself, columns were installed, but also in the provincial capitals: the Column of Pompey (Diocletian) in Alexandria. They continued to be installed in later times of the 4th-7th centuries, examples: Column of Constantine, Column of Theodosius, Column of Arcadius, Justinian, Gothic, etc. located in Constantinople.

Columns of Justinian and Theodosius

Later, the practice of installing triumphal columns was adopted by the Christian church, for example: the Column of the Immaculate Conception at Forum Romanum. The barbarian leaders also did not stand aside - the Croes Elisedd pillar in Wales was erected by King Powys (one of the early medieval kingdoms of the Welsh) Kingen ap Cadell in honor of his grandfather Eliset ap Guilogh.