The Roman Army: A Social and Institutional History - Karatunov.net

I n t r o d u c t i o n 15
eign wars of conquest, he made certain that the military elements received little
or no em phasis on this arch . Be s i des this del i bera te su ppre s s i on of too mu ch
martial propaganda, the sculptural evidence is more misleading than ever, since
the roundels and sculptured figures were taken from other, older monuments,
chiefly from Trajanic and Hadrianic buildings of the late first and early second
centuries ad. Therefore, the sculptures do not necessarily depict the contempora
ry pre s en t a ti on of Con s t a n ti n e’s fo u rt h - cen tu ry ach i evem en t s , or his en emies,
or his troops.
Perhaps the most intensively and extensively studied monuments concerning
the Roman army are the columns of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius, with their
con ti nuous sculptu red spirals doc u m en ting the Danu bian Wa rs of these two
em perors . These rel i ef s c u l ptu res have been label ed strip cartoon s , but it is
probably more pertinent to compare them, at least in terms of political and mili
t a ry prop a ga n d a , with the Bayeux tape s try, wh erein Wi lliam the Con qu eror
presented his pictorial narrative of the Norman conquest of England in 1066.
Every scene on these columns is worthy of study, and there is a large corpus
of modern work describing every aspect of them from artistic, social, political,
and military viewpoints (Lepper and Frere, 1988). Trajan’s Column commemorates
the Dacian Wars of the early second century ad, which ended with the annexation
of Dacian territory and its conversion to a Roman province, more or
less co terminous with the bo u n d a ries of m odern Rom a n i a . The co lumn was
ded i c a ted in ad 1 1 3 . The rel i efs spiral upw a rd from the base in a con ti nu o u s
pictorial narrative, showing various scenes from the wars that presumably could
be authenticated by the men who took part in the events. The many scenes on
the co lumn show the army on the march , l oading ships, d i s em b a rking from
s h i p s , c rossing a river on a bri d ge of boa t s , building forts and camps, fell i n g
trees, fighting battles, besieging cities, having their wounds dressed, taking animals
to religious sacrifices, listening to addresses by the Emperor Trajan. The rel
i efs show the details of m i l i t a ry dre s s , a rm or, s h i el d s , a va ri ety of we a pon s ,
standards, and soldiers carrying their kit on poles. Different types of troops are
included, possibly in stylized form. Not only legionaries and auxiliary infantry
and cava l ry are shown , but also there are scale-arm ored Sa rm a ti a n s , s c a n ti ly
cl ad Numidian hors em en , and clu b - wi el d i n g, tro u s ered , l on g - h a i red native
troops fighting on the Roman side. Attempts have been made to recognize specific
units known to have been in Trajan’s army. In particular, the native troops
fighting with clubs have been equated with the numeri, small units not strictly
cl a s s i f i edas the usual a u xi l i a , wh i ch are atte s ted on the German fron ti er and
el s ewh ere , but it has to be em ph a s i zed that there is not en o u gh evi den ce to
identify any of the troops represented on Trajan’s Column so closely as this.
Another monument that commemorated the Dacian Wars of Trajan was set
up in Romania itself, at Adamklissi. There are three monuments on this site—
one a mausoleum that may not be of Trajanic date; an altar that commemorates