Trajan's triumphal column. Trajan's Column: A Stone Comic of Ancient Rome

One of the most grandiose squares in Rome is the Forum of Trajan. It was here that all political structure Ancient Rome from the Roman Forum. The new forum was distinguished by a thoughtful composition, luxury, details, an abundance of decorations and statues. And the main decoration was Trajan's column.

Trajan's Column in Rome: history and description

The forum was built to commemorate the victory of Emperor Trajan over the Dacians. The architect of this building was Apollodorus from Damascus. The area measuring 116 by 95 meters was paved with colored marble. The entrance to it went through the triumphal arch depicted on a number of Roman coins. On three sides were porticos, with statues of famous Roman figures. On the fourth side was the basilica - a building intended for political events. Behind the basilica there were two libraries - Greek and Latin, between which the famous column Trajan.

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This white marble column of Trajan was built here in 113. It is made up of 17 hollow marble cylinders and is 30 meters high. The column is mounted on a pedestal 5.5 meters high. Inside the hollow column there is a spiral staircase with 185 steps that lead to the capital-platform of the column.

Initially, the top of Trajan's column was decorated with a gilded eagle. After Trajan's death, it was replaced with a statue of the emperor. And in the VI century, the statue of St. Peter. There is a tradition that although Trajan was a pagan, his character and deeds were fully consistent with the Christian faith. Pope Gregory Velina once thought that such a pious person as Trajan, not knowing the true faith, is now in purgatory. With this thought, he went to St. Peter's and began to pray for the Roman emperor. The voice answered him that he had heard prayers. But as a price for changing the established order, the pope was offered two options - either he would be destined to serve two days in purgatory, or he would live with eternal pain and suffering until the end of his days. Pope Gregory chose the second option, but in memory of these events, the statue of St. Apostle Peter, who holds the keys to paradise.

It is worth noting that Trajan's body was buried under a column. By decision of the Senate and the new emperor, an exception was made to the ban on burying in cities, so that the column in this case is also a tombstone.

But the main asset of Trajan's Column in Rome is its bas-relief. He is in historical sequence narrates about two wars of Trajan against the Dacians. The reliefs are very precise and detailed, they depict more than 2,500 human figures, among which the image of the emperor is repeated about 90 times. Some of the mythological Roman characters are also present among them. But the main thing in these reliefs is their detail. The images are of great historical value, they convey the details of clothing and weapons of that era, landscapes, faces.

AT this moment Trajan's column continues to decorate the square and delight the eyes of tourists.

To column of Trajan - an absolute "column" world classic))) sorry for the pun))))
It got its name because it is located on the forum of Trajan. This column, created by the architect Apollodorus of Damascus in 113 AD. e. in honor of Trajan's victories over the Dacians, the most famous column in the world. Columns were built in her image in Rome and Paris (Napoleon's column) and in other countries.

It is made of 20 blocks of Karar marble, has a height of 38 m (together with a pedestal) and a diameter of 4 m. The column is hollow inside: it contains a spiral staircase with 185 steps leading to a platform on the capitals. The monument weighs about 40 tons. The trunk of the column spirals 23 times around a 190 m long ribbon with reliefs depicting episodes of the war between Rome and Dacia. It was originally crowned with an eagle, later with a statue of Trajan.

It is interesting that they learned about the course of the war with the Dacians precisely from the bas-reliefs of the columns, since there were no documents about it.

The actions of the Roman army are mainly depicted: movement, construction of fortifications, river crossings, battles. In total, there are about 2,500 human figures on the column. In addition to Victory, there are other allegorical figures in the relief: the Danube in the form of a majestic old man, Night - a woman with a veiled face, etc.

Individual figures are rendered very realistically, so that the relief of the column serves as a valuable source for studying weapons, armor, costumes - both Romans and Dacians of that time. The sculptors deliberately sacrificed perspective in order to achieve greater information content. The details of the landscape, the fortress walls are not to scale. Close and distant human figures have the same clarity and size and are located one above the other.

At the base of the column is a door leading to the hall where the golden urns with the ashes of Trajan and his wife Pompeii Plotina were placed.

The Apostle Peter with the keys was put there much later, in 1588. This was done by Sixtus V.

Throw him out of there, but put the rightful emperor.

Emperor Ulpius Trajan was from Spain. It was one of the most successful rulers Rome. ATTENTION!!! He started his career as a simple legionnaire and became emperor of the Roman Empire solely due to his merit!

Trajan became famous as a talented commander who managed to expand the boundaries of the Roman Empire to the maximum extent, as well as a reformer and organizer of the internal affairs of the empire.

Trajan himself is depicted on the column about 90 times (Wikipedia claims that 59 times), and everywhere he is not alone, but in the midst of legionnaires. In addition to the legionnaires, the Dacians defeated by the emperor are also depicted.

Initially, Trajan's column was crowned with a golden Roman eagle, and after the death of the emperor, his statue was installed on it. In 1588, by order of Pope Sixtus the Fifth, a statue of the Apostle Peter was installed on the column, crowning the column to this day.

View of Piazza Venezia.

(C) Wikipedia and other sites.

One of the main decorations of the great Rome is the famous forum of Trajan, which brought together historical buildings ancient era. Here the main political formations ancient rome. Undoubtedly, the main decoration of the square was the famous Trajan's Column, covered with legends and hypotheses, which majestically rises above the city.

The structure of the forum was thought out to the smallest detail. Its author was the Damascus architect Apollodorus. The entrance to the square, paved with multi-colored marble, was decorated Triumphal Arch. Sculptures were placed on three sides famous figures Roman Empire, and the fourth side placed a political building - the basilica, in which political decrees were created. Between the Greek and Latin libraries is the famous Trajan's Column itself.

History of Trajan's Column

According to many historians, the building was built in the second century AD. in honor of the Roman emperor Trajan, who ruled in 98-117. and won the war with the Dacians. In their opinion, the figures of people depicted on the column reflect fragments of the era of Trajan's reign and battles, led by the emperor himself, although there are no inscriptions confirming these events on the building itself. It was suggested that the first pedestal of the column was headed by the figure of the golden eagle, then the emperor Trajan, and later, since Trajan was not a true Christian, but a pagan, it was decided to install the pedestal of St. Peter, who, as everyone knows, stands there to this day.

Riddles and entertaining secrets of the Trojan column

The white marble structure consists of a 30 meter column and a 5.5 meter high pedestal. It is believed that the column contains hollow marble cylinders interconnected, as it turns out later - this is not entirely true. In the middle of the column are 185 steps leading up to the capital-platform. Bas-relief of the column - here main feature and historical value of this structure. It contains over 2500 human images and mythical figures of the past. Some historians claim that the image of Trajan is captured about 90 times on the bas-relief of the column. In fact, this is just an erroneous assumption, which for many years has been interpreted by historiographers, not directly paying attention to contradictory facts.

The Trojan column, as it turned out, was erected not earlier, but even later than the second half of the 13th century. The figures of people depicted on it are a story about the well-known Trojan War, which occurred in the 13th century, i.e. the famous Crusades - this is what is actually depicted by the masters of the building. These are not just regular guesses, there are several weighty arguments that cannot refute this assumption in any way.

Irrefutable facts about the emergence of the Trojan column:

  1. Trajan's Column does not have a single inscription, names, numbers that could exactly confirm or refute the date of construction of the architectural monument. One inscription, however, is on the plinth, but it also does not testify to anything. The entire surface of the column contains pictures of a military nature that speak of battles, truces, and traditions of the people of that era.
  2. The Trojan column itself is not made of pure marble, as claimed, but is cast from ordinary concrete, which began to be used much later. Separate images are displaced from higher quality concrete and marble fragments. This is evidenced by the upper layers that have fallen off in some places after many years, under which areas of rough concrete are visible. Perhaps the building was built during the Reformation, and historical episodes of past times were taken as the basis.
  3. The shields of the warriors depicted directly on Trajan's column contain drawings in the form of Christian crosses, stars, Ottoman crescents, which could not have been in the dark ancient times. The pagans had a completely different symbolism, which once again confirms the erroneous hypothesis. Modern historians are silent about this obvious fact, to this day, being afraid to destroy the well-established Scaligerian version.
  4. If we look at photographs of the column with an interval for the last hundred, maximum two hundred years, then we can notice obvious damage, potholes, cracks and structural failures. It follows from this that if Trajan's Column were actually more than 1800 years old, it would have collapsed long ago and turned into historical ruins. Most likely, the famous Trojan column is only about 500 years old.

We dare to assert based on the results of the above facts - Trajan's column was built in the 16-17 centuries based on the Trojan War of the 13th century and the Crusades. Any traveler who visits the Great Italian capital can easily be convinced of this.

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Trajan's Column (Italy) - description, history, location. Exact address, phone number, website. Reviews of tourists, photos and videos.

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Information wars are not modern invention History is always written by the winners. Rock paintings, paintings, frescoes, bas-reliefs are the same ideological weapons as Facebook and Twitter. The brightest example such an approach to art - Trajan's column, adorning the historical center for 19 centuries the eternal city and one of the most famous monuments the heyday of the Roman Empire. The magnificent building glorifies the capture of Dacia, present-day Romania, and the defeat of the vile barbarians. But not everything is as simple as it seems.

Technical details

The great engineer and architect Apollodorus from Damascus placed 17 hollow cylinders of Carrara marble with a diameter of 4 m one on top of the other. Inside them, a staircase of 185 steps was carved leading to the capital, where the imperial eagle first spread its wings, then it was replaced by the statue of Trajan himself, and in 1588 g. - the figure of St. Peter. The golden urns with the ashes of Trajan and his wife are kept in a small cubic room. The total height of the structure is 38 m.

Access to the top of the column for tourists is closed.

What to watch

The column is wrapped 23 times by a continuous ribbon of bas-relief, which tells about the events of two Dacian wars. At least 2,500 images of Romans and Dacians have been counted: they fight, build bridges and besiege fortresses, heal the wounded, and carry trophies. Here the legionnaires go on the attack with a “turtle”, hiding behind shields, here the musicians blow into bucins - battle pipes, here the bearded Dacians drink poison from a bowl so as not to fall into slavery, and their wives burn captured Romans with torches.

The Dacians are depicted as cunning, crude barbarians. However, 165 tons of gold and even more silver are listed among the trophies, and Romanian archaeologists unearthed Sarmizegetusa, the capital of King Decibal, burned by Trajan, and found smelting furnaces there. It is hard to believe that a people that did not even have a written language was capable of such accomplishments. The Romans simply destroyed and slandered a dangerous competitor in the historical arena.

All elements of the bas-relief were painted, so that a kind of blockbuster in stone was also colored. Who could not read - looked at the pictures and understood that he was part of great empire, capable of crushing any barbarians. Does this remind anyone of anything?

Practical information

Address: Rome, Via dei Fori Imperiali. Website (in English).

How to get there: by metro to st. Colosseo, buses No. 51, 85, 87.

Opening hours: around the clock, access is free.

Carved from marble and entwined with a spiral frieze with rich carvings, Trajan's Column rises 38 meters above Rome. The stone diary of military actions in 155 scenes tells about the emperor's victory over the insidious but valiant enemy.

That's what it says official version. In the period from 101 to 106, Emperor Trajan led the actions of tens of thousands of Roman soldiers, crossing the Danube along the most long bridges, which in those days a man could build, won two victories over mighty empire barbarians in their mountainous land, and then mercilessly erased that empire from the map of Europe.

Trajan's campaign against Dacia, located on the territory of modern Romania, was the main event of the emperor's 19-year reign. The chronicler boasted of enviable trophies: 165 thousand kilograms of gold and 331 thousand kilograms of silver, not counting the annexation of a new fertile province to the Roman Empire.

Photo 2.

The replenishment of the treasury was reflected in the appearance of Rome. In honor of the victory, the emperor ordered the construction of a forum: a spacious square surrounded by colonnades, two libraries and a large civil building known as the Ulpia Basilica. According to a Roman historian's enthusiastic description, Trajan's forum was a creation "the like of which mortals will never make again."

A 38-meter stone column crowned with a bronze statue of the conqueror ascended into the sky above the forum. From top to bottom, a relief chronicle of the Dacian campaigns, in the manner of a modern comic book, was woven around it: in 155 scenes, thousands of skillfully carved Romans and Dacians march, build fortifications, sail on ships, sneak up on the enemy, fight, negotiate, beg for mercy and meet death.

Photo 3.

Erected in 113, a fantastic column has been towering over the city for almost two millennia. The reliefs have suffered greatly from time to time, and, apart from a few lower turns of the spiral, little can be seen. Around the ruins - empty pedestals, broken slabs, decapitated columns and broken sculptures are reminiscent of the past splendor of the forum.

Trajan's Column is one of the main monuments that survived the fall of Rome. From century to century, historians have studied reliefs as visual material on the history of wars, where Trajan is presented as a hero, and the ruler of the Dacians, Decebalus, is his worthy opponent. Archaeologists looked at the smallest details of the scenes to gain information about the weapons, uniforms and military tactics of the Roman army.

Photo 4.

Modern Romanians also honor the monument: Trajan destroyed Dacia to the ground, and therefore the column, along with the surviving statues of defeated warriors, is a precious evidence of how their Dacian ancestors could look and dress.

Time passed, the great monuments of the past turned into piles of rubble, and the column still amazed the imagination. Renaissance artists in baskets tied with ropes hung from the top of the column in order to examine it in all its details. In 1588, Pope Sixtus V ordered that the monument be crowned with a statue of St. Peter. Then, in the 16th century, the first plaster casts columns. They captured many of the details now lost - atmospheric pollution and acid rain did their job.

The column remains the subject of scientific controversy to this day. Sometimes it seems that there are no less hypotheses than there are figures on the reliefs - and there are no less than 2662 of them.

Photo 5.

From the bookshelf in the living room of his Roman apartment, archaeologist and art historian Filippo Coarelli takes out his work - an illustrated history of the column. “This is an amazing structure,” he says, flipping through pages of black-and-white photographs of the reliefs. - What's going on here? Dacian women torturing Roman soldiers? Weeping Dacians take poison to avoid being captured? It looks like a TV show."

Or Trajan's memoirs, adds Coarelli. The column was erected between the two libraries, where a chronicle of military operations could be kept in the presentation of the warrior emperor himself. According to Coarelli, the relief frieze resembles a scroll - it is possible that Trajan's war diary was just a scroll. “The artist must have carried out the will of the emperor,” the scientist concludes.

Photo 6.

One way or another, the team of sculptors had the task of carving an illustrated version of Trajan's scroll on 17 blocks of selected Carrara marble. Emperor - main character stories. He appears in 58 scenes - a far-sighted commander, an experienced politician and a pious ruler: here he is making a speech, raising the morale of the soldiers, here he is thoughtfully listening to advisers, but here he is making sacrifices to the gods. “Trajan wants to appear not only as a warrior,” explains Coarelli, “but also as an enlightened person.”

Of course, this is just a hypothesis. In whatever form Trajan wrote down his memoirs, they have long since sunk into oblivion. Comparing the column reliefs with archaeological finds from the Dacian capital of Sarmizegetusa, scholars are inclined to think that the images testify more to the mentality of the Romans than to actual events.

Photo 7.

From John Coulston, a specialist in Roman iconography, weapons and equipment from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland - special opinion. For several months in a row he studied reliefs with close range perched on the restoration scaffolding. The collected material was enough for a dissertation. “It's tempting to present images from the column as some kind of news feed or movie of the time,” says Coulston. “But all these interpretations are typical fabrications, behind which there is not a word of truth.”

Photo 8.

The scientist claims that the ensemble of reliefs was not subordinated to the general plan of one master. Small stylistic differences and obvious oversights - for example, the changing height of the frieze or windows tearing up scenes - convinced the Scottish scholar that the sculptors carved the reliefs, as they say, on the go, based on very superficial ideas about the war. “Although it is difficult for art historians to refuse the alluring image of a talented creative personality, - says Coulston, - using the example of Trajan's column, we see that the composition is born spontaneously, immediately on pieces of marble under the hands of simple masons, and by no means on a drawing board in a workshop.

Photo 9.

In his opinion, the creators of the frieze were inspired by military events rather than based on them. Take at least the main motifs of the reliefs. There is surprisingly little combat in the depiction of the two wars: the scenes of sieges and battles take up less than a quarter of the frieze, while Trajan himself never appears on the battlefield.

Legionnaires - the basis military machine Rome - mainly engaged in the construction of forts and bridges, clearing roads and even harvesting. In addition, you might think that they are also invulnerable - not a single fallen Roman soldier can be found on the entire column!

Photo 10.

Some scenes remain unsolved. Why do the besieged Dacians reach for the bowl? To take poison and thereby avoid the humiliation of the vanquished? Or do they just want to quench their thirst? How to explain the shocking image of women torturing scantily clad bound captives with torches? In the interpretation of the Italians, it is the wives of the barbarians who torture the captive Romans. But Ernest Oberlander-Tarnoveanu, director of the National historical museum Romania, another opinion: "We have clearly captured Dacians, who are tormented by angry widows of slain Roman soldiers." Apparently, what we see when looking at the column depends on our sympathy - for the Romans or for the Dacians.

Among Roman politicians, the word "dac" was synonymous with a hypocrite. It was about the Dacians that the historian Tacitus wrote: "They were never really loyal to Rome." Having concluded a treaty of friendship with the emperor Domitian in 89, the king of Dacia Decebalus, although he received money from the Romans to protect the borders of the empire from raids, he himself sent soldiers to plunder the border cities of the allies. In 101, Trajan set out on a campaign against the unreliable Dacians. After almost two years of war, a truce was concluded, but Decebalus soon violated it.

Photo 11.

The patience of the Romans ran out. During the second invasion, in 105, Trajan did not stand on ceremony - just look at the scenes depicting the sack of Sarmizegetusa. “The campaigns were brutal and destructive,” says Roberto Meneghini, an Italian archaeologist who led excavations at the Forum of Trajan. “Look how the Romans fight, holding severed heads by the hair with their teeth. War is war. The Roman legionaries had a reputation for being fierce and ruthless warriors."

But as soon as the Dacians were defeated, Roman sculptors took them up. Trajan's Forum was adorned with dozens of statues of stately, bearded Dacian warriors, a proud marble army in the heart of Rome. Of course, the sculptors were far from sweetening the bitterness of defeat for the vanquished, most of whom were sold into slavery. “No duck could have come to see the column,” Meneghini says. “The monument was intended for Roman citizens and embodied the power of the imperial machine, capable of subduing such a valiant and warlike people.”

Photo 12.

Trajan's Column can be considered a model of propaganda - but, according to archaeologists, there is some truth in its stone chronicle. The latest excavations on the territory of ancient Dacia, including the ruins of Sarmizegetusa, bring more and more discoveries. The portrait of a civilization that has stepped over the “barbarian” stage of development is drawn in more and more detail, contrary to the contemptuous epithets of the Romans.

The Dacians did not have a written language, and all our knowledge of their culture has passed through the filter of Roman sources. Numerous finds testify that Dacia reigned over the surrounding lands for more than one hundred years, collecting tribute from her neighbors. Knowing a lot about blacksmithing, Dacian prospectors mined ore and smelted iron, and gold diggers panned for gold. Finely finished jewelry and weapons were the crowning achievement of skilled craftsmen.

Photo 13.

Sarmizegetusa was the political and spiritual capital of Dacia. Its ruins lie high in the mountains in the heart of Romania. From Rome, the city was separated by 1,600 kilometers - Trajan's army went here for more than a month. Today's visitors have to wade through the potholed dirt road through the same impregnable valley that blocked the path of Trajan.

The ruins of Sarmizegetusa sank in thickets of tall beeches. Even on a hot day, cool shadows creep across the ground. A wide paved road leads from thick, half-buried fortress walls to a spacious clearing.

Photo 14.

This green oasis - a terrace carved into the rock - was the religious center of Dacia. The remains of buildings have survived to this day - a mixture of ancient stones and concrete reconstructions, reminiscent of an unrealized attempt to recreate ancient complex. triple ring stone columns outlines the contours of the once majestic temple, vaguely reminiscent of round Dacian buildings on the reliefs of Trajan's Column. Nearby is a low altar - a stone circle carved with an ornament in the form of sun disks - the holy of holies of the Dacian universe.

Photo 15.

For the past six years, Romanian archaeologist Gelu Florea of ​​the Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj has spent the summer months excavating at Sarmizegetuz. The cleared ruins, as well as objects confiscated from treasure hunters, indicate that military technology from Rome penetrated here, and the influence of Greece is felt - architectural and artistic. “It's amazing how cosmopolitan they were up in the mountains,” says Florea. - This is the largest settlement in all of Dacia, with amazing complex organization". With the help of aerial photography, archaeologists have identified more than 260 artificial terraces, stretching for almost five kilometers along the valley. total area settlements exceeded 280 hectares.

Scientists did not find traces of cultivated fields - but they unearthed the remains of craft workshops and houses, as well as smelting furnaces, tons of iron blanks and dozens of anvils. The city appears to have been a center of metal production, supplying other Dacian settlements with arms and tools in exchange for gold and grain.

Photo 16.

Today, everything here is surrounded by greenery - and silence. Not far from the former altar there is a small spring where one could take water for religious rituals. The earth underfoot, seasoned with grains of mica, sparkles in sunshine. A few tourists are talking in an undertone.

It is hard to imagine what kind of ceremonies were held in this city - and what a terrible fate befell its inhabitants. Clouds of smoke and piercing screams, robberies and massacres, suicides and panic, depicted on the reliefs of Trajan's Column, emerge in the imagination.

Photo 17.

“The Romans swept away everything in their path,” says Florea. “There was no stone left on stone from the fortress. They wanted to demonstrate their power: look, we have the strength, the means, we are the masters here.

The fall of Sarmizegetusa was followed by the destruction of the main temples and sanctuaries of Dacia. Then the Romans set about other cities of the Dacian kingdom. One of the reliefs at the very top of the column represents a bloody denouement - the village is set on fire, the inhabitants are fleeing, only goats and cows roam the devastated province.

Two wars claimed, according to scientists, tens of thousands of lives. According to a contemporary, Trajan took 500 thousand prisoners, stealing about 10 thousand of them to Rome to participate in gladiatorial battles, which were held in honor of the victory for 123 days in a row.

Photo 18.

The proud ruler of the Dacians saved himself from the shameful fate of a captive. The end of Decebalus is immortalized on his column sworn enemy: Kneeling under the shade of an oak, Dak brings a long curved sword to his own throat.

“His head was brought to Rome,” wrote the Roman historian Cassius Dio a century later. “So Dacia became subject to the Romans.”

Photo 19.

And now unofficial version: The Trojan column, as it turned out, was erected not earlier, but even later than the second half of the 13th century. The figures of people depicted on it are a story about the well-known Trojan War, which took place in the 13th century, i.e. the famous Crusades - this is what is actually depicted by the masters of the building. These are not just regular guesses, there are several weighty arguments that cannot refute this assumption in any way.

Photo 20.

Irrefutable facts about the emergence of the Trojan column:

Here is the result of an analysis of professional photographs of images on Trajan's Column taken in the 19th and 20th centuries. showed up Interesting Facts. Here is some of them.

1) It is strange that there is NOT A SINGLE INscription on the column itself, not a single name is mentioned, not a single name. The only inscription is only on the plinth, fig.8.15, fig.8.16. By the way, it is interesting to compare the state of the plinth in the 19th century with its appearance in the 20th century, Fig. 8.17. It can be seen that in the 20th century the plinth was noticeably restored. The fact that there are no inscriptions on the column itself turns the ribbon of images spirally wrapping around the column from top to bottom, Fig. 8.18, into a long row of "military pictures". Battles, truces, religious rituals, fires, capture of cities, strings of prisoners, etc. In particular, the statement of historians that some of the figures depict the Emperor Trajan himself is only a hypothesis, not supported by any specific arguments. We repeat that there are no inscriptions.

2) Most likely, the column and some of the bas-reliefs on it are cast from concrete "marbled", Fig. 8.19. You can see areas where the "skin peels off", that is, the top thin layer of a more expensive concrete coating falls off, superimposed on a rough concrete base, Fig.8.20, Fig.8.21. It is possible that some of the images were made on the still not completely frozen surface of the column (or panels). Perhaps the technique was mixed: concrete castings were intertwined with carved fragments of natural marble. Trajan's Column could have been made during the Reformation, but at the same time, they probably relied on some old images.

Photo 21.

3) Apparently, the bas-reliefs of Trajan's column really followed some kind of old tradition. This is indicated by the following vivid fact: on many shields of "ancient" Roman soldiers, Ottoman = Ataman crescents, stars and Christian crosses are visible. In the Scaligerian version, the appearance of such symbols on the "antique, pagan" weapons of soldiers is categorically impossible. But in our reconstruction, this is exactly how it should be. Here are just a few of numerous examples: in fig.8.22 the crescent is visible at the top of the shield. In Fig. 8.23, two crescents are shown on the shield in the center and on the shield on the right. In addition, stars are depicted on another right shield. In the center of Fig. 8.24 we see four shields at once, on which crescents with stars are depicted. On the shield on the right are Christian crosses. In Figure 8.25, the crescent is visible on the shield in the center and on the shield at the bottom right. See also fig.8.26, fig.8.27, fig.8.28, fig.8.29, fig.8.30, fig.8.31, fig.8.32.

Apparently, crescents with stars and Christian crosses on Trajan's column attracted the attention of modern historians. And they strongly "tightened them", because they pointed to contradictions within the Scaligerian version. The way out was found: stubbornly (very stubbornly) to remain silent about this fact. In any case, in the literature known to us about Trajan's column on this topic there is complete silence.

4) It is also curious that Trajan's column has been badly damaged over the past hundred years. A comparison of 19th-century photographs with 20th-century photographs clearly shows that the images have visibly deteriorated. There were many cracks, caverns, fig.8.33, fig.8.34, as well as cracks that are not in the old photographs given in. This remark is consistent with our assertion that Trajan's Column is by no means as ancient as we are led to believe today. She is probably not at all about 1800 years old, but not more than five hundred years old. The rate of destruction seems to be more or less constant. Over the past hundred years, the reliefs have noticeably deteriorated.

CONCLUSION. The famous column of Trajan was made in the epoch of the 16th-17th centuries based on some old images that have not come down to us. Dedicated, most likely, to the famous Trojan War of the XIII century, that is Crusades on Tsar-Grad and the victory of Russia-Horde with the allies.

Photo 22.

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