The Tropaeum Traiani or Trajan's Trophy lies 1.4 km northeast of the Roman city of Civitas Tropaensium (near the modern Adamclisi, Romania). It was built in AD 109 in then Moesia Inferior, to commemorate Roman Emperor Trajan's victory over the Dacians in 106, including the victory at the Battle of Adamclisi nearby in 102.[1]
It was part of a monumental complex comprising the trophy monument, the tumulus grave behind it and the commemorative altar, raised in 102 AD for soldiers fallen in the battles of this region. The complex forms a triangular plan, the base being marked by the monument and the funerary tumulus while the upper point is the altar.
The trophy monument was built, according to the inscription, between 106 and 109 AD probably by Apollodorus of Damascus, Trajan's favoured architect and engineer. It was inspired by the Augustus mausoleum, and was dedicated to Mars Ultor. It is a cylindrical building, with steps at the base, of diameter 40 m. Around the side were 54 metopes, showing Romans fighting Decebalus's allies, of which 48 are in the local museum and 1 is in Istanbul. The reliefs were framed by friezes and separated by decorative pilasters. The upper part was festooned with 27 battlements, each one showing prisoners. The cone-shaped roof was made of stone slabs and the trophy itself was placed on top of two superposed prisms, framed by two sitting women and a standing man with his hands held behind.
The monument was perhaps a warning to the tribes outside this newly conquered province.[2]
Compared to Trajan's Column in Rome, erected to celebrate the same victories and a "product of Roman metropolitan art", the sculpted metopes have been described as in "barbarian provincial taste", carved by "sculptors of provincial training, reveal[ing] a lack of experience in figurative representation, in organic structure and a naive idiom that remains detached from the classical current".[3]
By the 20th century, the monument was reduced to a mound of stone and mortar, with a large number of the original bas-reliefs scattered around. The present edifice is a reconstruction dating from 1977. The nearby museum contains many archaeological objects, including parts of the original Roman monument.
The monument was dedicated with a large inscription to Mars Ultor (the avenger). The inscription has been preserved fragmentarily from two sides of the trophy hexagon, and has been reconstructed as follows:
MARTI ULTOR[I]
IM[P(erator)CAES]AR DIVI
NERVA[E] F(ILIUS) N[E]RVA
TRA]IANUS [AUG(USTUS) GERM(ANICUS)]
DAC]I[CU]S PONT(IFEX) MAX(IMUS)
TRIB(UNICIA) POTEST(ATE) XIII
IMP(ERATOR) VI CO(N)S(UL) V P(ater) P(atriae)
?VICTO EXERC]ITU D[ACORUM]
?---- ET SARMATA]RUM
----]E 31.[4]
The inscription, which calls Trajan Germanicus from his previous victories in Germany and Dacicus for his new conquest of Dacia, can be translated:
To Mars Ultor,
Caesar the emperor, son of the divine Nerva,
Nerva Trajan Augustus, Germanicus,
Dacicus, Pontifex Maximus,
Plebeian tribune for the 13th time,
[proclaimed] Emperor [by the army] for the 6th time,
Consul for the 5th time, Father of the Fatherland,
Conquered the Dacian and Sarmatian armies ...
The altar was raised in 102 to honour the soldiers who died "fighting for the Republic" perhaps at the Battle of Adamclisi nearby in the winter of 101–102. The altar had a rectangular shape, 12 m long and 6 m high. In the vicinity fragments of 1.3 x 0.9 m slabs covered with inscriptions were discovered with a dedication, but the name of the emperor was not preserved the names of about 4,000 soldiers were written on it.[5]
Several hypotheses for the soldiers and general commemorated have been put forward, including the soldiers of Oppius Sabinus, defeated somewhere nearby.[6] The mention of the cohort II Batavorum and probably of the Legio XV Apollinaris, as well as the formula missici (instead of veterans) usual for the first century BC indicates that the war must be dated to the era of Domitian and probably in the year 86, the campaign led by M. Cornelius Nigrinus.[7]
The tumulus grave was also built in 102 shortly after the altar and contained the grave of a Roman officer killed in the battle in Adamclisi, possibly Oppius Sabinus.
In 1837, four Prussian officers, hired by the Ottoman Empire to study the Dobruja strategic situation, performed the first excavations.[8]
The monument was researched between 1882–1895,[9] George Murnu in 1909, Vasile Parvan in 1911, Paul Nicorescu studied the site between 1935–1945, Gheorghe Stefan and Ioan Barnea in 1945. From 1968 the site was researched under Romanian Academy supervision.
On the monument was a frieze comprising 54 metopes. 48 metopes are hosted in the Adamclisi museum nearby, and one metope is hosted by Istanbul Archaeology Museum, the rest having been lost (There is a reference from Giurescu that two of them fell into the Danube during the transport to Bucharest).[10]