Trajan's Column by Piranesi

Giovanni Battista Piranesi produced extremely detailed and accurate engravings of ancient roman architecture in the late 18th c. The six pages displayed below show the entire 35 meters of the front side of the triumphal   column dedicated to the emperor Trajan after his two successful military campaigns against the Dacians at the start of the 1st c. CE. The column uses an an upwards spiraling marble frieze to depict the events of Trajan's army during the Dacian wars.

SENATVS·POPVLVSQVE·ROMANVS

IMP·CAESARI·DIVI·NERVAE·F·NERVAE

TRAIANO·AVG·GERM·DACICO·PONTIF

MAXIMO·TRIB·POT·XVII·IMP·VI·COS·VI·P·P

AD·DECLARANDVM·QVANTAE·ALTITVDINIS

MONS·ET·LOCVS·TANT<IS·OPER>IBVS·SIT·EGESTVS

The Senate and people of Rome 

to the Emperor Caesar Nerva Trajan Augustus, son of Nerva of blessed memory, 

conqueror in Germany and Dacia, High Priest, vested with the tribunician power 17 times, 

proclaimed Imperator 6 times, elected consul 6 times, Father of the Nation: 

as an illustration of the height which this hill and place attained, 

now removed for such great works as these

▽