Tropaeum Trajani
Tropaeum Trajani, also known as the Trophy of Trajan, is an ancient monument located in the historical region of Scythia Minor, in present-day Romania. Erected around AD 109, it commemorates Emperor Trajan's victories over the Dacians and their allies during the Dacian Wars. The structure features a large limestone-faced concrete drum, adorned with metopes that depict various scenes of battles, as well as figures representing Dacian men, women, and children. The trophy itself stands prominently atop a two-storey pedestal, featuring captured armor and weapons, symbolizing Trajan’s military accomplishments.
The surrounding town, originally a Getic settlement, was transformed into a Roman municipium under Trajan and later expanded under Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. It included various structures, such as aqueducts and churches, reflecting its significance as a Roman outpost until its destruction by the Goths. Today, the ruins of Tropaeum Trajani and its impressive monument provide valuable insights into Roman architecture and the cultural interactions of the time. Artifacts from the site are preserved in museums in Constanța and Bucharest, highlighting the historical importance of this location in the context of Roman-Dacian relations.
Tropaeum Trajani
Trophy of Trajan (Adamclisi)
A town in Scythia Minor, the northeastern region of Lower Moesia (now the Rumanian Dobrogea). Formerly a Getic (Dacian) habitation center, situated on an important crossroads mid-way between Tomis (ConstanŢa) and Durostorum (Silistra in Bulgaria), the place was converted into a Roman settlement by Trajan, to whom the ex-soldiers and Dacians whom he planted there, under the name of Trajanenses Tropaeenses, dedicated a statue in AD 115/16.
Under Antoninus Pius (138–61), a large legionary detachment swelled the local population. The community was given the rank of a municipium by Marcus Aurelius, shortly before 170. Its stronghold was subsequently repaired by Septimius Severus (193–211), and on two further occasions during the first half of the second century; nevertheless, it was subsequently destroyed by the Goths. Rebuilt during the joint reign of Constantine I the Great and Licinius—as a verbose inscription of 316 records—the town continued to exist until the sixth century. Surviving ruins belong to the last two hundred years of its life. They included walls with horseshoe-shaped towers (and one of rectangular form), a colonnaded main street, three aqueducts, a large pagan basilica, and four Christian churches. Finds are divided between the museum at ConstanŢa and the Archaeological Institute at Bucharest.
On an elevated plateau a mile and a half to the east of the site stands the Trophy of Trajan after which the place was named, erected in 109 to commemorate his victory over the Dacians and their allies (though an alternative attribution to the wars of Domitian, 85–89, has met with some support). The monument is a huge limestone-faced concrete drum, one hundred feet in diameter, standing on a platform reached by nine steps and faced with (originally) fifty-four metopes, averaging five feet high by four feet wide. These metopes are designed in a remarkable artistic style, possessing strong non-classical affinities; they portray battles and Dacian men, women and children, and the emperor, too, is depicted. Above the cornice ran a parapet with twenty-six crenellations: each of which bears a relief depicting a trousered Dacian, Sarmatian or German captive beside a tree, with his hands tied behind his back. The parapet was surmounted by a conical, tiled roof rising to a two storeyed hexagonal pedestal which bore two identical dedications to Mars the Avenger and was crowned by a trophy consisting of a thirty-three-foot-high stone copy of a tree trunk, carved with enemy armor and weapons and flanked by three captives. The fragments of the trophy, metopes and parapet sculptures are preserved beside the drum.