Ancient Rome used to honour its
\nheroes by awarding them titles, holding public holidays and building monuments.
\nTrajan’s Trophy, or Tropaeum Traiani in Latin, was one such example of a public
\nmonument built in Dobrogea, in south-eastern Romania, in the village of
\nAdamclisi. To honour emperor Trajan, the Roman Senate and people built an
\nimpressive structure after the victory in the First Dacian war of 101-102.
\nTrajan’s Trophy is considered one of the biggest and most representative
\nancient monuments in Romania. What we see today is in fact a reconstruction made
\nunder the supervision of archaeologists and finalised in 1977. The first
\nexcavations began in 1882, four years after Romania was awarded Dobrogea
\nfollowing the Russian-Romanian-Turkish war of 1877-1878. Grigore Tocilescu, the
\nfounder of the Romanian school of archaeology, was the man who initiated an
\nexcavation and research campaign that would go on for the next 100 years. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The central monument consists of a
\ncylindrical base with a diameter of 40 metres and a number of circular steps. The
\nplinth is covered by a roof in the shape of a truncated cone with fish scale
\nornaments, with a hexagonal structure standing in the middle of the plinth. On
\ntop of the structure stands the trophy, namely a Roman soldier with four
\nshields, measuring 11 metres in height. At the base of the trophy are two
\ngroups of statues featuring depictions of three Dacian prisoners. The height of
\nthe entire monument is approximately equal to the diameter of the 40 m base. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The archaeologist Alexandru Barnea,
\nwho coordinated some of the excavations carried out at the archaeological site in
\nAdamclisi has given us more details about the location of the monument: <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The monument of Adamclisi forms
\npart of a complex of monuments located on top of the hill near the actual
\nvillage and is by far the most imposing and best known. Nearby there are two
\nother important monuments and the ruins of a city. A burial mound is found
\nnearby containing the tomb of an unidentified commander. A few hundred meters
\nfurther away lie the ruins of a funerary altar dedicated to those who died in
\nthe battle that took place in these parts. The fighting between the Dacians and
\nthe Romans occurred near the actual village, on the plateau where the monument
\nis located today, as well as in the surrounding area. This happened in the year
\n102 at the end of the so-called First Dacian War, when the Dacians tried to
\nattack the Romans in their own province.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The Roman presence in the Lower
\nDanube regions had been consolidated a century and a half earlier by the wars
\nbetween the Dacians and the Romans. The archaeologist Alexandru Barnea says the
\nprovince of Lower Moesia, the ancient name of Dobrogea, was an integral part of
\nRoman culture and civilisation:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Looking at a historical map we note
\nthat Dobrogea was part of the Roman Empire, more precisely it was part of a
\nprovince of the empire called Lower Moesia. Roman organisation and
\nadministration was already functioning in this province. In those dramatic
\ntimes for the Dacians, King Decebalus together with his Germanic allies
\nattacked the Romans on their own territory in the year 102 trying to cause a
\ndiversion. Taken by surprise, the Romans suffered a lot of losses but resisted
\nand gradually recovered, and the reinforcements received helped them to defeat
\nDecebalus’ Dacian-Germanic alliance. After these battles, the Romans, emperor
\nTrajan himself in fact, decided to build a monument here in memory of those
\ntragic battles.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The whole ensemble of which the
\nmonument forms part also contains a funerary altar whose walls are inscribed
\nwith the names of the around 3,800 Roman soldiers who died in Adamclisi. There
\nis also a mausoleum with three concentric walls where the Roman commander was
\nburied who won the battle for the Romans in 102 by sacrificing his own life.
\nArchaeologist Alexandru Barnea about the different interpretations of the
\nmonument:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The monument, which was built it
\nseems after designs by the famous architect Apollodorus of Damascus was
\nunveiled in the year 109. A few years later, in 113, when peace had arrived
\nboth here in the Lower Danube area and in Dacia, which had by then become a
\nRoman province, Trajan’s Column was unveiled in Rome. The column together with
\nthe monument of Adamclisi may be regarded as the ‘birth certificates’, one the
\noriginal and the other a duplicate, of the Romanian nation. Many historians see
\nthe two monuments in this light. Speculations that the monument of Adamclisi
\nwas rebuilt or built at a later date than first established and that it was a
\nreconstruction dating from the Constiantinian era were not supported by
\nresearch carried out in the 1980s. The research on this monument, the burial
\nmound and the funerary altar were completed a long time ago and there isn’t
\nmuch more to say in terms of the archaeological interpretation. There is
\nperhaps still room for artistic interpretation and even historical
\ninterpretation of the depictions on the triumphal monument.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Adamclisi is also home to a Roman
\ncitadel founded by emperor Trajan on the site of an old Geto-Dacian settlement.
\nA basilica maintained in situ adds to the remains dating back almost 2000
\nyears. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Trajans Trophy is a public monument built in Adamclisi, SE Romania, to honour Roman emperor Trajan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":169565,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45210],"tags":[45575,33215,45574],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-169564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rri-encyclopaedia","tag-adamclisi","tag-dobrogea","tag-trajan"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n