The Roman Army on Campaign TWO - Trajan's Column. Part 1

You often see scenes from Trajan's Column because it shows so many details of life on campaign, and depicts the Roman army's equipment from armour to baggage waggons and artillery. We also get shown the enemy, the Dacians of King Decebalus, and some of their allies, like the Sarmatians. Such images are often used to illustrate campaigns fought centuries before or after the Dacian Wars of the Emperor Trajan, fought in AD 101-102 and 105-106, and they tend to appear as isolated pictures. Today I thought that we would have a look at the sculptures as a whole and start to think about the story they tell and the way it is presented. It's a big monument, so I will spilt this descriptive section into two parts, the second to follow next month.