- Arches of Trajan
The Arches of Trajan were built in the manner of
triumphal arch es (although they do not celebrate military victories) in a number of places in theRoman Empire during the reign ofTrajan , probably constructed by his chief architect, the engineerApollodorus of Damascus . By contrast, when it came to commemorating his military achievements in Rome itself, he chose a column rather than the more standard arch.The Arches of Trajan include ones at
*Ancona : The arch is built of marble and stands 18.5 m high. It was erected in114 /115 as an entrance to the causeway atop the harbour wall in honour of Trajan's creation of the harbour there. Most of its original bronze enrichments have disappeared. It stands on a high podium approached by a wide flight of steps. The archway, only 3 m wide, is flanked by pairs of fluted Corinthian columns on pedestals. An attic bears inscriptions. The format is that of theArch of Titus in Rome, but made taller, so that the bronze figures surmounting it, of Trajan, his wifePlotina and sister Marciana, would be a landmark for ships approaching Rome's greatest Adriatic port. [http://www.marcheworldwide.org/html/trajan.asp?lingua=en]
*Benevento . The arch was erected in honour ofTrajan by the senate and people ofRome in114 . It has important reliefs relating to his civil and military deeds and virtues and the history of theVia Traiana (whose entrance into Beneventum it marked). It was enclosed in the walls on its construction but it is now free-standing at the end of a vista.
*Mérida, Spain .
*Timgad ,Algeria .
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.