La colonne Trajane: invention, composition, disposition

The reliefs of the Trajan's Column are considered as both an historical account of the Dacian Wars and a sequence of exempla pointing to 'ideal' behaviour-patterns for the Emperor and his Army. A parallel between the sculpted frieze and the text of Onasander (De optimo imperatore, 1st Cent A. D.) emphasizes the interpretation of the Column's narrative in terms of contemporary standards (moral values and their verbal counterpart). An analysis of the problems of visibility of the reliefs and the study of their compositional rules leads to describe the making of the Column in three phases : drawing, clay (or wax) model, marble carving; or, along rhetorical language, inventio, compositio, dispositio. Further proposals on the relations between patron and artist(s) are drawn from two literary sources : a letter of Lucius Verus to Fronto, and a passage from Gregory's of Naziance Contra Julianum.