Trajan’s Navy on Trajan’s Column

by

Dana S. Adler,

BA(Hons), Dip Arch, MA.

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Trajan’s Navy on Trajan’s Column

Acknowledgements:

My most grateful thanks to the Librarians and Library Assistants at the Library

of the Institute of Classical Studies, currently located in Senate House, Malet Street,

London, England. They are extremely helpful and can always find that one much

needed book, even when it has been replaced on the wrong shelf!

Introduction:

In 1967 a paper on Trajan’s Column, written by the British archaeologist, Sir

Ian Richmond, was published. After his death, the information was turned into a

small book and published as: “Trajan’s Army on Trajan’s Column”.

As the Romans considered their fleets to be part of the Army’s auxiliary

support units, along with the light infantry and the cavalry, it might be expected that

the book would contain some information about the ships used in Trajan’s Dacian

expedition, but it was not there, largely due to the lack of archaeological information

on the Roman navy at that time.

For anyone interested in the reliefs on Trajan’s Column, Trajan’s conquest of

Dacia, or the clothing, armour and equipment of Trajan’s Army, I would

unhesitatingly recommend the Lepper & Frere book called simply, “Trajan’s

Column” (published in 1988).

This paper, however, was written to even up the balance and to show that

without Trajan’s navy, its support functions as well as its transport of men, supplies

and the cavalry’s horses, the outcome of Trajan’s campaign might have been very

different.

Trajan’s Column stands in Rome, but there are also three sets of casts, one in

Rome, one in Germany and the third in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. In

the late 19th

century, a German scholar, Corad Cichorius, photographed the whole

sert of casts and published them, along with 2 volumes of commentary, between

1896 and 1900. Courtesy of the Library of the Institute of Classical Studies,

London, I was fortunate enough to be able to obtain photographs of the original

plates Cichorius made in the late 19th

century.

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The Ships on Trajan’s Column:

It is worthwhile to examine the depictions of ships on Trajan’s Column and

find out exactly what it does display about Trajan’s Navy. After all, to invade

Dacia, Trajan first had to cross over the river Danube.

The first scene on the column is of boats, small boats moored on the River

outside a town (Cichorius’ Plates 2 and 3). Barrels wait on shore, whilst several

small vessels are in the process of being loaded (although the other small boat has

been cut from this frame), apparently from a wharf just outside the walls. These

particular boats are very small, with a canted bow and a relatively low stern.

After them come two slightly larger vessels, one of which carries bundles,

another, barrels. Although they show no means of propulsion, both have a

steering oar and a small stern cabin.

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Past these two boats, the god of the River, (“Old Father Danube”) rises from

the water to watch the soldiers crossing his river (Plates 10 and 11).

The next scenes are of soldiers on land, marching and building

fortifications. Further along there is a depiction of a fortress with an associated

harbour. In the harbour, warships are moored and so are a number of smaller

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boats carrying a variety of cargo, including a horse transport, whilst others carry

bundles. perhaps armour and weapons, perhaps food and water. (Plates 80 to 83)

The next group shows a barge, a small warship with someone in the bows

apparently about to tie the vessel to a mooring, the horse transport, then above it, a

roofed rowed vessel, and finally, in the next register two larger warships. All the

ships are larger than the barges, whilst the two warships have two banks of oars

each.

Both vessels have a mast for an artemon, the small foresail used to assist

steering and, in addition, the lower vessel has what appears to be a rope passing

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from the rowers benches to around the bows. This may be an example of a

hogging truss, a cable used in the past, to run along the whole length of a long

vessel, to keep it in horizontal alignment and so, to stop it sagging at the centre of

the vessel.

An extra large helmsman stands in the stern of one of the smaller vessels,

his hand on the steering oar, whilst the sailors appear to be paddling with their

oars resting on the top of the bulwark. Finally, another barge appears to be

unloading (Plates 84 to 87). In this frame, the difference between the dress of the

rowers, the auxiliaries and the legionary officers is very clear.

Next, there is a small scene showing a boat being loaded over what seems to

be a gangplank, with a small warship nearby. It is a bireme, with 8 oars showing

and a more or less normal sized person is at the helm, holding the steering oar.

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The next scene shows 2 small warships, the smaller vessel has a bank of six

oars, the other ten. Both vessels are biremes

The stern of the six-oar ship is hidden by a town building and erosion, but

the ten-oar ship has the usual volute stern and stern cabin. The six-oar vessel is

much smaller, has one and a second, much eroded, sailor depicted, a small ram

and forecastle, but no mainmast and no artemon, either.

The ten oared vessel hides much of the smaller ship, but a great deal more is

visible on this vessel. She has three crew shown, perhaps rowers, but maybe

stevedores. The man facing the stern may be the helmsman, but careful inspection

of the photographs shows that he is not holding the steering oar.

The middle man appears to be lifting something hidden below the level of

the bulwarks, whilst the third man is working on the sheets which set the artemon.

This ship has a beaked ram and a small forecastle and a space for boarding just

after the forecastle. (Plate 118)

There is no sign of a mainmast and no crutches on which it could be rested

when unstepped, suggesting that this type of vessel simply did not carry a

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mainmast, only an artemon, the small foresail which projected forwards over the

forecastle.

The “Big Three”:

The main scene shows 3 large warships which appear to be manned and

ready to sail. Unfortunately, this scene is so large that when originally

photographed, it had to be cut into two – and the cut goes almost directly through

the centre of the ships!

The illustration on the previous page was produced by joining the

photographs of the two sets of frames showing the stern and the bows of the three

vessels. It is not a good match and the differing tints of Cichorius’ original make

it somewhat difficult to picture all three vessels properly, but it does give some

indication of what the scene carved on the Column looks like.

Each ship has an extra large personage at the helm, the middle ship

apparently being steered by no less a person then Trajan himself.

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The lowest ship of the three has an eye painted on her bows, a small beaked

ram, a forecastle, no artemon, two banks of oars, with seven oars shown in total

(but only six rowers) and a steering oar which has nobody holding it, for the extra

large person (dressed only in a tunic) on this ship has his hand outspread and

appears to be orating.

Behind him three Legionary standards are set before the usual stern cabin

and volute sternpost. (Plates 208 to 213 - The bow of the upper ship appears on a

separate frame).

The middle ship is the largest of the group. She carries a sea-goat carved on

her bows (and therefore may have been named Capricornus, or something

similar), has a small beaked ram and relatively large forecastle.

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Unlike all the other ships, she is a trireme, with three banks of oars, seven of

which can be seen - more are obscured by the rowers in the ship below. There is a

more than usually ornate stern cabin, behind which is a small standard, apparently

attached to the stern-post, whose volute flares over Trajan’s shoulder, carrying

what looks like a lantern. The next frame, which displays the bows of the upper

two ships, shows that she also has an artemon, which has been brailed up.

The third, uppermost, ship is intriguing. Her stern is clearly visible above

the heads of the Sea Goat’s rowers. The usual volute sternpost curves over an

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ornately decorated stern cabin, whilst in front of it, the extra large person on this

ship is clearly the helmsman, for he actually has the steering oar in one hand,

whilst the other rests on his bent knee.

This ship carries no design painted on her bows, although she does have a

particularly fearsome looking ram. She also has a large and ornate forecastle, with

three small arches shown, as if, perhaps, she is shipping archers, or some kind of

artillery.

She does not have an artemon, which may be due to artistic convention,

since she is facing a large crowd of important persons on a town wall and the

artemon, if set, would hide some of the people. However, she does have an

unstepped mainmast, with the mainsail carefully brailed around it and quite

clearly set on crutches, one set forward, one aft.

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There is also space just after the forecastle where a gangplank could be

placed, which is not quite so evident in the Sea Goat, although it is there.

Although there appears to be enough space along the hull for a third bank of oars,

she is shown as a bireme, with five oars in 2 banks showing.

A slightly later frame (no: 226, below) shows the ornate bow of another

bireme, close up against a bridge over which important personages are passing. In

the previous frame, the stern of the ship is hidden.

This ship is decorated with an eye at her bow, but she is much more ornate than

the vessel with an eye on her bow shown with Trajan. She has an arched

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forecastle, with a decorated bow below it. The railing through which the upper

level of oars are rowed, is clearly visible, however, there is no sign of any rowers.

The oar-ports for the lower level are not shown The mast is stepped and the

forward crutch is shown, with, apparently, the mainsail wrapped around the mast

and tied down.

The Sailing Ship:

There are actually three types of ship shown on Trajan’s column, there

being only one representative of the third class, a large sailing ship with a single

mast, moored in a harbour by the town walls. This is undoubtedly a merchant

ship, although whether it was privately owned, commandeered by the Army, or

part of a Legion’s own transport service, is uncertain.

Two conjoined photographs showing the sailing ship as a whole.

The Landsmen:

The Column’s sculptors were remarkably consistent in the way in which

they represented the various parties concerned in the conquest of Dacia. Both

Romans and Dacians can be easily identified, as well as details of clothing,

hairstyle, armour, horse furniture and ship types.

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The Dacians themselves are shown mainly as long haired, bearded

barbarians, while their cavalry wear conical helmets and scale armour, with their

horses equally well armoured. Some carry oval shields and/or sickle shaped short

swords.

The Roman auxiliary infantry are shown with their calf-length breeches and

very short tunics, one group of cavalry is equipped in a very similar manner,

whilst others have much smaller, round shields and hair in a style which looks

almost like dreadlocks (these may be the Equitates Afrorum, who appear on a

number of burial memorials). Then there are the specialist archers with their

bows, mail shirts, conical helmets and non-Roman features.

The Roman legionaries wear tunics, without trousers or breeches,

segmented armour round their waists and over their shoulders, whilst the officers

wear military tunics overlaid with breast- and back-plates and cloaks. They are

also sculpted much larger than everyone else.

The Men of the Fleets:

The men on the ships generally wear tunics, but with the sleeves gathered

up and apparently tied in a knot on their shoulders, although some of the

loading/unloading scenes involve auxiliaries, carrying baggage and oval shields.

Helmsmen wear tunics and sometimes cloaks. Rowers were never depicted in

auxiliary-type clothing, suggesting that they were not expected to fight.

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In their book on Cichorius’ photographs of the Column, Lepper and Frere

comment that Cichorius identified some bare-armed workmen shown in Frames

241 – 244, who are wearing military caligae boots, with the classiarii, acutely

pointing out that their unusual hexagonal shields: “... must bespeak a special corps

and (they) bore marine symbols (tridents and starfish)”. (Lepper & Frere 1988, p

142).

The picture below was made by joining photographs of Frame 240 to the

next series of frames, to show the odd hexagonal shields stacked near the tunic-

and military boot-wearing workmen.

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The Small Boats:

The very small boats, without oars or sails may well be barges, either pulled

along the river bank by men or oxen, or poled through the water by their crews.

Considering that the river in question is the Danube (fast flowing, with nasty cross

currents), poling is unlikely, although this river, like the Thames, may have been

shallower and wider in the past and therefore slower flowing.

Although there are no further depictions of boats or ships on the column,

Cichorius’ plates 355 and 356 do show two soldiers in legion uniforms working

wood into the shape of small boats.

Conclusions:

Therefore, it seems that the main class of vessel shown on the column are

the warships. There are 4 smaller and 7 (or possibly, 8) larger vessels, one of

which is a trireme and clearly the flagship, since Trajan himself is shown at the

helm.

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All the warships show the top bank of rowers with their heads and shoulders

above the bulwarks, so that they are in the “Liburnian”, open, aphract style, rather

than cataphract style of the decked-in Greek triremes. (“Liburnians” were a type

of fast, open decked bireme, much favoured by pirates, which were introduced

into the Roman fleets by the Emperor Augustus, after they helped him win at the

battle of Actium).

The Roman warships all have the same cross hatched railing through which

the top row of oars were placed and rowed, whilst none of them carry the

outrigger oar box, through which the top row of oars were rowed on the older

style Greek warships.

All the warships pictured have a beaked ram, some larger, some smaller

(suggesting that, perhaps, in the smaller vessels, the keelboards were drawn

forward, as in the Mainz “A” type vessel, to mimic a ram); all have a forecastle,

although in the smaller ships it is hardly visible at all.

Some vessels are shown with an artemon, some are not; some are shown

with an unstepped mainmast set on fore-and-aft crutches, some are not. None are

shown with a mainmast stepped or a mainsail set. All have a volute stern-post,

some slightly more decorative than others and all have some kind of small stern

cabin, again, some more ornate than others.

Whether these are different types of ship is questionable. It is more likely

that, with space at a premium and with the need to sculpt a balanced picture, the

artists have chosen to show some ships with a mainmast stowed and other ships

with the artemon set.

F. Renatus Vegetius, the late 4th

/early 5th

century Imperial bureaucrat whose

book on military organisation somehow survived though the centuries, says about

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the Army: “Plains are held by the cavalry, seas and rivers by the navy, hills, cities,

flat and broken country by the infantry ...” (Part 2, Ch 1).

It is possible, therefore, that the warships shown on the Column are

different types of vessel. The smallest could be the Pictae scout ships which are

described by Vegetius (Part 4, Ch 37), as having 20 oars per side and being

painted a blue-green colour, used for scouting and ambush. Being river craft, they

would not necessarily need a mainmast, although having a sail would certainly

spare the rowers some hard work.

Vegetius also gives details of two other types of warship, the big

Liburnians and the smaller Naves Lusoriae (Vegetius, Part 2, Ch 1 and Part 4, Ch

37). Whether these latter vessels are the same as the scouting pictae, or whether

there are actually three types of ship is unclear, as he never describes the Lusoriae

in any detail. It should be noted, however, that not one of the burial memorials

for Fleet auxiliaries mention service aboard a Lusoria, nor a Picta.

Although there are other illustrations of ships, both war and merchant

vessels, most are decorative, either as house paintings (as at Pompeii) or as

mosaics, although there are several sculptures of galleys extant, however, many of

these representations cannot be linked to a specific date – Even the Pompeii

paintings may reflect vessels from the time of Caesar and Cleopatra.

As, however, the carvings on Trajan’s Column are definite

representations of ships belonging to a known, historical, military expedition

at a specific point in time, they are invaluable as illustrations of warships in a

time before cameras and photographic prints had been invented.

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Bibliography:

Cichorius, C. Die Reliefs der Trajanssaüle, Vol: 1. (Berlin, 1896).

Lepper, F. & Frere, S. Trajan’s Column, (Alan Sutton, Gloucester, 1988).

Richmond, Sir Ian, Trajan’s Army on Trajan’s Column, (British School in

Rome, 1982).

Vegetius, F. Renatus. Epitome of Military Science. tr: N. P, Milner, (Liverpool

U.P, 2001).

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