Victory column

A victory column, or monumental column or triumphal column, is a monument in the form of a column, erected in memory of a victorious battle, war, or revolution. The column typically stands on a base and is crowned with a victory symbol, such as a statue. The statue may represent the goddess Victoria; in Germany, the female embodiment of the nation, Germania; in the United States either the female embodiment of the nation Liberty or Columbia; in the United Kingdom, the female embodiment Britannia, an eagle, or a war hero.

Monumental columns

List of Roman victory columns

Of the columns listed above, the following are the Roman columns. Roman triumphal columns were either monolithic pillars or composed of column drums; in the later case, these were often hollowed out to accommodate an ancient spiral staircase leading up to the platform on top.

The earliest triumphal column was Trajan's Column which, dedicated in 113 AD, defined its architectural form and established its symbolic value as a political monument alongside the older Roman triumphal arches, providing a lingering model for its successors to this day. The imperial capitals of Rome and Constantinople house the most ancient triumphal columns.

All dimensions are given here in metres, though it was the Roman foot by which ancient architects determined the harmonious proportions of the columns, and which is thus crucial for understanding their design. The list is sorted by date of erection.

See also

• Record-holding columns in antiquity
• List of modern obelisks
• List of Roman obelisks
• List of Roman spiral stairs
• List of Roman triumphal arches
• Iaat, near Baalbek, Lebanon
• Obelisk
• Rostral column
• Triumphal arch

References

Bibliography

Part of this page is based on the article Siegessäule in the German-language Wikipedia.

• Adam, Jean-Pierre (1977), "À propos du trilithon de Baalbek: Le transport et la mise en oeuvre des mégalithes", Syria, 54 (1/2): 31–63 (50f.), doi:10.3406/syria.1977.6623
• Gehn, Ulrich (2012). "LSA-2458: Demolished spiral column once crowned by colossal statue of Theodosius I, emperor; later used for statue of Anastasius, emperor. Constantinople, Forum of Theodosius (Tauros). 386-394 and 506". Last Statues of Antiquity. Oxford University. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
• Gehn, Ulrich (2012). "LSA-2459: Demolished spiral column once crowned by colossal statue of Arcadius, emperor. Constantinople, Forum of Arcadius. 401-21". Last Statues of Antiquity. Oxford University. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
• Jones, Mark Wilson (1993), "One Hundred Feet and a Spiral Stair: The Problem of Designing Trajan's Column", Journal of Roman Archaeology, 6: 23–38, doi:10.1017/S1047759400011454, S2CID 250348951
• Jones, Mark Wilson (2000), Principles of Roman Architecture, Yale University Press, ISBN 0-300-08138-3

Further reading

• Beckmann, Martin (2002), "The 'Columnae Coc(h)lides' of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius", Phoenix, 56 (3/4): 348–357, doi:10.2307/1192605, JSTOR 1192605

External links

• Media related to Triumph columns at Wikimedia Commons