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previous: Scene 33 This webpage reproduces a section of A Description of the Trajan Column by John Hungerford Pollen printed by George E. Eyre and William Spottiswoode, printers to Queen Victoria London, 1874 Text and engravings are in the public domain. This page has been carefully proofread and I believe it to be free of errors. If you find a mistake though, please let me know! next: Scene 35

Scenes of the spiral band running up the shaft

 p136  XXXIV. A river passage on a bridge of boats.

The accumulation of warlike stores in a fortified place last described has been for the purpose of a further advance in force. Provisions and other munitions are represented as forming an unusually heavy baggage train, and the whole army is now advancing over a bridge of boats to take possession of a fortified place deserted by the enemy, and to penetrate a country difficult of access and of uncertain resources.

The boats in this bridge are four in number only. They are of a different build from those shown in the construction of the bridge thrown over the Danube, being smaller and without the raised poop seen in the former case. The sterns are of the same form raised and cut square at the top, the bows ending in a point. They are such boats as are still in use on many rivers in Italy. The bridge has a boarded fence or bulwark on which is a latticed railing. Piles are not driven into the bed of the river to steady the end of the platform. Three led horses, with shields fastened between the saddle and the saddlecloth precede the emperor, the bridle of each is held by a soldier dressed in the linen cuirass, but without arms or head piece. An attendant soldier armed in a similar cuirass and neckerchief follows these, and immediately in front of the emperor, who is without the superior officers usually seen with him. His left hand holds the pommel of his sheathed sword, and the right holds up his mantle. He is followed closed by the signiferi who bear five standards. Three are those of the manipuli. Of the other two, one is an aquila, and the other is surmounted by a ram standing on an oblong bracket into which the top of the shaft of the ensign is fixed.  p137 This particular ensign appears here for the first and last time. It is here displayed as a sign that the legion will take part in siege operations.

Behind the signiferi march the legionaries whom an officer turns and addresses, apparently ordering them to begin the march. They issue from an arched gateway abutting immediately on the river and from which the platform of the bridge begins. The wall above it is battlemented. At some distance behind, a battlemented wall can be distinguished which is pierced by two arched windows.

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