DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14696#0159
The Trophy
' uphill path ' of ancient faith1 convincingly
filled with modern meaning. In the case of
the Trajanic column—the first of its kind
and the pattern for posterity—this celestial
track led up and up to a plinth shaped like a
hemisphere, on the top of which stood the
figure of the divinised emperor (fig. 70-). His
position recalls that of the immortals in the
Phaidros, who 'go outside when they are
come to the topmost height, and stand on
the outer surface of heaven3,' there to witness
sights of unspeakable splendour. What the
effect of this great pillar must have been on
the popular mind, it is not hard to guess :
They climbed the steep ascent of heaven
Through peril, toil and pain.
O God, to us may grace be given
To follow in their train.
(0) The Trophy.
But if the Germanic IrminsM contri-
buted something to the monumental art of
Rome, it had points of contact also with the
religious life of Greece. 'Jupiter-columns'
were found as far south as the confines of
Thrace. C. Jullian4 quotes a passage of
Valerius Flaccus, in which they are ascribed
to the Coralli, a blonde3 Sarmatian6 tribe
settled at the foot of Mount Haimos7. The
poet is describing the hosts led by Perses
against his brother Aietes :
Next Phalces drives his bronze cloud o'er the plain
With echoing cries, and the Corallians all
Uplift their banners, who for ensigns bear
Barbaric wheels and boars of jaggy back
1 Supra p. 36 ff.
2 After C. Chipiez in Daremberg-—Saglio Diet. Ant. i.
1351 1788. ;i Supra p. 44.
4 C. Jullian in G. Gassies ' Cavalier et anguipede sur
un monument de Meaux ' in the Revue des etudes anciennes
1902 iv. 290 n. 1. 5 Ov. ex Pont. 4. 2. 37.
6 Appian. Mithr. 69. C. Jullian he. eit. says: ' Peut-
etre les Coralli etaient-ils celtiques (Reinach, Revuecel/ique,
t. xx, 1899, p. 127 et s.).' But F. Hertlein Die Juppiter-
gigantensdulen Stuttgart i9rop. 78 m 3 is not improbably
right in regarding: them as a Germanic tribe.
7 Strab. 318.
' uphill path ' of ancient faith1 convincingly
filled with modern meaning. In the case of
the Trajanic column—the first of its kind
and the pattern for posterity—this celestial
track led up and up to a plinth shaped like a
hemisphere, on the top of which stood the
figure of the divinised emperor (fig. 70-). His
position recalls that of the immortals in the
Phaidros, who 'go outside when they are
come to the topmost height, and stand on
the outer surface of heaven3,' there to witness
sights of unspeakable splendour. What the
effect of this great pillar must have been on
the popular mind, it is not hard to guess :
They climbed the steep ascent of heaven
Through peril, toil and pain.
O God, to us may grace be given
To follow in their train.
(0) The Trophy.
But if the Germanic IrminsM contri-
buted something to the monumental art of
Rome, it had points of contact also with the
religious life of Greece. 'Jupiter-columns'
were found as far south as the confines of
Thrace. C. Jullian4 quotes a passage of
Valerius Flaccus, in which they are ascribed
to the Coralli, a blonde3 Sarmatian6 tribe
settled at the foot of Mount Haimos7. The
poet is describing the hosts led by Perses
against his brother Aietes :
Next Phalces drives his bronze cloud o'er the plain
With echoing cries, and the Corallians all
Uplift their banners, who for ensigns bear
Barbaric wheels and boars of jaggy back
1 Supra p. 36 ff.
2 After C. Chipiez in Daremberg-—Saglio Diet. Ant. i.
1351 1788. ;i Supra p. 44.
4 C. Jullian in G. Gassies ' Cavalier et anguipede sur
un monument de Meaux ' in the Revue des etudes anciennes
1902 iv. 290 n. 1. 5 Ov. ex Pont. 4. 2. 37.
6 Appian. Mithr. 69. C. Jullian he. eit. says: ' Peut-
etre les Coralli etaient-ils celtiques (Reinach, Revuecel/ique,
t. xx, 1899, p. 127 et s.).' But F. Hertlein Die Juppiter-
gigantensdulen Stuttgart i9rop. 78 m 3 is not improbably
right in regarding: them as a Germanic tribe.
7 Strab. 318.