Victory

At the mid-point of the Column of Trajan, on the twelfth of twenty-four spirals, is carved a female figure, a personification of victory.  Victoria is winged, and wears a tunic with a high belt and a mantle about her hips.  Her foot rests on a helmet while she writes on a shield.  She is flanked on either side by a trophy, i.e. captured armor and arms hung upon a stake with additional armor and arms heaped at the base.  The goddess is a marker between Trajan’s two Dacian campaigns: she punctuates the victory of 102 CE and anticipates the second campaign of 105–06 CE.

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