Trajan's Column as a Phallic Monument: Some Observations

Acta Classica Mediterranea 6 | 2023 homerkitabevi Acta Classica Mediterranea (AClasMed) 6 | 2023 ISSN 2602-2451 Acta Classica Mediterranea is a double-blind peer reviewed international journal. Acta Classica Mediterranea maskeli çift hakemli uluslararası bir dergidir. Founders | Kurucular Hüseyin Sami Öztürk - Hamdi Şahin - Gürkan Ergin - Ayşen Boylu Editors-in-Chief | Baş Editörler Gürkan Ergin - Hüseyin Sami Öztürk - Hamdi Şahin - Ferit Baz - Emre Erten Editorial Board | Editör Kurulu Gürkan Ergin - Hüseyin Sami Öztürk - Hamdi Şahin - Aşkım Özdizbay - Ferit Baz - Emre Erten Editors in Epigraphy | Epigrafi Alan Editörleri Hamdi Şahin - Hüseyin Sami Öztürk - Ferit Baz - Emre Erten Assistants in Epigraphy | Epigrafi Alan Asistanları Ezgi Demirhan-Öztürk - Figen Şahin Advisory Board (In Alphabetical Order) | Danışma Kurulu (alfabetik sırayla) Z. Sencan Altınoluk (Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart Üniversitesi) Thomas Corsten (Universität Wien) Vedat Çelgin (İstanbul Üniversitesi, emeritus) İnci Delemen (İstanbul Üniversitesi, emeritus) Çiğdem Dürüşken (İstanbul Üniversitesi) Kenan Eren (Mimar Sinan Güzel Sanatlar Üniversitesi) Alan Greaves (Liverpool University) Matthäus Heil (Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften) Kaan İren (Muğla Sıtkı Koçman Üniversitesi) Bülent İşler (Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli Üniversitesi) Ulrike Jansen (Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften) Ludwig Meier (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften) Esen Öğüş (Utah Valley University) Ekin Öyken (İstanbul Üniversitesi) Hüseyin Murat Özgen (Mimar Sinan Güzel Sanatlar Üniversitesi) Aliye Erol-Özdizbay (İstanbul Üniversitesi) Christine Özgan (Mimar Sinan Güzel Sanatlar Üniversitesi, emeritus) Pınar Özlem-Aytaçlar (Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi) Felix Pirson (DAI İstanbul) Manfred Schmidt (Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, emeritus) Christof Schuler (DAI München) Cumhur Tanrıver (Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi) Oğuz Tekin (Koç Üniversitesi - AKMED) Managing Editor | Sorumlu Yazı İşleri Müdürü Ayşen Boylu Address | Adres Homer Kitabevi ve Yayıncılık Ltd. Şti. Tomtom Mah. Yeni Çarşı Caddesi No: 52-1, 34433 Beyoğlu/İstanbul Sertifika No: 52735 www.homerbooks.com e-mail: [email protected] Printed by | Baskı Fotokitap Fotoğraf Ürünleri Pazarlama ve Tic. Ltd. Şti. Oruçreis Mah. Tekstilkent B-5 Blok No: 42 34235 Esenler/İstanbul Tel: 0212 629 03 85 Sertifika No: 47448 Contents | İçindekiler Articles | Makaleler Önsöz | Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Trajan’s Column as a Phallic Monument: Some Observations Gürkan Ergin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Some Unpublished Lead Balance Weights in the Pera Museum Yavuz Selim Güler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Neue Inschriften aus dem Territorium von Myra: Die Gemeinde der Sybeneis, ein Peripolion Christof Schuler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Die Kleinasiatischen Personennamen aus dem Rauhen Kilikien II (Λ-Ψ) - Corrigenda et Addenda zu Zgusta KPN - Hamdi Şahin - Seda Gaznevi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Inscriptiones Asiae Minoris Hamdi Şahin - Hüseyin Sami Öztürk - Ferit Baz - Emre Erten . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 Aiolis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 Bithynia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 Bithynia/Hellespontos/Mysia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 Galatia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 Ionia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 Kappadokia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 Karia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 Kilikia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191 Lydia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 Lykaonia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 Lykia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198 Mysia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241 Pamphylia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247 Paphlagonia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254 Phrygia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254 Pisidia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266 Pontos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279 Troas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280 Unknown provenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286 Guidelines for Authors | Yayın İlkeleri . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299 SİNAN TURAN Homer Kitabevi’nin neredeyse kuruluşundan itibaren diyebileceğim bir süre boyunca Sinan (Turan) ile birlikte çalıştık. Kitabevimizin logosunu, kurumsal kimliğini, yayınevimizin ise aramızdan ayrılana dek her şeyini tasarlayan, daima sistematik düşünüp bir sonraki adımı planlayan ve hepimizi de bu konuda yönlendiren, heyecanımızın her saniyesine ortak olan, titiz çalışıp çok üreten ancak göz önünde olmayı da hiç sevmeyen, sayesinde çok güzel işler yaptığımız canım çalışma arkadaşım, kardeşim Sinan’ımız, yattığın yer incitmesin... I say with great honor that since the very beginnings of Homer Bookstore, I have worked with Sinan (Turan). He designed the iconic logo and created the corporate identity of our bookstore, continuing to design everything for our publishing house until his passing. He was always a systematic thinker, planning the next step and in the process leading us to do so as well, a person who would always join our excitement, and despite working and creating so meticulously, a collaborator who hated being in the spotlight… A workmate with whom we have created and achieved great things together, but beyond that, my brother and our beloved Sinan. May he rest in peace. Ayşen Boylu Klasikbilimler alanında dergi veya kitap editörlüğü yapan meslektaşlarım hazırlık sürecinde grafikerlerin ne kadar önemli olduğunu bilir. Genel olarak metnin mizanpajına ilaveten görseller ve tabloların doğru ve anlaşılır şekilde basılması Klasikbilimler için özellikle önemlidir. O yüzden editörle grafikerler hep yakın ilişki içindedir. Benim de Sinan (Turan) Ağabey’le önce Homer Kitabevi’nin tarih ve arkeoloji kitaplarının, sonra da Acta Classica Mediterranea’nın editörü olarak böyle bir ilişkimiz oldu. Bu süre içinde Sinan Ağabey bir anlamda sağ kolum oldu, çünkü yaptığı sadece sayfa düzeni hazırlamak değildi; akşam verdiğinizi sabah alıyordunuz, metindeki en ufak hata bile not ediliyordu, her sorunda hemen aranıyordunuz... Öyle ki vefatından önce, bizi yarı yolda bırakmamak adına üzerinde çalıştığı tüm işleri düzenlemiş, bize yapacak neredeyse hiçbir iş bırakmamıştı. Elinizdeki derginin her aşamasında, çevirdiğiniz her sayfada en az bizim kadar emeği geçmiştir. Homer ailesi kendisine çok şey borçlu. Nur içinde yat Sinan Ağabey. Any one of my colleagues who have done editorial work in Classics, know how important for us a graphic designer is. It is essential to have a good, readable page layout, along with high quality figures and pictures, as well as minimal textual errors. Therefore, maybe more than any other field, editors in Classics collaborate more closely with graphic designers. As the editor of various ancient history and archaeology books, and of Acta Classica Mediterranea, this was the relationship I had with Sinan Turan. Indeed, he was more than a graphic designer; he was a bit of an editor, an associate, and most importantly, a friend. He was not just a guy sitting in front of a computer. He was a meticulous workaholic and an attentive reader who noted every error and delivered the final drafts overnight. Even when he was struggling with his illness, he managed to finalize pending works, leaving us little to do after his death. He had a hand in every step of the way in publishing the work you are holding in your hands, which becomes even more prominent with every page you turn. The Homer family owes a lot to him... May he rest in peace. Gürkan Ergin Acta Classica Mediterranea’nın bu sayısında çok değerli dört makaleye yer verilmiştir. Makaleleriyle dergiye katkı sağlayan G. Ergin, Y. S. Güler, Ch. Schuler, H. Şahin ile S. Gaznevi’ye tüm yayın ekibimiz adına teşekkür ederiz. 2018 yılında ilk sayısı yayımlanan dergimiz, L’Année Philologique tarafından “AClassMed” olarak kısaltılmıştır. Bu nedenle bizler de bundan sonra bu kısaltma biçimini kullanmaktayız. Bu sayının IAM metnini gözden geçiren ve önerileriyle birlikte bir takım düzeltmeler yapan Th. Corsten’a ve grafiker Aydın Tibet’e teşekkür ederiz. Editörler It includes four important articles by G. Ergin, Y. S. Güler, Ch. Schuler, H. Şahin and S. Gaznevi, in the sixth issue of Acta Classica Mediterranea. We are grateful for their contributions. As Acta Classica Mediterranea has recently been included in L’Année Philologique with the abbreviation “AClassMed”, we have therefore decided to adopt this new form to avoid any confusion. Finally, we extend our thanks to Th. Corsten for his review of and suggestions for the IAM text, and to our graphic designer Aydın Tibet for his work to bring all this together. Editors Acta Classica Mediterranea 6 | 2023, 9-10 Önsöz | Preface Gürkan Ergin* Abstract Although, at first sight, “phallic” does not seem like a novel term to define Trajan’s Column, this paper argues that it can be associated with a number of overlooked architectural, linguistic and narrative aspects of the monument that reinforce the column’s overall message. In modern literature only one article uses the term “phallic” (and only once), and another one compares the plan of Trajan’s Forum to a phallus, curiously excluding the column itself from the discussion. “Phallic verticality”, however, is an architectural phenomenon that is observed in many ancient and modern cultures. The relationship between Augustus’ horologium (Montecitorio obelisk) and Ara Pacis, for instance, has been recently interpreted in this context. In modern times the skyscrapers too have been understood as phallic buildings by architects, feminist, and social theorists such as Henri Lefebvre. Architecturally, columnar form in general might have been inspired by animal biology (i.e. penis) and ancient writers are explicit in pointing out nature as the source of the inspiration for other architectural forms such as beehive tombs. The column is, in fact, seen as a symbol of procreation and masculine identity in the ancient sources. Complementing the columnar form are the depictions on the spiral frieze of the Trajan’s Column, where the actions of the Roman army on the Dacian landscape such as felling, harvesting, extracting turf from the earth etc. reflect the “rape of a female landscape.” Latin writers used female physicality and behaviour to depict the features of a landscape, which is also obvious in the writings of European explorers and geographers to this day. Thus, apart from how women are depicted, this is a theme linked to the phallic verticality of the column. Keywords: Trajan’s Column, phallic architecture, masculinity, Henri Lefebvre, biology Özet “Fallik” ilk bakışta Traianus Sütunu için şaşırtıcı bir sıfat gibi gelmese de anıtın mimari formuna yapılan bu gönderme, aslında sütunun anlatısını tamamlayıcı nitelikte bazı gözden kaçmış noktalar barındırmaktadır. Traianus Sütunu üzerine birçok çalışma olmakla birlikte, bunlar arasında sadece bir tanesi anıt için “fallik” sıfatını kullanmıştır ve Forum Traiani’nin planını phallosa benzeten bir başkası ise ilginç şekilde sütunu bu bağlamda tartışmamıştır. Ne var ki “fallik düşeylik” birçok eski ve modern kültürde gözlemlenen bir olgudur. Mesela Augustus’un horologiumu (Montecitorio dikilitaşı) ve Ara Pacis arasındaki ilişki yakın zamanda bu açından incelenmiştir. Günümüzde gökdelenler bizzat mimarlar, feminist kuramcılar ve Henri Lefebvre * Ass. Prof. Dr., İstanbul University, Faculty of Letters, Department of Ancient history, gurergin@istanbul. edu.tr; ORCID: 0000-0002-1937-2109. Acta Classica Mediterranea 6 | 2023, 11-40 Trajan’s Column as a Phallic Monument: Some Observations ACM 6 | 2023 12 Trajan’s Column as a Phallic Monument: Some Observations gibi toplumsal kuramcılar tarafından “fallik” yapılar olarak yorumlanmıştır. Mimari anlamda sütun formu hayvan biyolojisinden (yani penis) etkilenmiş olabilir ve antik kaynaklar birçok mimari form için doğanın ilham kaynağı olduğunu belirtirler. Aslına bakılırsa sütun da yaratılış ve eril kimliğin bir sembolü olarak görülmüştür. Sütun formu bu özellikleriyle Traianus Sütunu frizlerini tamamlar: Roma ordusunun Dacia arazisindeki ağaç kesme, ekin biçme, topraktan kesek çıkarma gibi faaliyetleri, genellikle dişi olarak görülen doğaya “tecavüz” olarak tanımlanabilecek bir tutumun göstergesidir. Latin yazarlar ve Avrupalı seyyahların eserlerinde arazinin tasviri için kadın bedeninin fiziksel özelliklerinden faydalanılır. Sütunda kadınlara nasıl davranıldığından ayrı olarak bu, sütunun fallik düşeyliğiyle ilişkilendirilebilecek bir temadır. Anahtar kelimeler: Traianus Sütunu, fallik anıt, eril egemenlik, Henri Lefebvre, biyoloji Gürkan Ergin 13 ACM 6 | 2023 Introduction In her article titled “Looking at Gender: The Column of Trajan and Roman Historical Relief ”, Kampen1 defines Trajan’s Column as a “grand phallic monument to the emperor’s conquest of the Dacian people.” As far as I am aware of, no other study on the column refers to it as such. Kampen, and Dillon after her, interpret the gender roles in the Roman patriarchy in the light of the ways the females are depicted on the columns of Trajan and Marcus. The former presents the Dacian women living under direct or indirect Roman rule as mothers and participants of the civic ceremonies (in scenes 82-84, 86, 91).2 In contrast, the latter decidedly presents the German women as victims of violence: they are physically and sexually assaulted, dragged by hair, grasped by wrists, and nonchalantly killed (in scenes 97, 102-104; figs. 1-3, 5-6).3 According to Zanker, distinctive attitudes to women on the columns have something to do with the character of the wars depicted.4 In 1 Kampen, 1995, 46. 2 The famous torture scene on Trajan’s Column (scene 45, fig. 4), where barbarian women burn Roman soldiers alive, is actually a sign of their outsiderness and illogical excessive behaviour compared to the urbanized provincial women who welcome the emperor or participate ceremonies on the column. The scene despises barbarian women because of their unnatural behaviour and highlights the inversed natural order beyond the Roman borders (Kampen, 1995; Dillon, 2006). Contrary to Hannestad (1988, 160), both Kampen and Dillon follow Smith (2002, 79), who claims that it would have been absurd to depict such a derogatory scene on a propagandistic monument that exists primarily to extoll the army. The victims are not Roman soldiers but barbarians and the scene might be read either as an act of vengeance by the Moesian provincial women whose land was invaded by them or an opportunity given to the mistreated civilians by the Romans “to have fun.” But the presence Roman soldiers might make sense if we consider Cicero’s definitions for vir and virtus. He emphasizes their relationship with the inherently masculine term fortitudo, which expresses neglect in the face of pain and death (Cic. Tusc. 2.31, 43). Therefore, we can interpret the figures as Roman soldiers anticipating death with indifference, calmness and resolution. Their heavy musculature reminiscent of the Lysippan Heracles adds to their fortitude. 3 Their reactions in the face of danger differ too: the faces of the provincial women on Trajan’s Column are devoid of any sign of anxiety and fear even when they are fleeing or are being captured, whereas the faces of German women are highly expressive with large eyes and open mouths. Sometimes their dresses fall down from their shoulders occasionally leaving one breast bare, which was used to indicate physical vulnerability and sexual availability. For the motif of bare-breasted women in scenes of violence in Greek art, which obviously is the inspiration for Roman counterparts, see Cohen 2000, 72-77. 4 Zanker 2000, 172. Since the Dacian Wars aimed the conquest and ultimately the integration of the region, the existence of Dacian/Moesian women as mothers and female participants of public ceremonies, and their relatively “humane” treatment anticipate their future life as Roman citizens. Marcomannic Wars, on the other hand, were fought against the most serious threat the empire encountered in centuries; it was a war of total annihilation and a matter of life and death. The barbarian coalition led by the Marcomanni and Suebi came as close as to Aquileia and managed to lay siege to the city. The direness of the situation even forced Marcus Aurelius to put palace furniture and his wife’s wardrobe up for auction, enrol gladiators, slaves and ACM 6 | 2023 14 Trajan’s Column as a Phallic Monument: Some Observations any case, although the columns treat women rather differently, in the end their depictions serve the agenda of a typically male-dominated society.5 What they symbolise in patriarchy is closely connected with a well-known “Mother Earth-Father Culture” dichotomy. According to Fitzsimmons, it is a notion with a long history and became more prominent with industrial revolution. The urban space is associated with Father Culture, and intellectual activities -in Rome an exclusively male occupation- are defined as “urban.”6 Women accompanying Trajan at the start of the campaign are shown in urban settings, in the domain of Father Culture, placing them in a space built, shaped and civilized by men. Women’s role on the columns can be summarized in terms of “phallocentrism” in which, if we follow Frye, the female identity establishes a “background” against a masculine “foreground”7: I imagine phallocratic reality to be the space and figures and motion which constitute the foreground, and the constant repetitive uneventful activities of women to constitute and maintain the background against which this foreground plays. It is essential to the maintenance of the foreground reality that nothing within it refer in any way to anything in the background, and yet it depends absolutely upon the existence of the background. On both columns the foreground reality is the patriarchal sovereignty expressing itself in urban settings, war, conquest, and rape of a female Nature (see below). Even without women, both friezes would have had no difficulty in conveying their message, since there are, after all, many Roman state reliefs depicting war and conquest without relying on the presence of women. The women on the columns have no actual bearing either on the cause or on the outcome of the campaigns; the wars do not entail the presence of women, but that presence is needed to form a background to sustain the activities of men. The background does not surround the foreground (unlike, say, the way the actors are surrounded by the setting in a film scene), yet the latter is built on the former. To use Frye’s theatre metaphor, sets, lighting and props are created and reorganized by the stage workers throughout a play in order to provide and nourish characters’ existence. But the workers’ activities and the consequences of those activities do not constitute a part of the reality bandits to the army; for ten years from 167 discharges of imperial guards, navy personnel and auxilia were suspended (Eutrop. 8.13; Aur. Vict. Caes. 16.2, 9-10; SHA Marc. 17.4-5, 21.6-9; Birley 2012, p. 223). 5 A similar treatment of women is seen in the depictions of the nationes, i.e. the female personifications of the conquered peoples, in Roman art. Ara Pacis and Sebasteion present them as calm, peaceful and mature figures worked in Classical tradition. The latter, however, also shows Britannia crushed under Claudius’ feet, and a fallen, anguished Armenia supported by Nero in a helping gesture. The calmer nationes of Ara Pacis and Sebasteion represent the already integrated peoples. But as newly subjugated territories, Britannia and Armenia are portrayed in fights that they are losing (there is a remarkable overlap between the nations on the Sebasteion reliefs and those listed in Res Gestae, see Smith 1988, 75). The provincial women and their barbarian counterparts on Trajan’s Column follow this pattern to indicate the civilized, docile women living under the Roman patriarchy and those outside of it. 6 Fitzsimmons 1989, 113-114; Sayer 1991, 286-302. 7 Frye 1983, pp. 167-170. Gürkan Ergin Trajan’s Column and Forum & Phallic Verticality Phallic verticality is, to use Lakoff – Johnsen’s term, an “orientational metaphor,” which originates from our motor and sensory lives.8 Eco attempted at a semiological interpretation of the column as an architectural unit, assigning to it primary (as an architectural feature) and secondary (symbolical) functions. Thus, Trajan’s Column makes several primary functions possible as a marker, a meeting point etc., but at the same time it communicates a number of “ideological values” that give way to complex semantical relationships including verticality.9 In his seminal work The Production of Space, the famous Marxist theorist Henri Lefevbre frequently speaks of “phallic verticality” when discussing the functions of high buildings. They rise in “abstract spaces”, i.e. measurable, “paper” spaces of drawings and sketches, where architects, bureaucrats, geographers etc. work. These are always constructed spaces, where bureaucratic and political authorities are inherent to their conception and whose representation is found in monuments, towers, factories and offices:10 The dominant form of space, that of the centres of wealth and power, endeavours to mould the spaces it dominates (i.e. peripheral spaces), and it seeks, often by violent means, to reduce the obstacles and resistance it encounters there… A symbolism derived from that mistaking of sensory, sensual and sexual which is intrinsic to the things/signs of abstract space finds objective expression in derivative ways: monuments have a phallic aspect, towers exude arrogance, and the bureaucratic and political authoritarianism immanent to a repressive space is everywhere. Behind this space there is a logic of visualisation that endorses violent power:11 8 Phallic verticality is, to use Lakoff – Johnsen’s term, an “orientational metaphor,” which originates from out motor and sensory lives. Humans have long had a penchant for using natural forms, penis in particular, as architectural paradigms. The primary meaning of the latter word in Greek, after all, is “architect’s model” (CGL 1064, παράδειγμα). Our very bodies and how they function in our physical environment (up-down, on-off, front-back etc.) are the basic reasons that we have orientational expressions. Phallic verticality naturally corresponds to the word “up”, which creates metaphors that give a sense of intellectual, ethical, moral, emotional superiority and/or affirmation in most examples (Lakoff – Johnsen 2003, 15-21; cf. Rykwert 1994, 119-22). 9 The column as phallus is an endoxa, i.e. general opinions or socially codified acquired habits. A column might acquire architectural (enriches monuments, give grandeur to interior etc.), historical (venerable, time-defying etc.) or aesthetic (slender body, Greek miracle etc.) connotations. At this point, Eco says, the column should have a morphological description that includes morphological markers and constructive operations; a semantic description; a context to see whether inserting the column in that context will charge the object with new meanings. Thus, a free-standing commemorative column can only be associated with a phallus if it is placed in its spatial and temporal context (Eco, 1972). 10 Lefebvre 1991, 33, 42, 49; Merrifield 2006, 104. 11 Lefebvre 1991, 98. ACM 6 | 2023 in which the characters inhabit. Overall, the term “phallic” is an appropriate choice in the context Kampen and Dillon discuss, but there is more to the term that can be associated with Trajan’s Column as I will show below. 15 ACM 6 | 2023 16 Trajan’s Column as a Phallic Monument: Some Observations The arrogant verticality of skyscrapers, and especially of public and state buildings, introduces a phallic or more precisely a phallocratic element into the visual realm; the purpose of this display, of this need to impress, is to convey an impression of authority to each spectator. Verticality and great height have ever been the spatial expression of potentially violent power. The abstract space is the representation of space appropriated by the rich and the powerful, hence:12 This space… demands a truly full object - an objectal “absolute”… Metaphorically, it symbolizes force, male fertility, masculine violence. Here again the part is taken for the whole; phallic brutality does not remain abstract, for it is the brutality of political power, of the means of constraint: police, army, bureaucracy. Phallic erectility bestows a special status on the perpendicular, proclaiming phallocracy as the orientation of space, as the goal of the process - at once metaphoric and metonymic - which instigates this facet of spatial practice. These structures, where the power concentrates and reflects itself, unite the phallic with the politic; verticality symbolizes power.13 Lefebvre’s observations on Greek and Roman spaces underline Romans’ emphasis on verticality in architecture. Both in Greek and Roman cities the centrality of open spaces is principal factor and these spaces primarily function as a gathering point. Lefebvre’s “absolute spaces” (caves, mountain tops, rivers, islands etc.) in Greece and Rome are natural spaces to be filled by political forces. Yet, whereas in the Greek city states agora remained essentially an empty plot of land mostly undisturbed by buildings, the Roman forum is occupied by state monuments, administrative and public buildings, and temples.14 They are mostly higher than their Greek counterparts and in this regard, it is also of note that in the eyes of the Greeks characteristic penis of a young male was thin and short, whereas for Romans, Priapus with its huge phallus became the symbol of masculinity (see below).15 Accordingly, as Satyricon and epigrams of Martial and 12 Lefebvre 1991, 287. 13 Elden 2004, 239. 14 Lefebvre 1991, 237-239: Lefebvre’s observation might be objected on the ground that the Greek agora, particularly in the Hellenistic period, was marked by extensive monumental architecture. Although there is no denying that the Greeks made arrangements to that end, they are not on par with those we find in the Roman forum. Regarding the Athenian agora, the most monumental structure in the pre-Hellenistic period would be the Hephaisteion, but that was not in the agora. In the Hellenistic period, the south side of the agora was radically changed by the construction of several new buildings, none of which were high: the Middle Stoa, the largest building in the agora, was 150 meters long, but other than that, it was a modest building. The present remains of the Metroon, which date to the mid-2nd century BC, suggest a relatively unremarkable building composed of four rooms with a façade of fourteen columns. In these examples, a sense of monumentality is conveyed by horizontal contours of the buildings, not by their verticality. The Roman additions to the agora, on the other hand, occupy the open space itself: the Temple of Ares, which originally stood elsewhere, was dismantled and reerected in the agora. The Odeion of Agrippa, a huge twostoried structure that can hold about 1000 spectators, was also built there (Hill 1953, 39-41, 72, 75-77). 15 Dover 1978, 125-126. Even a hero such as Heracles and giants have small genitals on vases. Gürkan Ergin 17 Juvenal suggest, a penis of impressive size is the ultimate sign of manliness and an admiration of male potency. This is a specifically Roman discourse, for neither visual nor textual Greek sources express such a phenomenon.16 Another thinker we may cite is the French intellectual Georges Bataille:17 ACM 6 | 2023 Architecture is the expression of the very soul of societies, just as human physiognomy is the expression of the individuals’ souls. It is, however, particularly to the physiognomies of official personages (prelate, magistrates, admirals) that this comparison pertains. In fact, it is only the ideal soul of society, that which has the authority to command and prohibit, that is expressed in architectural compositions properly speaking… It is in the form of cathedral or palace that Church or State speaks to the multitudes and imposes silence upon them. It is, in fact, obvious that monuments inspire social prudence and often even real fear. The taking of the Bastille is symbolic of this state of things: it is hard to explain this crowd movement other than by the animosity of the people against the monuments that are their real masters... The mathematical ordering imposed on stone is the pinnacle of the evolution of earthly forms18… If you are at odds with architecture, therefore, you are at odds with man himself. For Bataille, architecture is only imaginable as a mirror of oppressive social order; it denies liberty and limits humanity. Trajan’s Column is, of course, neither a symbol of oppression nor a deliberately sexualized monument, but Bataille and Lefebvre’s remarks help us to put the column’s phallic architectural form in context. It reinforces the overall message of the narrative relief, that is, the masculine power and virtues of the emperor and his legions are the guarantor of the Rome’s perpetuity more than anything. There were also colossal statues on high pedestals and commemorative columns.19 Pliny the Elder says that Roman placed statues atop columns to elevate important 16 Wıllıams 2010, 97-8. 17 Hollier 19933, 46-7, 53-54. 18 The mathematical precision in the column’s construction is indeed remarkable: “…the casual feel of the relief is in strong contrast with the rigour of the architecture of the monument. The height of the individual blocks is relatively consistent; the cross-section is laid out according to simple dimensions; the exterior, the staircase, and the central core all diminish smoothly in width, the former with a finely tuned cigar-shaped entasis. Decorative profiles are cut with exquisite precision; the huge marble blocks meet on razor-fine joints; the staircase is relentlessly even. The dimensions of the window frames and embrasures are highly consistent, even where they are cut from two adjoining blocks. The stair is set out so that a full turn comprises14 steps, which is a more difficult geometrical construction than the best alternatives of 12 or 16; 12 and 16 radials can be constructed easily by bisecting twice an equilateral triangle or cross-axes inscribed in a circle, but the 14-part figure eludes the simple manipulation of ruler and compasses and requires a painstaking procedure. This explains Vitruvius’ repeated use of geometrical figures with 12 or 16, but not 14, sides. Thus, the use of the 14-part plan on the Column suggests a high level of geometrical competence by the architect and builders. Lastly, the craftsmanship is of such quality that signs of earthquake damage are all but imperceptible, and even today the Column leans out of plumb by less than half a degree” (Jones 1993, 30-31). 19 Greeks also erected similar columns. Plutarch mentions a tall column that supposedly marked the tomb of Thessalian hero Kleomakhos who fell in the Lelantine War in the Chalcidian agora (Mor. 760e–761b). Callicrates of Samos, an admiral under Ptolemy II and a priest of the dynastic cult, erected statues of Ptolemy II and Arsinoe II on two Ionic columns, ten meters high, which were set within the altis at Olympia (Brian Rose 1997, 5-6). ACM 6 | 2023 18 Trajan’s Column as a Phallic Monument: Some Observations men above mortals.20 A distinct type of commemorative column, the columna rostrata, deserves a special mention. It was mounted with protruding rams around the shaft to commemorate naval victories. Recently, these rams have been interpreted by De Casien as representations of phallic power. Like the column, the ram fits in the “priapic model”, a penetrative model of sexuality which suggests that active role is essential for the Roman male to claim superiority.21 The columna rostra, then, was a powerful manifestation of masculine power, whose effect multiplied by the “phallic” symbolism of the column itself, and which is appropriate for the first ever victory in a major naval battle against Carthaginians, hence the first naval triumph in Rome.22 One can say that in modern world skyscrapers appear as the ultimate symbols of phallic verticality. Lefebvre suggests that they represent the power, influence and status of the capitalist corporations rather than those of states or persons. Their functions as phallic monuments, however, are fundamentally same with that of Trajan’s Column. In the eyes of feminist critics, the skyscrapers of Manhattan and Chicago are “symbols of a muscular and heroically masculinised notion of US modernity, also inevitably reeked of an extreme, phallocentric patriarchy… a pinnacle of patriarchal symbology, is rooted in the masculine mystique of the big, the erect, the forceful - the full balloon of the inflated masculine ego.” These observations ring truer when we hear similar words from “the father of skyscrapers”, architect Louis Sullivan himself, who expressed his thoughts on a skyscraper built by one of his colleagues:23 20 Plin. HN 34.25.27. One of the earliest examples of commemorative columns with statues was Columna Minucia erected in 439 BC in honour of praefectus annonae L. Municius Augurinus. But the first ever victory monuments was Columna Maenia, erected to commemorate a successful naval engagement against Antium in 338 led by Gaius Meanius. The first columna rostrata was erected in honour of Gaius Duilius in 260 BC to celebrate his naval victory against Carthage (Plin. HN 34.21; Serv. ad Georg. 3.29). In 36 BC, after Sextus Pompey’s defeat, another columna rostrata with a semi-nude statue of Octavian on the top was erected in Forum Romanum. Apart from those of the gods (Plin. HN 34.40, 43, 49; Strab. 6.278), colossal statues of mortals were few. A three-meter-high statue of Pompey stood in front of the Curia (Plut. Caes. 66, and the statue of Caesar in his temple in Forum Romanum was probably larger than life, (see Rehak 2006, pp. 41-42). When Granius Marcellus erected his statue on a higher position that that of the emperor, it was deemed as a blasphemy (Tact. Ann. 1.74.3). Caligula destroyed many statues because of this and banned their erection in public spaces without his consent (Suet. Calig. 34). Claudius issued a similar decree (Cass. Dio 60.25.2-3). For the commemorative columns of the Julio-Claudians, see Brian Rose, 1997 passim. There were, of course, many others dedicated to the later emperors. 21 DeCasien compares the shape of the ram with phallic objects in Roman art, architecture and personal adornments, pointing out to four principal visual features they share with rams. Roman shipwrecks yielded phallus figurines obviously owned by crew and images of Priapus, who was also the patron of mariners. The function of the ram was to break, breach and penetrate the hull of an enemy ship, verbs associated with sexual penetration, and Greek and Roman words for the ram, embolos and rostra, are used to describe penetrative acts. And Latin word navis, ship, was used metaphorically to describe womb or vagina (DeCasien 2021). 22 See Kondratieff 2004 for a comprehensive discussion on the column and Duilius’ innovative propaganda. If we follow DeCasien’s argument, columna rostrata or Augustus’s Nikopolis monument may be compared to ancient Egyptian practice of cutting enemy penises as a symbol of deprivation enemy of its power. The practice is known as early as the time of Narmer. On the walls of the Medinet Habu temple, where Ramses III’s victory over the Sea Peoples in 1180 BC are recounted, penises and hands of the enemy are shown being cut off and counted, see Morenz, 2020, p. 606. 23 Graham 2020, 171-172, 176, 180. Gürkan Ergin In Martin Parker’s words, a skyscraper “has the power to transform nothingness into something.” The Burj Khalifa in Dubai has that procreant power to promote a financial centre in the middle of the desert. The inscription at its entrance reads: I am the power that lifts the world’s head proudly skywards, surpassing limits and expectations… I am the life force of collective aspirations and the aesthetic union of many cultures. I stimulate dreams, stir emotions and awaken creativity… I am the heart of the city and its people; the marker that defines [developer] Emaar’s ambition and Dubai’s shining dream… More than just a moment in time, I define moments for future generations. Trajan’s Column embodies the essence behind these quite hyperbolic words both architecturally and iconographically (see below). The column was built as an overt manifestation emperor’s and his legions’ masculine power, and as Ammianus’ passage below suggests, it was a sight to behold for future generations. In this respect, it is important to note that the column’s spiral frieze is never mentioned by any of our ancient sources. Instead, the emphasis is given to its height and size:24 [Trajan] also built libraries. And he set in the Forum an enormous column, to serve at once as a monument to himself and as a memorial of the work in the Forum. For that entire section had been hilly and he had cut it down for a distance equal to the height of the column, thus making the Forum level. When Constantius II entered Rome for the first time in 357:25 …he surveyed… the exalted heights which rise with platforms to which one may mount, and bear the likenesses of former emperors [i.e. columns of Trajan, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius].. But when he came to the Forum of Trajan, a construction unique under the heavens, as we believe, and admirable even in the unanimous opinion of the gods, he stood fast in amazement, turning his attention to the gigantic complex about him, beggaring description and never again to be imitated by mortal men. Therefore abandoning all hope of attempting anything like it, he said that he would and could copy Trajan’s steed alone, which stands in the centre of the vestibule, carrying the emperor himself. 24 Cass. Dio 68.15.3. 25 Amm. Marc. 16.10.13. ACM 6 | 2023 a virile force - … an entire male. It stands, in physical fact, a monument to trade, to the organized commercial spirit, to the power and progress of the age, to the strength and resource of individuality and force of character. … Therefore have I called it, in a world of barren pettiness, a male; for it sings the song of procreant power, as others have squealed of miscegenation. 19 ACM 6 | 2023 20 Trajan’s Column as a Phallic Monument: Some Observations The inscription too is concerned with the height:26 The Senate and the People of Rome to the Emperor, Caesar Nerva, son of the deified Nerva, Traianus Augustus, Germanicus, Dacicus, Pontifex Maximus, invested with the power of the tribune seventeen times, hailed imperator six times, elected consul six times, father of the fatherland, to demonstrate how lofty a hill and (what area of) ground was carried away for these mighty works. One could argue that 300-storey skyscrapers with their private ownership and commercial and residential functions are more different from the Trajan’s Column than they are alike, and that their common use of verticality is more logistical or coincidental than significant. But I want to note that regardless of their functions, both the column and modern skyscrapers are judged by their superhuman scale that takes them out of the realm of everyday human experience.27 In the abovementioned ancient and modern excerpts, it is not their primary functions that are emphasized but their height. Neither the column’s inscription nor Ammianus cites the Dacian Wars, and the Burj Khalifa inscription is not concerned with the building’s commercial contributions to the country. And in the case of skyscrapers, the architects themselves are the ones that encourage sexually charged comparisons. Such a large project also means a considerable change on the face of the earth, hence a challenge to Nature. Just as Aristides compares the huge temple of Hadrian in Cyzicus to the mountains, so the building inscription of the column wants us to appreciate the monument and complex by comparing28 them with the volume of the lofty hill that was levelled during the construction. The erection of the column and the forum mirror the activities of the Roman army (ploughing, forest clearing, turf collecting, building etc.) on the Dacian soil or Mother Nature (see below). On the top of the column was a balcony functioned as a viewing platform. In addition to enjoying the scenery, a Roman would experience a particular masculine form of gaze. From the 17th to 20th century, the Western culture associated landscape with a specific form of seeing, i.e. gazing the world from a sovereign and “objective” high point. In Wylie’s words,29 The commanding prospect, offering objective, authoritative and wide-ranging vision, and establishing the viewer in a place of epistemological and juridical supremacy, is a classic trope within the art and literature of imperial travel and exploration. This privileged male gaze is central to the commanding position of the column. The curious ignorance of the spiral frieze by the sources is connected to a general tendency in ancient literature to put grandeur of a monument before its “details.” The column was erected to elevate the emperor above his predecessors first and 26 CIL 6.960. 27 Delaine 2002, 206-210, 213-214. 28 Aristid. Or. 27. 29 Wylie 2007, 3, 127. Gürkan Ergin 30 De Angelis 2014, 105-113. 31 Vitruv. 3.1.3; Ov. Tr. 2.295-6; Kellum 1996. 32 Admittedly, there are a number of problems with Kellum’s approach to the material. First, the recent discovery of two more hemicycles seriously undermines her interpretation of the plan (Geiger 2008, 107-109). In addition, she conflicts herself by first mentioning that contemporary plans of Rome probably put the south at the top, and later stating that Forum of Augustus is clearly dominant both in terms of size and placement (Kellum 1996, 172, 179). She also fails to consider other possibilities regarding the size of the Forum of Augustus such as necessity of more space for social activities since Suetonius makes it clear that a bigger forum was necessary due to the increase in the number of people and of cases at law (Suet. ACM 6 | 2023 foremost. It is the grandeur, not the details that match the might and achievements of the emperor. The details (akribeia), i.e. reliefs, are present to characterize and complement the qualities of the emperor and his army embodied by the grandeur (megethos) of the column. Even though viewers would not have a grasp of all the sculptural details, they would know that the meticulous craftsmanship was uniform from the bottom to the top judging from the column’s overall grandeur. The “details” were available to the ordinary Romans, but the viewing platform was limited to the Roman elite and emperors. It is not a coincidence that Ammianus recorded Constantius’ reaction to the column, since as an emperor, he was the ultimate viewer due to his share in the grandeur of Rome.30 Trajan’s Column was not an isolated monument; it was conceived as an essential part of a grander project, the Forum of Trajan (fig. 7). It is plausible, therefore, to ask whether the forum can be included in this discussion. Kellum claims that the Forum of Augustus served as a site of masculinity both in actual use and layout. She interprets the forum as a space which hosted a number of important “virile” events. It was here that boys put on toga virilis, the garment of the Roman citizen; praetor urbanus and the emperor set up their tribunals; governors leave for their assigned provinces; senate debated war, peace and claims of triumph; the triumphator would to perform a dedication to Mars etc. It also housed the statues of the great military and civic heroes of the past (summi viri) to serve as the exemplars of manhood. These statues were reached through an attic-level frieze of Caryatid figures, who, according to Vitruvius, represented the women from Caryae, a supporter of the Persians. In return, they were led into captivity and forced them to retain their robes as the permanent symbols of their shame by the Greeks. As for the layout, Kellum likens it to a phallus with two opposing hemicycles to the north being testicles and the forum extending southwest representing the shaft of a penis. She even speculates that the forum is juxtaposed with the Forum of Caesar (“wedded” in Kellum’s words) in such a way that the “phallus-shaped” former sexually imposes itself upon the latter. In this respect, she also draws attention to the temples in these forums: Mars Ultor in the Augustan and Venus Genetrix in the Julian forums. Their love relationship and the position of their temples serve as sexual wordplay in Ovid.31 Kellum does not dwell on the possibility of other “phallic” spaces in Rome and one may not be fully convinced by her ideas claiming that projecting the modern rhetoric of feminism onto a period where no such notions exist, and wonder if sex and gender are more important in the forum of Augustus than they did anywhere else in the Roman Empire.32 However problematic Kellum’s treatment of the avail- 21 ACM 6 | 2023 22 Trajan’s Column as a Phallic Monument: Some Observations able material, her strength lies in her suggestion that we must be open to the multivalence of Roman image-making and in her use of graffiti, puns etc. Although the plan of the Forum of Trajan closely follows that of the Forum of Augustus, it does not conform to Kellum’s phallus analogy. Its other several aspects, though, are worth discussing. It is obvious that by following its predecessor’s plan on a grander scale and adapting some of its distinctive features, Trajan’s forum aspires to assume some, if not all, of its functions and allusions. Structural details such as exedrae, caryatid-like figures of Dacian captives to support the upper storey of the flanking porticoes, use of imagines clipeatae perhaps representing prominent heroes of the Dacian Wars, and mouldings, for example, were borrowed from the Forum of Augustus. The caryatids and the imagines clipeatae, like those in the Forum of Augustus, might be taken as indicators of manhood. It is also quite possible that the hemicycles might have replaced the Roman Forum as the place where boys were advanced to manhood on the festival of Libertatis33. But perhaps the most overt indication of the forum’s masculine aspect is the plan of the Basilica Ulpia, which seems to have been inspired by the military principia in that its two rectangular rooms flanking an open court imitates a principia’s tabularii and aedes.34 In this regard, we may also note the presence of phallic imagery carved on the walls and paving stones of a number of principia in Britain. They have been discovered at Carlisle on the south wall of the principia, at Chesters on a raised circular dais in the courtyard of principia, at South Shields, and at Vindolanda in a drain inside the west entrance.35 Principia was the focal point of a Roman fort; it was the seat of power, and the administrative, religious and economic hub of Roman garrisons. Military standards, religious icons and soldier’s pay was kept in the aedes. Principia, therefore, being a target of potential danger, required the apotropaic function of phallus figures.36 Although the basilica shares certain important functions of a principia, I would not go as far to say that the column fully assumes the apotropaic properties of a phallus. Nevertheless, as Packer notes, the height, hence the commanding position of Trajan’s statue at the end of forum’s longitudinal axis, leaves more or less a similar impression on Aug. 29.1). A more modest forum could be Caesar’s deliberate decision to avoid from making enemies within the elite, while Augustus was unrestrained in this respect. Another problem is her use of extremely different examples regarding phallus, hence odd groupings of images and texts. That said, the phallic floor plan itself was not an unimaginable concept and was later (in 1779) applied, though not realized, by the French neoclassicist architect Claude-Nicolas Ledoux to a brothel complex, namely Oikema (Hersey 1999, 122-12). 33 Bennett 1997, 158. 34 Rodenwaldt noted the similarities between the layouts of Castra Vetera near Xanten with that of the forum of Trajan (Rodenwaldt, 1926, pp. 338-339). Zanker, on the hand, compared legionary camps at Dura-Europus and Lambaesis with the forum (Zanker 1970, 504-506). Gros too recognizes a concerted effort to ascribe a militaristic tone to the plan. According to him, the forum represents a radical break with the nature of previous reigns in that the imperial authority does not rest on dynastic continuity or divine favour, but on the emperor’s personal power and legitimacy supported by the legions (Gros 2000). Packer, however, is of the opinion that a forum with a temple (i.e. the Temple of Divine Trajan) at one end suggests a less militaristic design (Packer 2003, 128). 35 Parker 2017. 36 Johns 1982, p. 64. Gürkan Ergin Language and Imagery Phallic references of the column extend to the language. Military metaphors hold an important place in the Latin sexual vocabulary. The words that contain sexual connotations such as beat, hit, cut, strike, hew, chisel, pierce, penetrate, dig, wound, plough, sow, work, duty, service38 also denote the activities - killing, stabbing, hurling sling bullets39 (scenes 70, 165,172), building, opening roads (scenes 15, 24, 69, 92), harvesting, felling trees (scenes 110, 117) - performed by the Roman army on Trajan’s Column (figs. 8-9). These activities sexually symbolize the rape of a land conceived as a female.40 In the words of Collard and Contrucci,41 In patriarchy, Nature, animals and women are objectified, hunted, invaded, colonised, owned, consumed and forced to yield and to produce (or not). This violation of the integrity of wild, spontaneous Being is rape. It is motivated by a fear and rejection of Life and it allows the oppressor the illusion of control, of power, of being alive. As with women as a class, Nature and animals have been kept in a state of inferiority and powerlessness in order to enable men as a class to believe and act upon their “natural” superiority/dominance. Indeed, when Strabo speaks of natural resources of the conquered lands, he notes the foolishness of local populations who cannot exploit them, hence associating the efficient exploitation of the land with imperial might. Indians possess various metal ores, but are not aware of the richness of their land and act foolishly when 37 Packer 1994, p. 167: Meneghini presents seminal challenges against Packer’s interpretation of the forum’s layout, regarding especially the Temple of the Divine Trajan. In his reconstruction, in the area north of the libraries rose a rectangular multistoried structure with a grand propylon attached to it, which could have housed the Temple of Divine Trajan (Meneghini 1996). In the light of Meneghini’s excavations between 1999-2000, it is possible that after Trajan’s death in 177, Hadrian would have decided to dedicate the whole complex to his predecessor instead of the temple alone, which was already under construction in the year Trajan dedicated the forum (that is, 112). In response to Meneghini’s new reconstruction, Packer suggested that Meneghini’s research actually revealed the temenos wall of the temple precinct, which in turn give the approximate position of the temple stairs (Packer 2013). Claridge, on the other hand, claimed that originally the column had no spiral frieze, which was later added in Hadrian’s reign (Claridge 1993). It must be noted that none of these theories has any bearing on the phallic aspects of the column. 38 Adams 1982, 19-22, 145-70. 39 Slingers, probably of Balearic origin (Veg. Mil. 16; Flor. 1.43.5), are represented on the column in scenes 70, 165, 172. The Latin word for the bullets, glans (acorn), also denotes the tip of the penis in medical works. It is worth noting that Type 2 glandes, which are associated solely with Roman armies are literally in the form of acorn (Greep 1987, 190). Some of the bullets used at the siege of Perusia in 41-40 BC bear the inscriptions “Lucius Antonius, you baldy, and Fulvia, spread them cheeks” and “sit on this gape-assed Octavius.” They were clearly intended as agents of sexual attack by Octavian’s troops (Hallett 1971; Adams 1982, 72). 40 Dillon 2006, 262. 41 Collard - Contrucci 1989, 1-2. ACM 6 | 2023 the viewer: “Rising above the gilded roof of the 100-foot high Basilica Ulpia, the gilded colossus of Trajan, a sacred icon at least 4 m high, visibly presided over and protected the architectural splendours of his Forum”.37 23 ACM 6 | 2023 24 Trajan’s Column as a Phallic Monument: Some Observations trading. Kymeans are known for their idiocy, because it took 300 years for them to learn that they could collect tariffs on the goods arriving their ports.42 And whenever Strabo mentions the important trading cities, routes and goods, he defines them not on their own terms, but according to their function with respect to Rome: Iberia is the inexhaustible treasure of the empire and Sicily the granary.43 Similarly, the conquest of Dacia provided the empire with an enormous amount of precious metals and slaves. According to the Byzantine epitomer of the now lost Getica by Trajan’s physician T. Statilius Crito, the Romans secured 227 kilograms of gold and 453 kilograms of silver, which were equal to 31.5 million aureii and 160 million denarii respectively.44 The feminineness of the land is also emphasized by the description of its various topographical features in terms of female parts and sexual innuendos. Venetian topography as described by the American Association of Geographers, for example, presents a land viewed by a male gaze with sexually meaningful expressions such as “curving outlines”, “penetration”, “entrance” and “womb-like”:45 The organic, curving outline of the island city is surrounded and penetrated by tidal waters, its streets and canals form a dark and mysterious labyrinth to which we gain access by way of the sparkling and highly-decorated symbolic entrance of the basin of San Marco, the sinuous Grand Canal and the Piazzetta, leading to the womb-like enclosure of the Piazza. Feminist perspective underlines this aspect of gazing in the history of Western civilization. Beauty of a landscape is defined through female body and its characteristics. Feminization of landscape is the result of men’s active engagement with the material object. Landscape is a way of seeing the world and thus represents a historically specific way of experiencing the world, which means that it is developed by and is meaningful to certain societies.46 Women are considered to be closer to the Nature partly because of their childbearing capabilities and partly because, like the Nature itself, they are thought to be uncontrollable and tempestuous. This way of portraying the landscape is also seen in ancient literature and it is reported that the famous hills formed by alluvial deposits at the mouth of the Danube were known as “the Breasts.”47 Catullus makes the implications of the above-mentioned 42 Strab. 15.130, 13.3.6. 43 Strab. 3.2.9, 6.2.7; McCoskey 2005, 64. 44 Bennett 1997, 103. 45 Rose 1993, 69. 46 Cosgrove 1998, 13, 15. 47 Auson. Epigr. 93.4 (the island of Clazomenae as anus); Mart. 11.99.5 (Symplegades and Cyaneae rocks as buttocks); Anth. Lat. 382.2 (woman’s groins as topographical boundary); Strab. 1.3.7 (Danube); Adams 1982, 90, 114. The symbolic importance attributed to crossing of rivers in the barbarian territory accompanies this male dominated imagery and wording (Campbell 2012, 375). Despair of foreign local rivers in the face of Roman conquest is a frequent theme in poetry and prose. Ovid imagines future processions of Augustus with the images of Euphrates and Tigris (Ov. Ars am. 1.223-224). Horace mentions Euphrates together with conquered peoples and says that it does not flow as proudly as before. Vergil Gürkan Ergin follows the pattern in his imaginary parade of subjugated peoples and refers to the double-horned Rhine brought to Rome along with its people, the low-flowing Euphrates, and Araxes infuriated by the bridges built over his waters. Similar imagery appears in other works (Hor. Od. 2.9.21-22; Verg. Aen. 8.722-728). Roman soldiers’ occupation of Rhône, which is hostile to bridges (Sil. Pun. 3.442-458); Rhine opens its waters to Germanicus as if it is his slave (Ov. Fast. 1.285-6); Rhine is clouded with the blood of the Suebi shed by the Romans (Prop. 3.3.45-6); Rhine is astonished by its waters effervesced and painted red with the bloods of the Germans defeated by Julian in 357 (Amm. Marc. 16.12.57). Trajan’s crossing of the Danube too was seen as a comparable feat by Pliny the Younger (Plin. Ep. 8.4). It was, of course, depicted on Trajan’s Column it is on scenes 3 and 4, 99. On the Arch of Beneventum, Dacia is depicted with its tributaries Tisza and Alutus kneeling (Andreae 1977, 205, 404, fig. 411). One may wonder why rivers were imagined as male in Greek and Roman thought despite the perception of Nature/Land as female, and attribution of female physical qualities to rivers. Referring to Varro, Augustine says that “So many were the gods who thus protected Rome, and who can count them: native gods and foreign-born, gods celestial and terrestrial, infernal and marine, fountain gods and river gods, and, as Varro says, gods certain and uncertain, and in every class of gods, as in every kind of animal, the male and the female?” (De civ. D 3.12). There are other instances in Latin literature, where each Roman god has a male and a female manifestation (i.e. Liber and Libera, Februus and Februa, Faunus and Fauna etc.). According to Servius the divine adopts one of the sexes according to instances: “as a result, divinities are even said to possess both sexes, so that they are male when in action and female when passive.” The sky -hence celestial gods- is masculine, since it “acts” and earth is female -hence goddesses- since it is “acted upon” (Aen. 4.638), see Corbeill (2015), 113, 119-20. Although river gods were born from Okeanos and Tethys, both earth-bound entities, they are male perhaps because they “act upon” the earth by shaping it. 48 Catull. 11. 49 Since the word “column” is encountered in mostly Priapic contexts, a brief comment on the sexuality of emperors that erected these monuments is necessary. According to Suetonius Augustus’ friends excused his extramarital affairs “as committed not from passion but from policy, the more readily to get track of his adversaries’ designs through the women of their households.” Thus, the sexual excesses of Octavian are closely linked exclusively with his political agenda. Augustus was widely known as a womanizer, a trait criticized by Marc Antony (Suet. Aug. 69). We also learn that he kept male slaves as delicae (“lovers”), a custom followed by many later emperors (Plut. Ant. 59.4; Wıllıams 20102, 35-6). Trajan was very fond of his closely guarded delicae (SHA Hadr. 1.7, 4.5; Cass. Dio 68. 1.2, 68.7.4). Like Priapus - a sort of mascot for Roman “machismo” - Roman men should be willing, ready and competent to demonstrate their dominance over others, be it male or female, through sexual penetration. Trajan was not a womanizer like Augustus, but in his praise of the emperor’s choice of wife, Pliny the Younger contrasts Trajan with the former emperors (i.e. Claudius), who made wrong choices in this regard and attributes Plotina’s modesty and loyalty to the emperor’s masculine competency (Plin. Pan. 83). In order to rule others, one should first conduct his wife at home; therefore, Claudius’ weak control over Messalina overshadows his rule over Rome (Tac. Ann. 11.30; Joshel 1997: 243-44). Augustus and Trajan, on the other hand, established their masculine sovereignty, the former by seducing women at will and treating them like sexual objects, the latter by his command over his wife’s character and behaviour. ACM 6 | 2023 imagery and wording explicit by corresponding the imaginary journey of Furius and Aurelius to the military expeditions of Caesar and Pompey with erotic expressions. He speaks of penetration of India (sive in extremos penetrabit Indos), which suggests a transgressive imperialistic expansion that is equated with sexual violation. For Catullus, the conquests of Caesar and his peers allude to their insatiable sexual urges.48 Mark Antony’s claims about Octavian’s sexual excesses and the relationship between the Augustan horologium - another phallic architectural form - with the Ara Pacis is remarkable in this respect (see below). Although Trajan had a decent private life compared to his predecessors, he nevertheless was interested in young boys and was praised for his control over his wife.49 Thus, Trajan’s Column might be viewed also as an architectural and figurative expression of its builder’s virility at home. 25 ACM 6 | 2023 26 Trajan’s Column as a Phallic Monument: Some Observations It is worthy of note that there are several instances in Latin literature, where the word “column” is identified with penis. Martial uses it for Priapus’ (rather his statue’s) erect penis and in another epigram, he likens the penis of a certain Titius to a column. In Corpus Priapeorum the penis of a Priapus statue is imagined as a column.50 There is one relevant grammatical use that deserves attention. Porphyry says that Ionians enjoy making masculine nouns like “column” and “stone” feminine, an indicator of their effeminate character.51 This recalls the well-known passage in Vitruvius to mind, where he attributes the Ionic column “feminine slenderness” with a convex moulding under the base as if a shoe, “the volutes like graceful” curling hair”, and “the fluting like the folds of matronly robes”, and where he describes Doric columns as “manlike in appearance, bare, unadorned.” Male is the idea of the Doric column, which is, of course, also the order of Trajan’s Column. Lunelli observes a similar tendency to change grammatical gender in Catullus and other neoteric poets, which stems from “an unconscious tendency to align themselves with a refined, feminine-leaning ideology.” For Porphyry and Lunelli, then, alteration of a noun’s gender reflects the characteristics of a particular society.52 What is striking is Porphry’s choice of the word “column” as an example for the change of gender in Ionic dialect. Taken together with Vitruvius’ description of Classical orders, it appears that the column is perceived as a gender-related form. It is very noticeable that Vitruvius places the invention of the Doric order (by Dorus, son of Hellen) in the heroic age, giving it an exalted origin.53 In a similar vein, the Homeric heroes are more closely linked to objects that are hard and have a certain strength whereas the women are at a reflective distance from them. Thus, Hector’s heart is like an axe, the Danaans are like a steep rock, Odysseus and Ajax are like rafters, and Alcathous is like a “pillar” or a tree.54 In this context, the interpretation of Trajan’s Column as a heroon55 becomes more intriguing.56 Vitruvius association of the human form with the column is explained by Rykwert as a result of “abstraction of human body from nature and thereby isolation of it as an object of attention and establishing it in a context for its metaphoric interpretation.” Body paintings, tattoos and subincisions are the most common ways through which the human body achieves this status. From this point of view, it is not implausible to think an isolated column as an analogue of human body, since like the aforementioned techniques, it projects a certain meaning out into 50 Mart. Ep. 6.49, 11.51; Priap. 9. 51 Porph. ad Od. P. 288-18-20. 52 Lunelli 1969, 170; Corbeill 2015, 93. 53 Vitruv. De Arch. 4.1.1-7. 54 Canevaro 2018, 255. 55 Packer 1994, 169-171. 56 The column’s function as heroon, its attempt to immortalize the emperor is related to the very purpose of funeral architecture, that is, to cover up the place left by death. Egyptian pyramids or Trajan’s Column were erected to conceal the appearance of death. “Death must not appear, it must not take place: let tombs cover it up and take its place… It is the other of everything known; it threatens the meaning of discourses. Death is hence irreducibly heterogeneous to homologies; it is not assimilable” (Hollier 19933, 36). Gürkan Ergin 57 Rykwert 1994, 118-123. 58 Plin. HN 36.64. 59 Swetnam-Burland 2010, 139, 151, fn. 27. The obelisk began as a “statue” of Osiris’ member: “When Osiris was ruling over Egypt as its lawful king, he was murdered by his brother Typhon, a violent and impious man; Typhon then divided the body of the slain man into twenty-six pieces and gave one portion to each of the band of murderers, since he wanted all of them to share in the pollution and felt that in this way he would have in them steadfast supporters and defenders of his rule… Now the parts of the body of Osiris which were found were honoured with burial, they say, in the manner described above, but the privates, according to them, were thrown by Typhon into the Nile because no one of his accomplices was willing to take them. Yet Isis thought them as worthy of divine honours as the other parts, for, fashioning a likeness of them, she set it up in the temples, commanded that it be honoured, and made it the object of the highest regard and reverence in the rites and sacrifices accorded to the god. Consequently, the Greeks too, inasmuch as they received from Egypt the celebrations of the orgies and the festivals connected with Dionysus, honour this member in both the mysteries and the initiatory rites and sacrifices of this god, giving it the name ‘phallus’” (Diod. Sic. 1.21-22.6). 60 For recent studies on the relationship between Ara Pacis and the Horologium, see Haselberger, 2014 and Frischer et al. 2017. 61 Hor. Od. 4.5. 62 Joseph, BJ 2.6.1; Prop. 2.31.9-16; Vitr. 3.3.4; Plin. HN 36.13-25. ACM 6 | 2023 the surrounding world. When painted or carved, a column invites a passer-by to see it as a body or limb analogue. Erection of a column also means a claim on the ground it stands by virtue of the shadow it casts on its perimeter.57 As mentioned above, the inscription of Trajan’s Column reflects this claim, and in the case of Augustus’ horologium, its shadow represents the perpetuity of the new order, ascribing Augustus’ rule a cosmic meaning (see below). Moving away from Rome, one may observe a comparable symbolism of phallic verticality in the form of ancient Egyptian obelisks. Although their function differs from that of Trajan’s Column, in both monument types verticality contributes to the images/implications of phallic domination. In Egyptian religion, obelisk was sacred to Ra and the gilded piramidion at the top represented the triangular form of sun rays piercing clouds. Pliny says that in Egyptian language tekhen (thn) denotes both an obelisk and sun rays, while the pinkish-red stone for the obelisks symbolises the hot sun.58 What he does not mention is that the same word corresponds to sexually charged words of “pierce” and “penetration”, hence “regeneration” and “rebirth.”59 The relationship between Ara Pacis and the Montecitorio obelisk, i.e. Augustus’ horologium, can be viewed in this light. There are numerous aspects to and discussions on their connection, but I will limit myself with what its phallic verticality means in this particular context.60 The original Egyptian inscription on the Horologium honours the sun god ReHaratkhti and celebrates the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt in the reign of Psammetikhos II (594-589). Solar epithets of Augustus and his relationship to solar gods cited in the sources cohere with the obelisk’s symbolism. This is clear in Horace’s description of Augustus’ return to Rome: the princeps brings Rome light, his face shines like spring on his subjects, the sun shines brighter upon his arrival.61 Augustus himself adopted this role as evidenced by his willingness to associate himself with Apollo.62 27 ACM 6 | 2023 28 Trajan’s Column as a Phallic Monument: Some Observations The phallic verticality of the Horologium is most evident in Pollini and Cippola’s remark63 that on Augustus’ birthday (September 23) the Horologium’s shadow (fig. 10), moved up the staircase and pierced, or penetrated, the altar in an almost sexual way - another allusion to fertility and birth. This phallic association of the obelisk and its shadow suggested the message that Augustus brought felicitas with its attendant fertility and prosperity to the Roman world, themes richly featured in the iconography of the Ara Pacis.64 To this I may add that in one instance, in a Priapic verse, the word ara, i.e., altar, was used as a replacement for female genitalia.65 In the fourth line (quae tamen exanimis nunc est et inutile lignum / utilis haec, aram si dederitis, erit) the word ara may suggest external pudenda, whether mons veneris, labia or clitoris. Notably, the words column and altar as sexual metaphors appear particularly in Priapic verses and Priapus’s name in Greek is related to words such as προιέσθαι, ποιήσας so on, which are related to ejaculation, creation, and building.66 Admittedly, not only the words column and altar, but architecture in general was seldom used as sexual metaphor Greek and Latin literature67, but in contexts like Augustus’ horologium and Trajan’s Column they add to the intended message. Would all Roman commemorative columns qualify as phallic? Latin texts are not explicit on the matter, but as the above-mentioned discussion shows, in the case of Trajan’s Column the association is more appropriate because of the column’s inscription, sculptural program and descriptions in ancient sources. The same cannot be said about the others, partly because they are mentioned briefly by the ancient writers, and partly because Trajan’s Column is a unique example worthy of attention. This does not necessarily negate the observations presented here, and we know many other examples of phallic architecture from other cultures: protective phallic bosses and beam ends on the walls of Pakistani -and Pompeian- houses, phallic joists that guard the entrances in Tibetan monasteries, phallic finials on the conical roofs of Ethiopian houses, ancient America.68 Conclusion This discussion aimed to highlight an overlooked aspect of the much-studied Trajan’s Column, namely its phallic metaphors. It is well-known and uncontested that ancient 63 Frischer et al. 2017, 57, 66-68. 64 There are several instances, where obelisk’s meaning was almost exclusively sexual. Ptolemy Philadelphus erected one for his wife Arsinoe to celebrate their relationship (Plin. HN 36.14), and Hadrian similarly raised an obelisk for his deceased lover Antinoos in front of his temple in Antinoopolis in Egypt (moved to the Pincian hill in 1633). Its inscription aptly describes Hadrian as the bringer of abundance and joy (Richardson 1992, 272). 65 Priap. 73. 66 Hersey 1999, 118. 67 Adams 1982, 17, 87. 68 Gassner 1993, 71, 76, 142, 232. Gürkan Ergin 69 See Hahn 2001, 87 ff. for a brief discussion of the theories. 70 See Hersey 1999 for comparisons and discussions. Drawing architectural examples from all over the world, he groups biology-architecture associations under seven natural/biological categories, namely molecules, viruses, cells; leaves and flowers; shells; insects; birds; mammals; penis. 71 Vitr. de Arch. 2.1.1, Verg. Georg. 4. 158 ff., Aen. 1.430-6; Origen C. Cels. 4; Hersey 1999, 28, 44-47. 72 Eberhard 1985, 12-5, 73-4, 179 ff. 73 Hersey does not imply the existence of a gene sequence for building in humans, but says that through homologous or convergent evolutional processes, the Homo sapiens shares a “monumental impulse” with other constructing creatures such as birds, crustaceans, ants, termites and bees (Hersey 1999, xvii-xix, 8). 74 Eur. IT 42 ff. ACM 6 | 2023 Roman society was patriarchal to an extreme, and that ideas of conquest were often expressed through explicitly sexual imagery and terminology. Similarly, it is uncontested that Romans could find phallic associations in pretty much anything. Yet, it must be remembered that a number of political, cosmic, sacrificial, naval, bodily, even textual explanations have been suggested for the meaning of column in Greek architecture.69 To these we may add a biological dimension. Classical architecture, or architecture in general, follows natural/biological forms and phenomena in a lot of ways. In this sense, architecture is “biological”70: Vitruvius says that people took inspiration from birds and built nest like houses for themselves. Virgil calls the hive an aula, a palace hall, and describes bees as craftsmen (like the Cyclopes) and builders. In the Aeneid they are likened to the builders of Carthage, who erect harbours, theatres, fortifications etc. Origen says that bees have cities and suburbs. Nor is it a coincidence that monumental Mycenaean tholos tombs are described as “beehive tombs” in modern literature. The Doric column might have been inspired by the forest angelica (Angelica silvestris). It is suggested that volutes of the Ionic and Corinthian orders owe their form to the cockleshells belonging to the Buccinidae family.71 It is only natural that humans took cue from natural phenomena, plants, animals and human biology in erecting monumental architecture. Penis and vagina are one of Nature’s oldest creations, and their function is not merely biological. In many animal species, extravagant penises evolved beyond the necessities of their basic reproductive function to attract the opposite sex visually.72 The column’s frieze can be interpreted as such: even though ancient writers do not mention the frieze, it is nevertheless an attractor; the details and use of colour (compare it to the rich colours of male birds, fish and insects that are used to attract females) enhance the effect of the vertical form. That many cultures from the Mesoamerican to African produced phallic architecture points to this universal biological aspect of architecture. Hersey discusses the spiral form of the frieze and stairs comparing it to that of a DNA strain, i.e. the double helix. Like the genetic code, the column “encapsulates the phenotypic traits of a hero and embeds the information for later population. It instils the prowess of their ancestors in future generations.”73 Although the lack of critical vigour in some of Hersey’s ideas gives way to over-simplification and over-generalisation, columnar form does evoke procreation and masculine identity. In Iphigenia Among the Taurians the column represents the male lineage:74 29 ACM 6 | 2023 30 Trajan’s Column as a Phallic Monument: Some Observations I had escaped from this land and lived in Argos, and that as I slept within my maiden chamber the flat expanse of earth began to heave and roll. I fled the house and, when I stood outside, I saw the cornice of the palace topple and all the house, from its column tops down, cast in ruins to the ground. Only one pillar of my ancestral home, it seemed, was left standing, and from its capital it seemed to grow a head of blond hair and to take on human speech. And I, honouring this office I have of killing foreigners, sprinkled it with water to consign it to death, weeping as I did so. This is how I interpret the dream: Orestes is dead—it is he I consecrated for sacrifice—for the pillars of a house are its male children. The emphasis given to column’s height rather than its relief, the complementary relationship between phallic metaphors and the column’s treatment of barbarian women and activities of the Roman army, and comparable ancient and modern evidence show that the term “phallic” offers several insights that went unnoticed or underappreciated. This is not to say that Trajan deliberately sexualized his column, but the evidence contributes to the interpretations of such monuments on the basis of traditional patriarchal ideals of Roman society such as virtus, dignitas or auctoritas that are represented by stock scenes on the column. Gürkan Ergin 31 ACM 6 | 2023 Figs. 1-2: Provincial women welcoming the emperor and participating sacrifices on Trajan’s Column, courtesy of Roger B. Ulrich Trajan’s Column as a Phallic Monument: Some Observations ACM 6 | 2023 32 Fig. 3 Barbarian women driven peacefully by the Romans on Trajan’s Column, courtesy of Roger B. Ulrich Fig. 4. Women setting barbarian(?) men on fire on Trajan’s Column, courtesy of Roger B. Ulrich Gürkan Ergin 33 ACM 6 | 2023 Figs. 5-6 Barbarian women humiliated by the Roman soldiers on the Column of Marcus Aurelius, from Petersen, E. et al. Die Marcus-Säule auf Piazza Colonna in Rom. Berlin: F. Bruckmann, pl. 106A, 113A Fig. 7. The forums of Trajan, Augustus, Caesar and Nerva by Samantha Maglieri licensed under Creative Commons CC-BY-SA-4.0 Trajan’s Column as a Phallic Monument: Some Observations ACM 6 | 2023 34 Figs. 8-9. Roman soldiers harvesting crops and felling trees, courtesy of Roger B. Ulrich Gürkan Ergin 35 ACM 6 | 2023 Fig. 10. The position of the shadow of the Horologium in relation to Ara Pacis on September 23rd 16:22 PM, from Frischer et al. figs. 18-9. ACM 6 | 2023 36 Trajan’s Column as a Phallic Monument: Some Observations Bibliography The editions used for the ancient sources are from the Loeb Classical Library web page (www.loebclassics.com) unless otherwise stated. Abbreviations for the Classical authors are from The Oxford Classical Dictionary (4th edition). Adams 1952 J. N. Adams, The Latin Sexual Vocabulary, London. Andreae 1977 B. Andreae, The Art of Rome (R.E. Wolf, trans.), New York. Bennet 1997 J. Bennet, Trajan Optimus Princeps. A Life and Times, London. Birley 2012 R. Birley, Vindolanda: Everyday Life on Rome’s Northern Frontier, Gloucestershire. Brian Rose 1997 C. Brian Rose, Dynastic Commemoration and Imperial Portraiture in the JulioClaudian Period, Cambridge. Bucheler 1904 F. Bücheler (ed.), Petronii Saturae et Liber Priapeorum, Berlin. Bucheler 1982 F. Bücheler (ed.), Anthologia Latina (1982), Berlin. Campbell 2012 B. Campbell, Rivers and the Power of Ancient Rome, North Carolina. Canevaro 2018 L. G. Canevaro, Women of Substance in Homeric Epic. Objects, Gender, Agency, Oxford. Claridge 1993 A. Claridge, “Hadrian’s Trajan’s Column”, JRA 6, 5-22. Cohen 2000 B. Cohen, Divesting the Female Breast of Clothes in Classical Sculpture, in: A.O. Koloski-Ostrow - C.L. Lyons (eds.), Naked Truths: Women, Sexuality, and Gender in Classical Art and Archaeology, London; 66-93. Collard - Contrucci 1989 A. Collard & J. Contrucci, Rape of the Wild. Man’s Violence Against Animals and the Earth, Indiana. Corbeıll 2015 A. Corbeill, Sexing the World. Grammatical Gender and Biological Sex in Ancient Rome, Princeton. Cosgrove 1998 D. E. Cosgrove, Social Formation and Symbolic Landscape. Wisconsin. de Angelis 2014 F. de Angelis, Sublime Histories, Exceptional Viewers. Trajan’s Column and Its Visibility, In J. Elsner & M. Meyer (eds.), Art and Rhetoric in Roman Culture, pp. 89-155, Cambridge. Gürkan Ergin ACM 6 | 2023 DeCasien 2021 S. DeCasien, Ancient Roman Naval Rams as Objects of Phallic Power, JAH 9(1), 123-146. DeLaine 2002 J. DeLaine, The Temple of Hadrian at Cyzicus and Roman Attitudes to Exceptional Construction, PBSR 70, 205-230. Dıggle 2021 J. Diggle (ed.), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge. Dillon 2006 S. Dillon, Women on the Columns of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius and the Visual Language of Roman Victory, In S. Dillon & K.E. Welch (eds.), Representations of War in Ancient Rome, pp. 244-271, Cambridge. Dover 1978 K. Dover, Greek Homosexuality, London. Eberhard 1985 W. G. Eberhard, Sexual Selection and Animal Genitalia, Cambridge (Mass.). Eco 1972 U. Eco, “A Componential Analysis of the Architectural Sign /Column/”, Semiotica 5/2 pp. 94-113. Elden 2004 S. Elden, Understanding Henri Lefebvre. Theory and the Possible, London - New York. Fitzsimmons 1989 M. Fitzsimmons, The Matter of Nature, Antipode 21(2), 106-120. Frischer, et alii 2017 A. Frischer, et al, New Light on the Relationship between the Montecitorio Obelisk and Ara Pacis of Augustus, SDH 1(1), 118-119. Frye 1984 M. Frye, The Politics of Reality: Essays in Feminist Theory, California. Gassner 1993 J. Gassner, Phallos: Fruchtbarkeitssymbol oder Abwehrzauber? ein ethnologischer Beitrag zu humanethologischen Überlegungen der apotropäischen Bedeutung phallischer und ithyphallischer Darstellungen, Vienna. Geiger 2008 J. Geiger, The First Hall of Fame. A Study of Statues in the Forum Augustum, Leiden. Graham 2020 S. Graham, Verticality and Centrality: the Politics of Contemporary Skyscrapers, In J. Bach & M. Murawski (eds.), Re-Centering the City. Global Mutations of Socialist Modernity, pp. 169-192, London. Greep 1987 S. J. Greep, Lead Sling-Shot from Windridge Farm, St Albans and the Use of the Sling by the Roman Army in Britain, Britannia 18, 183-200. Gros 2000 P. Gros, La “Militarisation” de l’Urbanisme Trajanien à la Lumière des Recherches Récentes sur le Forum Traiani, In J. Gonzales (ed.), Trajano Emperedor de Roma, pp. 227-251, Roma. 37 ACM 6 | 2023 38 Trajan’s Column as a Phallic Monument: Some Observations Hahn 2001 R. Hahn, Anaximander and the Architects. The Contributions of Egyptian and Greek Architectural Technologies to the Origins of Greek Philosophy, New York. Hannestad 1988 N. Hannestad, Roman Art and Imperial Policy, Aarhus. Hallett 1977 J. Hallett, Perusinae glandes and the Changing Image of Augustus, AJAH 2, 151171. Haselberger 2014 L. Haselberger, The Horologium of Augustus: Debate and Context, Rhode Island. Hersey 1999 G. Hersey, The Monumental Impulse. Architecture’s Biological Roots, London. Hollier 19933 D. Hollier, Against Architecture. The Writings of Georges Bataille (B. Wing, trans.), Cambridge (Mass.). Johns 1993 C. Johns, Sex and Symbol? Erotic Images of Greece and Rome, London. Jones 1993 M. W. Jones, One Hundred Feet and a Spiral Stair: the Problem of Designing Trajan’s Column, JRA 6, 23-38. Joshel 1997 S. Joshel, Female Desire and the Discourse of Empire: Tacitus’s Messalina, In J.P. Hallett & M.B. Skinner (eds.), Roman Sexualities, pp. 211-255, Princeton. Kampen 1995 N. B. Kampen, Looking at Gender: The Column of Trajan and Roman Historical Relief, In D.C. Stanton & A.J. Stewart (eds.), Feminisms in the Academy, pp. 46-73, Ann Arbor. Kellum 1996 B. Kellum, The Phallus as Signifier: The Forum of Augustus and Rituals of Masculinity, In N.B. Kampen (ed.), Sexuality in Ancient Art, pp. 170-184, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Kondratieff 2004 E. Kondratieff, The Column and Coinage of C. Duilius: Innovations in Iconography in Large and Small Media in the Middle Republic, SCI 23, 1-39. Konstan 2007 D. Konstan, The Contemporary Political Context. In M.B. Skinner (ed.), A Companion to Catullus, pp. 72-92, London. Lakoff & Johnsen 2003 G. Lakoff & M. Johnsen, Metaphors We Live By, London. Lefebvre 1991 H. Lefebvre, Production of Space (D. Nicole-Smith, trans.), London - New York. Lunelli 1969 A. Lunelli, Aerius: storia di una parola poetica (varia neoterica), Rome. Merrifield 2006 A. Merrifield, Henri Lefebvre. A Critical Introduction, London - New York. Gürkan Ergin ACM 6 | 2023 McCoskey 2005 D. E. McCoskey, Gender at the Crossroads of Empire: Locating Women in Strabo’s Geography, In D. Dueck (ed.), Strabo’s Cultural Geography. The Making of a Kolosourgia, pp. 56- 73, Cambridge. Meneghini 1996 R. Meneghini, Templum Divi Traiani, BullAnt 97, 47-88. Morenz 2020 L. G. Morenz, The Early Dynastic Period, In I. Shaw & E. Bloxam (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Egyptology, pp. 596-619, Oxford. Packer 1994 J. E. Packer, Trajan’s Forum again: the Column and the Temple of Trajan in the Master Plan Attributed to Apollodorus(?), JRA 7, 163-82. Packer 2003 J. E. Packer, Templum Divi Traiani Parthici et Plotinae: a Debate with R. Meneghini, JRA 16, 108-136. Parker 2017 A. Parker, Protecting the Troops? Phallic Carvings in the North of Roman Britain, In A. Parker (ed.) Ad Vallum: Papers on the Roman Army and Frontiers in Celebration of Dr Brian Dobson, pp. 117-131, Oxford. Rehak 2006 P. Rehak, Imperium and Cosmos. Augustus and the Northern Campus Martius, Wisconsin. Richardson 1992 J. R. L. Richardson, A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, Baltimore. Rodenwaldt 1926 G. Rodenwaldt, Das Römerlager Vetera bei Xanten. Ein Führer durch die Ausgrabungen des Bonner Provinzialmuseums by Hans Lehner, Gnomon 6(6), 337-343. Rose 1993 G. Rose, Feminism and Geography. The Limits of Geographical Knowledge, Cambridge. Rykwert 1994 J. Rykwert, The Dancing Column. On Order in Architecture, Cambridge (Mass.). Sayer 1991 A. Sayer, Behind the Locality Debate: Deconstructing Geography’s Dualisms, Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space 23, 283-308. Smith 1988 R. R. R. Smith, “Simulacra Gentium: The Ethne from the Sebasteion at Aphrodisias”, JRS 78, 50-77. Smith 2002 R. R. R. Smith, “The Use of Images: Visual History and Ancient History”, In T. P. Wiseman, ed., Classics in Progress: Essays on Ancient Greece and Rome, Oxford, pp. 59-102. 39 ACM 6 | 2023 40 Trajan’s Column as a Phallic Monument: Some Observations Swetnam-Burland 2010 M. Swetnam-Burland, Aegyptus Redacta: The Egyptian Obelisk in the Augustan Campus Martius, ABull 92(3), 135-153. Williams 20102 C. A. Williams, Roman Homosexuality, Oxford. Wylie 2007 J. Wylie, Landscape, London - New York. Zanker 1970 P. Zanker, Das Trajansforum in Rom, AA, 499-544. Zanker 2000 P. Zanker, Die Frauen und Kinder der Barbaren auf der Markussäule, In J. Scheid & V. Huet (eds.), La colonne aurélienne : autour de la colonne aurélienne : geste et image sur la colonne de Marc Aurèle à Rome, pp. 163-174, Turnhout.