Minima Epigraphica et Papyrologica. Anno XXII. 2019 fasc. 24.

The monument of Tropaeum Traiani (Adamclisi, Romania) is a propagandistic construction with a clear message to the conquered population and represents the indisputable wish of the Emperor to connect the centre of power with the Empire’s provinces, by utilising architectural forms with subliminal messages of co-habitation, humanitas and pax romana. The monument has to be considered unique because of its ideological complexity at the artistic level in Moesia Inferior at the beginning of the second century AD and demanded to be represented in this manner, able to formulate a simple message in a local artistic conception. The euphoria of victory and the marking of the territory is an apotropaic conception that will highlight the greatness of creation. Through architecture the Emperor wished to transmit his coherent politics as well as his systematic and consistent rule of the state. And it was equally important that this message reached the far ends of the Empire, with architecture being the vessel that glorifies the mighty Roman army, as it stands witness, the dedicatory inscription to Mars Ultor. This is not without hidden meaning, double meaning to be precise – the revenge of the Roman soldier after suffering great lose from the battle of Domitian in 86 also in the first war after the Dacian diversion, and the clear intention of finishing the military campaign through a second war. The article compares the panegyric pronounced by Pliny in 100 A.D. in honour of Trajan for his nomination to the consulate with one of Vittorio Alfieri’s political writings entitled “The panegyric of Pliny at Trajan” where, under the veil of Alfieri’s “titanic” illusions, some traits of Trajan’s politics are highlighted, particularly in the area of justice .The essay is focused on the peculiar importance tributed in the ancient sources to the role of justice in the government of the Emperor Traianus. The historicians of the principate, as well as the Middle Age’s ones, give a new explanation of the Emperor’s mission on the Earth, as mainly finalised to ensure the triumph of justice, considered also more important than the same military victory .The article compares the panegyric pronounced by Pliny in 100 A.D. in honour of Trajan for his nomination to the consulate with one of Vittorio Alfieri’s political writings entitled “The panegyric of Pliny at Trajan” where, under the veil of Alfieri’s “titanic” illusions, some traits of Trajan’s politics are highlighted, particularly in the area of justice.

The monument of Tropaeum Traiani (Adamclisi, Romania) is a propagandistic construction with a clear message to the conquered population and represents the indisputable wish of the Emperor to connect the centre of power with the Empire’s provinces, by utilising architectural forms with subliminal messages of co-habitation, humanitas and pax romana. The monument has to be considered unique because of its ideological complexity at the artistic level in Moesia Inferior at the beginning of the second century AD and demanded to be represented in this manner, able to formulate a simple message in a local artistic conception. The euphoria of victory and the marking of the territory is an apotropaic conception that will highlight the greatness of creation. Through architecture the Emperor wished to transmit his coherent politics as well as his systematic and consistent rule of the state. And it was equally important that this message reached the far ends of the Empire, with architecture being the vessel that glorifies the mighty Roman army, as it stands witness, the dedicatory inscription to Mars Ultor. This is not without hidden meaning, double meaning to be precise – the revenge of the Roman soldier after suffering great lose from the battle of Domitian in 86 also in the first war after the Dacian diversion, and the clear intention of finishing the military campaign through a second war. The article compares the panegyric pronounced by Pliny in 100 A.D. in honour of Trajan for his nomination to the consulate with one of Vittorio Alfieri’s political writings entitled “The panegyric of Pliny at Trajan” where, under the veil of Alfieri’s “titanic” illusions, some traits of Trajan’s politics are highlighted, particularly in the area of justice .The essay is focused on the peculiar importance tributed in the ancient sources to the role of justice in the government of the Emperor Traianus. The historicians of the principate, as well as the Middle Age’s ones, give a new explanation of the Emperor’s mission on the Earth, as mainly finalised to ensure the triumph of justice, considered also more important than the same military victory .The article compares the panegyric pronounced by Pliny in 100 A.D. in honour of Trajan for his nomination to the consulate with one of Vittorio Alfieri’s political writings entitled “The panegyric of Pliny at Trajan” where, under the veil of Alfieri’s “titanic” illusions, some traits of Trajan’s politics are highlighted, particularly in the area of justice.