Torture

The torture scene on the Column depicts four women surrounding two men in the middle. The women were depicted as non-roman with their exotic and foreign clothes. The two men in the middle were naked, without clothes to identify their ethnicity and status. According to Dillon, the scene seems to represent the torture of Roman soldiers at the hands of Dacian women; however, it opens up different interpretations as well. It is unlikely for the Column of Trajan, which praises the victories of the Dacian campaign, to depict a humiliated image for the Roman soldiers. Dillon suggests that one possible explanation is the Dacian women did torture captive Roman soldiers. And yet, there are clues on the relief suggesting that explanation might be wrong. The women dress differently from the other Dacian women portrayed on the Column; and even if they were Dacian women, the torture should be taking place inside a Dacian context not in a Roman Camp. Even though the women do not look Roman, the punishment in the torture scene is common in Rome that takes place in public. 

JZ

Sheila Dillon, “Women on the Columns of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius and the Visual Language of Roman Victory,” in Representations of War in Ancient Rome, eds. Sheila Dillon and Katherine E. Welch (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 244-271.