SIGNOR BONI'S INVESTIGATIONS OF THE COLUMN OF TRAJAN.

Signor Boni has felt that the common opinion as to the purpose of the column of Trajan was incorrect, therefore a little over a year ago he turned his attention especially to it. IT has been supposed that the column was not a sepulcher, but was a monument to the height of a hill leveled to make room for the Forum Ulpium. This, Signor Boni considered, not in accord with the statements of ancient writers, and it did not seem to him that the dedicatory inscription, upon which this belief was based, clearly pointed to such a purpose. On the southern side of the pedestal a loophole attracted his attention, and also the traces in the inner vestibule at the base of a door, which had been walled up and plastered over. On removing the plaster and part of the masonry, he found that the door led into a small atrium, turning to the right, where a second door was discovered. This led into a marble-walled chamber 10 ft. by 5 ft. by 6 ft. Within were the remains of a funeral table 2.5 ft. high and 4 ft. wide. Above were holes drilled so as to suggest that clamps going out of the wall had supported two urns on the table. A temple built by Hadrian in honor of his father and mother Trajan and Plotina stands near the column. As it was the custom to erect such temples near the burying-places of the persons thus commemorated it seems reasonable to conclude that this was a sepulchral chamber. Signor Boni believes the inscription has been misunderstood. The column is exactly 100 ft. high. It seems incredible that any natural hill should have had such exact measurements. Furthermore, digging near by reveals Roman remains, proving that the Forum Ulpium was level long before the column was built.

Records of the Past By Records of the Past Exploration Society, ed., Prof. G Frederick Wright, Frederick Bennett Wright (Washington, D.C.: 1907), 304.