Trajan's Column
Preserved but no longer current.
At Rome; made of marble A.D. 114, by Apollodorus. It is a Roman Doric column of marble, 1211 ft. in height, on a square pedestal, and has inside a spiral staircase of 185 steps lighted by 40 windows. It was surmounted by a statue of the Emperor Trajan, but Sixtus V supplanted the original statue by that of St. Peter. The spiral outside represents in bas-relief the battles of the emperor.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “Trajan's Column” mean?
At Rome; made of marble A.D. 114, by Apollodorus. It is a Roman Doric column of marble, 1211 ft. in height, on a square pedestal, and has inside a spiral staircase of 185 steps lighted by 40 windows. It was surmounted by a statue of the Emperor Trajan, but Sixtus V supplanted the original statue by that of St. Peter. The spiral outside represents in bas-relief the battles of the emperor.
Is “Trajan's Column” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.