Equus Traiani, Rome

Equus Traiani was a colossal bronze monument of Emperor Trajan on horseback, placed in the open square of Trajan’s Forum. It was installed after his victories over Dacia, during the years from 112 to 114, alongside the forum’s wider construction. The discovery of the base foundations fixed its original setting: 25 metres from the centre of the square and 30 metres from the monumental façade along its southern edge.

Including its base, the monument probably reached between 10 and 12 metres in height. When Emperor Constantius the Second came to Rome in 357, the statue’s huge scale impressed him deeply. Its horse and rider likely inspired the surviving equestrian monument of Marcus Aurelius. This lost imperial image once made Trajan’s military success tangible in the forum’s grand public space.