The Tropaeum Traiani, also known as the Adamclisi monument, is a Roman monument erected in honor of battles between Roman legionnaires and Dacians in the second century of the Common Era. The Tropaeum is a Triumphal Monument depicting the Dacian soldiers as Barbarians and the Romans as heroes. A cylindrical monument, the Tropaeum stands roughly 100 feet in diameter and 40 feet tall. The monument was constructed of quarried rock and a simple concrete mortar, and is located in present day Romania.
Trajan's Column is a monument to the Roman Emperor Trajan's war against the Dacian armies of Decebalus, who occupied territory across the Danube River from Italy. Located in the heart of Trajan's Forum, the colum is 138 feet high, and depicts a number of scenes from the Dacian wars in a spiraling relief that begins at the top of the column and winds down to the base. The Trajan's Column monument is similar in content and style to the Tropaeum Traiani, in that it depicts the Romans as victorious heroes and the Dacian armies as barbaric degenerates with subhuman qualities. The column is in Rome.
Dacian funerary monuments are exactly what they sound: funerary monuments erected to fallen Dacians. The monuments were for many years considered examples of the Romanization of Dacia, on account of their Roman aesthetic and their Dacian location. However, according to a thesis advanced by Roman art scholar Allison L. C. Emmerson in 2007, the Dacian funeral monuments are in fact signs of Rome's imperial intentions to conquer Dacia. Emmerson's thesis advances the position that there is in fact no evidence of cultural blending in the monuments, and that this lack of indigenous influence indicates not Romanization but domination.
