Statue of Trajan, Tower Hill
Statue on Tower Hill, London
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The statue of Trajan is an outdoor twentieth-century bronze sculpture depicting the Roman Emperor Trajan, located in front of a section of the London Wall built by Romans, at Tower Hill in London, United Kingdom.[1]
| Statue of Trajan | |
|---|---|
The statue in 2010 | |
 | |
| Year | 1980 (erected) |
| Medium | Bronze sculpture |
| Subject | Trajan |
| Location | London, United Kingdom |
| 51°30′36″N 0°04′34″W | |
Description
Trajan is shown bareheaded and wearing a tunic,[1] holding a scroll in his left hand while gesturing with his right hand raised.[2]
A plaque at its base contains the inscription:
STATUE BELIEVED TO BE OF THE ROMAN EMPEROR TRAJAN/ A.D. 98–117/ IMPERATOR CAESAR NERVA TRAJANUS AUGUSTUS/ PRESENTED BY THE TOWER HILL IMPROVEMENT TRUST AT THE/ REQUEST OF THE REVEREND P. B. CLAYTON, CH, MC, DD, /FOUNDER PADRE OF TOC H.[2][3]
History
The statue was installed in 1980 as a bequest from P. B. "Tubby" Clayton, the vicar of All Hallows-by-the-Tower.[1][4] The Museum of London believes the figure to have been recovered from a scrapyard in Southampton in the 1920s, and notes that its head does not match its body.[5] There is no information presented at the site about the sculptor.[2]
It is a cast of a late 1st century statue found in Minturno, which is on display at the National Archaeological Museum in Naples.[6] The upper part of the head is the result of restoration;[7][original research?] other casts are in Rome (at the via dei Fori Imperiali and Museum of Roman Civilization), Ancona and Benevento.
Trajan presided over the second-greatest military expansion in Roman history, after Augustus, leading the empire to attain its maximum territorial extent by the time of his death. He never himself visited Britain.[4]
