The port network of the adriatic in the scenes of Trajan⇔s column – Ancona, pula, Trieste and Grado/Aquileia

Trajan’s Column reliefs is the richest corpus of port scenes, routes, as well as details of their construction fabric and monuments. This paper represents a new contribution to the debate on the interpretation of the scenes from Trajan’s Column. It provides, for the first time, the evidence for the iconography of a port system representation from the Column. Sections are arranged within three parts – the history of studies on the Column, and Trajan’s journey; the exploration of the harbour scenes (Ancona, Pula, Trieste, and Grado/Aquileia) and port network iconography in the scenes of the Column; assessment on Trajan’s voyage, routes and the Adriatic port system. This study sheds new light on the existence, development and operation of the port system established across the Northern and Central Adriatic during the Trajanic era and its representation in the Column friezes. Indeed, the Adriatic region and its network of ports represent the most likely environment of cities, seascapes, routes and major infrastructural monuments paraded in the Column.