The road now leads to the triumphal arch of Trajan, which appears to have stood in the centre of the town facing the south, and which forms the second of Bruce’s illustrations. There are six sheets of designs of this monument.
1. A sketch taken upon the ground apparently, in Indian ink without any landscape. ([Plate XX.])
2. A highly finished Indian-ink perspective view with back and foreground of the usual character, a camp of soldiers, sheep, cattle, Arabs, &c.
3. A finished Indian-ink plan and elevation to scale.
4. Finished drawing in Indian-ink, to scale, of details of minor order and its pediment.
5. Finished Indian ink drawing, to scale, of details of major order.
6. Pencil memoranda of details and measurements.
This building in its proportions and treatment is very grand and simple. The solid mass of the front is much higher than it is wide. The principal order is Corinthian, with a single three-quarters attached column near the angle, supported on a lofty pedestal or stylobate; it has the usual base and capital, and the shaft is seven frusta high. The architrave and frieze over the columns consist of one plain block without any mouldings, which is not carried along the face. The cornice is the usual one, handsomely but not elaborately enriched. Three courses of the attic remained in the time of Bruce; portions of two courses only are now in place. In the centre of this block is an archway, having its own peculiar treatment. On each side of the opening is a smaller semi-engaged Corinthian column, raised on a stylobate equal in height to that of the major order; the impost of the arch runs all round the monument, intercepted only by the columns. There is no impost to the arch-head, which consists only of the radiating cunei; and the soffit is quite plain. The capitals of the columns flanking the archway rise somewhat higher than the archway itself, and are surmounted by an architrave, a lofty plain frieze, on which is the inscription, and a simple cornice with a pediment above. In the middle of this there is a square opening, giving access probably to a chamber over the arch. The whole treatment is dignified and reserved.
The inscription on the frieze of the minor order has been given more fully by Bruce than by succeeding travellers, and much more so than can be deciphered at the present day. It runs thus:—
IMP. CAESAR. DIVI. NERVAE . F.