Statue of Trajan, Tower Hill

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 (1980) (erected)
Medium	Bronze sculpture
Subject	Trajan
Location	London, United Kingdom
Coordinates	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]

See also

• List of public art in the City of London