Trajan's Column

Trajan's Column is one of the few monuments of ancient Rome that has come down to us virtually intact and, at the same time, it is the largest most important surviving ancient figurative structure.
At 1900 years from the column's inauguration, the Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archaeologici di Roma in collaboration with Mondadori Electa has promoted this first digital book on the monument.
The e-book "Trajan's Column" has been created for the iPad and unites the structure of a traditional book with numerous interactive functions that make it possible to explore the column's reliefs and changes in the surrounding urban landscape in a dynamic way. The digital book is enriched with a 3D model of the column, video content, and numerous interactive widgets.

The first chapters provide information on the column's structure and topographical location in Trajan's Forum. An analysis of the long figured frieze follows and an integral reading is proposed through interactive images that allow the reader to zoom in and get information about the course of Trajan's two Dacian wars. Historic notes taken from the Roman historian Cassius Dio accompany the images of the relief.
The chapter "The characters and their interpretation" presents an analysis of the protagonists of the wars through galleries of images, that allow the reader to take a close look at and become better acquainted with the emperor Trajan, Decebalus the Dacian king and the Roman and Dacian armies. The final chapter switches attention to the history of the column and the changes in the surrounding urban landscape from antiquity to the present day. It is also possible to observe the transformations of the city, reconstructed in 3D models, as seen from on top of the column.
The e-book is aimed at a non-specialist public with contents that are easily accessible to younger readers.