Detail of the Latin Inscription on the Base of the Column of Trajan in Rome, July 2012

With abbreviations expanded, the inscription at the base of the column reads,

SENATUS POPULUSQUE ROMANUS
IMPERATORI CAESARI DIVI NERVAE FILIO NERVAE
TRAIANO AUGUSTO GERMANICO DACICO PONTIFICI
MAXIMO TRIBUNICIA POTESTATE XVII IMPERATORI VI CONSULI VI PATRI PATRIAE
AD DECLARANDUM QUANTAE ALTITUDINIS
MONS ET LOCUS TANRIBUS SIT EGESTUS

Written when Trajan held tribunican power for the seventeenth time, which was assumed on December 10, AD 112 and ended a year later, the column, itself, was dedicated in May AD 113, more than sixteen months after the forum, presumably just before Trajan's departure for Parthia. The last two lines of the inscription are problematic: "...to demonstrate how lofty a hill and [what area of] ground was carried away for these mighty works." The assumption is that the reference refers to the excavation of the Quirinal hill, which was cut back one-hundred Roman feet to provide level ground for the Markets of Trajan, a figure commemorated by the height of the column (columna centenaria), which matches that of the hill's face.

Text from: penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/imperia...