ABSTRACT
As we have seen in an earlier chapter, Pliny’s Panegyricus and Dio Chrysostom’s Peri Basileias present those aspects of Trajan’s personal doctrine and policies that he desired publicly disseminated at the beginning of his rule. An equally clear impression of how he aspired to be remembered in his later years is presented on one of the finest surviving works of antiquity, the Arch at Beneventum, which stands to the south of the eponymous town on the very crest of the hill where the via Traiana leaves for Brindisi.1 At the time of writing it is sadly shrouded in plastic and scaffolding, to protect it from the insidious and invisible menace of atmospheric pollution and the continual and all-pervading vibration of motor traffic (Pl. 14A). Otherwise, it is extremely well preserved, having survived virtually without damage the conflicts of the Italian Middle Ages, when it was incorporated into the town’s defences, and even the heavy bombardment inflicted on the city in 1944.
