ABOUT THE LUMINOUS LEGACY
OF TROPAEUM TRAIANI

-text and photos Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
design Florin Alexandru Stancu-

In 20 May 2016,
benefiting by the complicity of the sunset and of the moon,
I was in Bucharest’s Youth Park to see
the statues of the recognized founders of the Romanian people,
the Dacian King Decebal and the Roman Emperor Trajan,
for the moral preparation of a trip to Tropaeum (or Trophaeum) Traiani,
the equivalent, on the Romanian territory,
of Trajan’s Column in Rome,
monuments describing the terrible wars (and additional aspects)
between Geto-Dacians and Romans in 101-102 and 105-106,
which were made at the order of the victorious Roman emperor.

On the morning of 21 May
I stalked the sunrise in the city.

Then I followed our supreme star
over the Highway of the Sun
from the speed of the bus.

Suddenly
the Sun among the clouds gave me
real moments of magic,
recompensing my perseverance.

A short halt
before crossing the Danube River…

And the crossing of the largest river
in the European Union.

A few tens of kilometers
through Dobrogea Province…

Finally, the arrival in Adamclisi
(“The House of Adam”,
a name given by Ottomans,
who controlled this zone for about 5 centuries - until 1878,
when Dobrogea Province became part of Romania -,
with short periods in which brave Romanian “voievods” and “domnitors”
recovered it),
where I saw the walls of the antique fortress,
the monument (40 m high, reconstituted in the 1970s),
and a few Roman ruins.

Maybe not too much,
but enough for a major beginning point of the Romanian nation
that has given so many luminous moments for our planet.