General view of the frieze.
The crowded composition of the scenes on the Column of Marcus Aurelius makes it almost completely unreadable from distance, as this image makes clear. The division between scenes are much less obvious than on the Column of Trajan. While the standard ceremonial scenes found so often on the Column of Trajan (adlocutio, sacrifice, the emperor receiving captives) are used less frequently on this monument, the carvers were content to depict rows of almost identical figures. Several sets of repetitive figures can be seen in this image, at the bottom left and on the right half way up.
