Detail of soldiers marching with a baggage train.
The stone supports which connect the spears held by the soldiers in the foreground with the background show how fragile the carvers considered these details to be. Metal inserts of the kind used on the Column of Trajan were evidently not considered an option on the Column of Marcus Aurelius. Although the figures themselves are represented quite flatly here a lot of work was put into carving in behind them, and behind the wheels of the waggon, to provide shadow that might have made the scene more readable.
