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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;DonnaML, post: 7751502, member: 110350&quot;]Thanks so much, [USER=87809]@cmezner[/USER]. I managed to find the reference at p. 155 of Vol. II of the 1905 printing (from the 1876 revised edition), at <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc2.ark:/13960/t6445kj1n&amp;view=1up&amp;seq=187&amp;q1=trajan" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc2.ark:/13960/t6445kj1n&amp;view=1up&amp;seq=187&amp;q1=trajan" rel="nofollow">https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc2.ark:/13960/t6445kj1n&amp;view=1up&amp;seq=187&amp;q1=trajan</a>:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1327230[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>While this interpretation is imaginative, and Reverend Sharpe was probably well-respected in his day -- he died in 1881; see <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Sharpe_(scholar)" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Sharpe_(scholar)" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Sharpe_(scholar)</a> -- I don&#039;t think I can give it much credence as evidence that Trajan ever visited Egypt, given the admitted silence of the historical record. Especially given the fact that, far from appearing only in the 14th year of Trajan&#039;s reign, the &quot;emperor in elephant quadriga&quot; reverse first appears in Year 5, and then every year thereafter, in one form or another, from Year 10 through Year 18, and again in Year 20. See Emmett 462 at p. 35.</p><p><br /></p><p>The idea that Isis Pharia sailing in her galley with the Pharos in the background &quot;certainly&quot; represents Trajan departing from Egypt in Year 16 seems very farfetched, given how common that type is (with or without the lighthouse) under many emperors, including those who were certainly never in Egypt like Antoninus Pius. My own example:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1327235[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>I checked BMC 16 Alexandria [Pool, Reginald Stuart, <i>A Catalog of the Greek Coins in the British Museum, Vol. 16, Alexandria</i> (London, 1892)] to see if it said anything about the elephant quadriga type in general, and found the following (not specific to Trajan) at p. lxxxviii in the introduction:</p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;The triumphal types are those in which the Emperor is represented in a triumphal quadriga of horses or elephants, holding laurel-branch and aquila (Pl. xxvii, 508, 863, 866). A singular type is that in which he is seen in a biga of Centaurs, a subject clearly of this class, notwithstanding its scenic character. It is to be noted that the Centaurs hold figures of Nike, and the type occurs under two Emperors, Domitian (338) and Trajan (507 . . .).&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>As I noted previously, the elephant quadriga appears on the coins of Domitian, Trajan, and Hadrian. In any event, this paragraph does not suggest that these triumphal types necessarily imply the emperor&#039;s actual presence in Alexandria, in any particular year or at all.</p><p><br /></p><p>The only other reference I was able to find in my cursory research regarding Trajan&#039;s presence (<i>vel non</i>) in Egypt is in an article entitled &quot;Trajan and Egypt,&quot; by&nbsp; P. J. Sijpesteijn, at pp. 106-113 of the book <i>Studia Papyrologica Varia conscripserunt Instituti alumni </i>(Series: Papyrologica Lugduno-Batava, Volume: 14) (Brill, 1965). The first two pages (pp. 106-107) can be read for free at <a href="https://brill.com/view/book/9789004427662/BP000005.xml" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://brill.com/view/book/9789004427662/BP000005.xml" rel="nofollow">https://brill.com/view/book/9789004427662/BP000005.xml</a> if one doesn&#039;t wish to pay $34.95 to read the entire 8-page article!&nbsp; At p. 107, the author states the following:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1327258[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Absent contrary evidence, I think I will view this statement as conclusive, meaning that the elephant quadriga as a triumphal type is strictly symbolic, and does not imply an emperor&#039;s actual presence in Alexandria. Wholly apart from the fact that, as [USER=110226]@robinjojo[/USER] points out, the entire concept of an elephant quadriga (or even a biga) is highly impractical given, among other things, the problem that unless the chariot were on wheels about 10 feet high -- or the emperor were about 15 feet tall himself (see [USER=97383]@Al Kowsky[/USER]&#039;s comment) -- the emperor would be continually faced with four elephant rear ends directly in front of and above him, doing what elephant rear ends do.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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