We cannot do better than to quote here a well-known description of the column and the history it represents:
"The inscription was by Visconti, and ran as follows:
"'Neapolio . Imp. Aug.
'Monumentum . Belli . Germanici.
'Anno . MDCCCV.
'Trimestri . Spatio . Ductu . Suo . Profligati.
'Ex . Ære . Capto.
Gloriæ . Exercitus . Maximi . Dicavit.
"The bas-reliefs were three feet eight inches high, and
circled the column 22 times, making a spiral 840 feet long.
They were a series of tableaux, 76 in number, having for
their subjects the principal incidents of the Austerlitz
campaign. These were selected by the Emperor himself,
and the inscriptions which accompanied them, and were
engraved on a cordon under the bas-reliefs, were written
by 'le savant Denon' and the Prince of Wagram.
"Napoleon's first intention was that the statue upon the lantern of the column should be, not his own, but Charlemagne's. After Jena, Eylau, and Friedland, however, he changed his mind, or allowed his flatterers to change it for him, and a statue of himself by Chaudet was placed upon the column. This gave way, in 1844, to another by Seurre, in which the great Emperor was represented standing on a heap of cannon-balls, dressed in his 'costume de bataille.' The hat, the epaulettes, the boots, the 'redingote à revers,' the lorgnette, and the sword worn at Austerlitz, were copied exactly. The statue was cast in gun-metal taken from the enemy, 'under the Empire, let it be well understood,' adds the writer of the year, 'for if we make war now-a-days we do not take cannon.' The present figure succeeded M. Seurre's, and is one of Napoleon III's tributes to the memory of his uncle.
