_Unknown_ (Veronese School: 15th century).
These two panels, which clearly formed two sides of an ornamental box,
represent a favourite subject with Italian painters of the period. The
story is that an ancient widow of Rome stopped the Emperor Trajan as he
was about to proceed on one of his foreign expeditions, and asked for
justice against the murderers of her son, who is here seen lying dead
on the roadway. Trajan suggested that she should wait till his return.
She replied that the emperor might be killed in battle. "Then," said
Trajan, "my successor will attend to the business." "But why," she
urged, "not decide the case at once?" The emperor on second thoughts
did so, and the second panel shows him on the judgment seat. He called
the culprits before him, spared their lives, but made them pay heavy
damages to the widow. This incident was engraved, together with the
record of his victories, on Trajan's column.