The Incredible History of the Lateran Obelisk
King Tut Saw It In Thebes; Constantine Tried to Bring It to Constantinople; Hypatia Might Have Seen It in Alexandria; Alaric Passed It in the Circus Maximus — Read the History of the Oldest Thing in Rome
Perhaps the most peculiar and distinctive feature of the city of Rome is the presence of the obelisks, the ancient, giant, granite monoliths taken from Egypt and set up by the emperors in antiquity, and re-erected by later popes. In Medias Res has already published an overview of these monuments in Rome, so in this piece I will go into more depth into one in particular, the Lateran obelisk, currently standing in the Piazza di San Giovanni in Laterano beside the cathedral of the same name. Forty-five meters tall and weighing three hundred and thirty tons, it is Rome’s largest obelisk. It is also perhaps the oldest — because of its lack of hieroglyphs the Vatican obelisk is difficult to date and is possibly older— originally quarried in the fifteenth century B.C. What I find particularly fascinating about this obelisk is that we can trace the entire history of the monument, from ancient Egypt to papal Rome, solely from the inscriptions that have been carved in it.
The oldest and original inscription, carved in hieroglyphs directly into the Aswan granite, tells of the earliest history of the great monument. The obelisk is covered in hieroglyphs: each face is carved from top to bottom. I don’t read the ancient Egyptian language myself, but translations reveal a dedication in both images and words to Amun-Ra, the god of the sun and patron of the city of Thebes. The inscription also gives the history of the building of the monument:
“Thutmose III has made his memorial to his father Amun-Ra,
Lord of the seat of the upper and lower countries,
has erected an obelisk at the gateway of the temple before Thebes
… The son of the sun, Thutmose IV,
diadem of diadems, set it up in Thebes,
he capped it with gold,
its beauty illuminates Thebes;
sculptured in the name of his father, the good god
Ra-men-kheper (Thutmose III)
the king of the upper and lower country.
Lord of the two countries,
Ra-men-kheperu (Thutmoses IV), did it
wishing that the name of his father should remain fixed in the house of the Amun.
The son of the sun, Thutmose IV, giver of life, did it.”
The obelisk was originally erected in Thebes, at the entrance to the temple of Amun-Ra, by Pharaohs Thutmose III and IV, who reigned between 1479 and 1391 B.C. So, we can date it to sometime in the fifteenth century B.C., perhaps the oldest thing in the city of Rome.
Below the hieroglyphs, the series of Latin inscriptions that today adorn each face of the base of the obelisk tells the next stages of its history, from its removal from Egypt to its erection in front of the Lateran Cathedral.
FL(avius) CONSTANTINVS MAXIMVS AVG(ustus) CHRISTIANAE FIDEI VINDEX ET ASSERTOR OBELISCVM AB AEGYPTIO REGE IMPVRO VOTO SOLI DEDICATVM SEDIB(us) AVVLSVM SVIS PER NILVM TRANSFERRI ALEXANDRIAM IVSSIT VT NOVAM ROMAM AB SE TVNC CONDITAM EO DECORARET MONVMENTO
The inscription on the north face tells of the emperor Constantine, Christianiae fidei vindex et assertor, “the defender and protector of the Christian faith”, ordering the obelisk to be taken from Egypt ut Novam Romam eo decoraret monumento, “in order to decorate New Rome with this monument.” In the early fourth century A.D., Constantine, after defeating Maxentius at the Battle of Milvian Bridge and legalizing Christianity, moved the capital of the empire east to Constantinople, the “New Rome” he was building. He wanted his new capital to look like the old one, and he had plans to decorate it with obelisks, as past emperors since Augustus himself had done. The monument was moved per Nilum…Alexandriam, “up the Nile to Alexandria,” awaiting transport to Constantinople.
FL(avius) CONSTANTIVS AVG(ustus) CONSTANTINI AVG(usti) F(ilius) OBELISCVM A PATRE LOCO SVO MOTVM DIVQ(ue) ALEXANDRIAE IACENTEM
TRECENTORVM REMIGVM IMPOSITVM NAVI MIRANDAE VASTITATIS PER MARE TIBERIMQ(ue) MAGNIS MOLIBVS ROMAM CONVECTVM IN CIRCO MAX(imo) PONENDVM S(enatui) P(opulo) Q(ue) R(omano) D(onum) D(edit)
But the obelisk never made it to its original destination. As we read in the inscription on the east face, it lay in Alexandria for a long time (diuque Alexandriae iacentem) before Constantine’s son and successor Constantius II ordered it be moved to Rome in 357. He had it placed on a huge ship (trecentorum remigium impositum navi mirandae vastitatis) and carried through the sea and up the Tiber to Rome, to be erected in the Circus Maximus (per mare Tiberimque magnis molibus Romam convectum in Circo Maximo ponendum). For many years, along with the obelisk that now stands in the Piazza del Popolo, the obelisk served as the meta, the turning post around which the chariots raced, adorning the spina of the great racetrack in the center of the city.
SIXTVS V PONT(ifex) MAX(imus) OBELISCVM HVNC SPECIE EXIMIA TEMPORVM CALAMITATE FRACTVM CIRCI MAX(imi) RVINIS HVMO LIMOQ(ue) ALTE DEMERSVM MVLTA IMPENSA EXTRAXIT HVNC IN LOCVM MAGNO LABORE TRANSTVLIT FORMAEQ(ue) PRISTINAE ACCVRATE RESTITVTVM CRVCI INVICTISSIMAE DICAVIT
A(nno) M D LXXXVIII PONT(ificatus) IIII
Little is known about the next phase of the history of the obelisk, but at some point, perhaps as a result of an earthquake or flood of the Tiber, the obelisk fell. It lay, buried in the Circus Maximus in ruins for hundreds of years, until the great obelisk-erecting team of Pope Sixtus V and his chief architect Domenico Fontana excavated it in 1587.
The west-face inscription describes this excavation and the subsequent erection, and adds a new, Christian dedication. They found it in pieces, broken by the injury of time, deep in the mud of the circus (temporum calamitate fractum Circi Maximi ruinis humo limoque alte demersum). Taking off four meters (one hundred and twenty tons of granite!) from the bottom and using that material in the restoration, they moved and erected the obelisk outside the famous baptistery of the Lateran Cathedral the following year, replacing the famous equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius that had been moved to the Capitoline. Sixtus also had a new base constructed, added the current inscriptions quoted above, and rededicated the monument to the unconquerable cross (cruci invictissimae dicavit). The word invictissimae here is a play on in hoc signo vinces, the famous phrase heard by Constantine in his vision before the Battle of Milvian Bridge, to which he dedicated his own victory. Using the chi rho, the first two Greek letters of the name Christ formed in the shape of a cross, as his battle standard, he defeated Maxentius, establishing himself as sole ruler, and subsequently legalized Christianity throughout the empire. The dedication to the crux invictissima subtly recalls Constantine’s victory.
CONSTANTINVS PER CRVCEM VICTOR A S(ancto) SILVESTRO HIC BAPTIZATVS CRVCIS GLORIAM PROPAGAVIT
The inscription on the south side, facing the baptistery, commemorates the baptism of Constantine by Pope Sylvester, an event which, according to pious legend, happened in that very baptistery. In another allusion to his vision before the Battle of Milvian Bridge, the emperor is called victor per crucem, “victor through the cross.”
When Sixtus V and his engineers dug up the obelisk in ruins in the Circus Maximus, they found a Latin inscription carved into its lower parts, put there by Constantius II. They pieced it together, recorded it, and then dismantled it, using the material to repair the broken obelisk. So, while the text is known, the inscription itself is not physically extant. It contains four stanzas of hexameters (one on each side of the obelisk) telling the story of its journey from Egypt to Rome:
Patris opus munusque [suum] tibi, Roma, dicavit
Augustus [toto Constan]tius orbe recepto:
et, quod nulla tulit tellus nec viderat aetas,
condidit, ut claris exa[equ]et dona triumfis.
Hoc decus, ornatum genitor cognominis urbis
esse volens, caesa Thebis de rupe revellit.Sed gravior divum tangebat cura vehendi
quod nullo ingenio nisuque manuque moveri
Caucaseam molem discurrens fama monebat.
At dominus mundi, Constantius, omnia fretus
cedere virtuti, terris incedere iussit
haut partem exiguam montis, pontoque tumenticredidit; et placido vexerunt aequora fluctu
litus ad Hesperium, Tiberi mirante carinam.
Interea Romam ta[et]ro vastante tyranno,
Augusti iacuit donum studiumque locandi,
non fastu spreti, sed quod non crederet ullus
tantae molis opus superas consurgere in auras.Nunc, veluti rursus rufis avulsa metallis,
emicuit pulsatque polos haec gloria, dudum
auctori servata suo. Cum caede tyranni
redditur, atque aditu Ro[mae] virtute reperto
victor ovans, urbiq[ue locat sublime] tropaeum
principis et munus condi[gnis us]que triumfis.
The first stanza tells of Constantine ordering the obelisk to be removed from Thebes to decorate his new city:
Hoc decus, ornatum genitor cognominis urbis
esse volens, caesa Thebis de rupe revellit.“His father, wishing it to be a decoration of the city of his name, tore this splendor from the cut cliff of Thebes.”
This city is Constantinople, the new capital in the east that bore his name; the placement of cognominis urbis after genitor implies that he is the father of the city as well as Constantius.
The second stanza details the delay in Alexandria, and praises Constantius for being brave enough to undertake the onerous task of moving it to Rome:
At dominus mundi Constantius omnia fretus
cedere virtuti terris incedere iussit
haut partem exiguam montis pontoque tumenti
credidit.“But Constantius, the lord of the world, trusting that everything yields to virtue, ordered the not small part of a mountain to advance over the lands and entrusted it to the swelling sea.”
The difficulty of transporting the monument is emphasized in order to praise the emperor for undertaking such a feat, implying that nature itself bent to his will. These lines tell us not that he ordered men to carry an obelisk across the ocean, but a mountain to march across land and sea.
The third stanza then describes further delays, this time in raising the obelisk having been brought to Rome, emphasizing again the difficulty this huge monument posed:
Interea Romam taetro vastante tyranno,
Augusti iacuit donum studiumque locandi
non fastu spreti, sed quod non crederit
ullus tantae molis opus superas consurgere in auras.“While a foul tyrant was laying waste to Rome, the gift of Augustus and the zeal for erecting it lay waiting, spurned not because it was rejected but because no one believed that a work of such mass could rise into the upper airs.”
There were two principle causes of this delay. First, Magnentius, a Gallic-born general in the Roman army, had garnered power in Rome and was more or less in control of the Italian peninsula, having been acclaimed emperor by his legions. Perhaps more importantly, the huge physical task of raising the obelisk still remained.
The last stanza describes the obelisk finally being erected in Rome after the defeat of Magnentius.
Cum caede tyranni
redditur, atque aditu Romae virtute reperto
victor ovans urbique locat sublime tropaeum
principis et munus condignis usque triumfis.“When [the emperor] is brought back after the tyrant’s murder, a way having been found to Rome through courage, the rejoicing victor erects [this obelisk], a lofty trophy for the city, and the emperor’s gift, with triumphs worthy indeed.”
After his victories over Magnentius at Mursa Major (351) and Mons Seleucus (353), Constantius regained control of the empire and erected the obelisk in the Circus Maximus as a monument of his triumph. The inscription says that he made his way to Rome with his strength or courage (“virtute”), implying that the Romans’ ability to raise obelisks (as they once were able to and had somehow lost under the reign of the usurper) had been restored with Constantius’ victory.
So, through these three sources, each of which were carved into the monument itself, we can trace the long and complicated history of the great Egyptian monolith. The hieroglyphs tell us that it was first erected in Thebes in the fifteenth century B.C. by Pharaohs Thutmose III and Thutmose IV at the entrance of the temple of the sun god Amun-Ra. There it remained for some eighteen centuries (longer than it has been in Rome!) before Constantine moved it to Alexandria in the early fourth century, where it awaited travel to his new capital. As we see in the original Latin inscription, that travel turned out to be quite difficult, and the 455-ton granite block waited for twenty years before Constantine’s son and successor Constantius managed to bring it to Rome, where it waited for his victory over the tyrant Magnentius before being erected in the Circus Maximus. The inscription we see today tells us that it fell into ruins and lay deep in the mud of the racetrack until the 1580s when Pope Sixtus V and his architect Domenico Fontana dug it up, repaired it, and moved it the piazza in front of the Cathedral of St. John Lateran, where it still stands today, three hundred tons of granite, and thirty-five hundred years of history.
Brendan McGlone is a 2018–19 Paideia Rome Fellow.
