OBELISCI MAUSOLEI AUGUSTI
two obelisks that stood in front of the
mausoleum of Augustus in the campus Martius (Amm.
Marcell. xvii.
4. 16; Not. Brev.). As they are not mentioned by Pliny (
NH xxxvi.
69-73) nor by Strabo in his description of the mausoleum (v. 3. 8), they
probably were not brought from Egypt before the time of Domitian.
One of these obelisks, which are a little over 14 metres high, was excavated
before 1527 behind the church of S. Rocco
1 and set up behind S. Maria
Maggiore in 1587; the other was found at the same time, but was not
excavated till a little before 1550 (compare Fulvio, Antiquitates Urbis
lxxi', with Aldrovandi, Statue di Roma 314; cf.
LS ii. 15), and was not
moved until 1782, when Pius VI placed it in the Piazza del Quirinale
(
LS iv. 152;
BC 1914, 382). They are without hieroglyphics (
BC 1897, 223-225=Ob. Eg. 147-149).
