COLUMNA PHOCAE
a monument in front of the rostra in the forum which,
according to the inscription (
CIL vi. 1200)
1 on the marble base of the
column, was erected in 608 A.D. by Smaragdus, exarch of Italy, in honour
of Phocas, emperor of the East. The monument consists of a fluted
Corinthian column of white marble, 1.39 metres in diameter and 13.60
high, on which was placed the statue of Phocas in gilt bronze. This
column stood on a marble base, which in turn rests on a square brick
pedestal which was entirely surrounded by flights of nine steps made of
tufa blocks taken from other structures. The steps on the north and east
sides were removed in 1903. The whole monument cannot have been
erected by Smaragdus, for the brick pedestal belongs probably to the
fourth century, while the column, from its style and execution, must be
earlier still. The pedestal was probably built at the same time as those
in front of the basilica Iulia, and the column set upon it. Smaragdus
simply set the statue of Phocas on the column and constructed the
pyramid of tufa steps around the pedestal (as Nichols in Archaeologia
lii. i.
(1889) 183-194 had already supposed). Cf.
Jord. i. 2. 246;
Mitt.
1891, 88-90;
1902, 58-59;
1905, 68; Atti 577-580; HC 96-97; RE
Suppl. iv. 501, 502.
