COLOSSUS NERONIS
a colossal bronze statue of Nero, 120 feet high, the
work of Zenodorus, a Greek, erected by Nero himself in the vestibule of
the
DOMUS AUREA (q.v.) on the summit of the Velia (Suet. Nero 31;
Plin.
NH xxxiv. 45), but after the death of that emperor changed by
Vespasian into a statue of the Sun (Plin. loc. cit; Suet. Vesp. 18; Mart.
de spect. 2. 1 (see
DOMUS AUREA) ;
i. 70. 7; Cass.
Dio lxv. 15:
ὁ...
κολοσσὁς ὠνομασμένος ἐν τῇ ἱερᾷ ὁδῷ ἱδρύθη ). Hulsen (HJ 321) considers
ἱδρύθη to be a loose translation of
refectus est, so that we need not
suppose that the statue was actually moved. Dio states that some
said it was like Nero and others like Titus.
1 Hadrian, perhaps early in
128 A.D. (M61. 1918-1919, 285-294), moved it nearer the Colosseum in
order to make room for the temple of Venus and Roma, it is said, without
taking it down (Hist. Aug. Hadr. 19). Commodus (Hist. Aug. Com. 17;
Cass.
Dio lxxii. 22) converted it into a statue of himself as Hercules;
but at his death it was restored as the Sun and so remained (Cohen, Comm.
186, 206, 209;
Herodian i. 15. 9; Reg. IV). Part of the pedestal which
was built by Hadrian still exists, between the Colosseum and the temple
of Venus and Roma. It is 7 metres square, of brick-faced concrete, and
was originally covered with marble (see also Hieron. ad a. Abr. 2090;
Hemerol. Philoc. ad VIII Id. Iun. CIL i 2. p. 266, 319;
CIL viii. 212. 82;
Longin. de Subl. 57.2
2 (
WS 1898, 177); Jahrb. d.
Inst. 1913, 133).
For a block of travertine which may have formed part of the flight
of steps inside one leg of this huge figure see Mem. Am.
Acad. v. 118.
Remains of what may be the base on which it stood originally exist
under the monastery of S. Francesca Romana. The mention of it in
Hemerol. cit.,
colossus coronatur, is the last in antiquity, and is an
interesting record of the persistence in Christian times of a picturesque
spring festival celebrated by the sellers of garlands on the Sacra via. The
famous saying quoted by Bede (Collect. 1. iii.), '
quamdiu stabit coliseus,
stabit et Roma; quando cadet coliseus, cadet et Roma; quando cadet
Roma, cadet et mundus,' should be referred, not to the amphitheatre
but to the statue, which had no doubt fallen long before (Nissen, Ital.
Landeskunde, ii. 538). And the early mediaeval mentions of insula,
regio, rota colisei should be similarly explained (
Jord. ii. 119, 319, 510).
The name was not transferred to the building until about 1000 A.D.
3
