OBELISCUS AUGUSTI IN CIRCO MAXIMO
brought from Heliopolis by
Augustus at the same time as the gnomon (v. supra). This is shown by
the identical inscriptions on the bases of the two (
CIL vi. 701=702).
It was dedicated to the Sun (Cassiod.
Var. iii. 51. 8, wrongly says that it
was dedicated to Luna), and erected on the spina of the circus Maximus
(
Strabo xvii. 805; Amm.
Marcell. xvii. 4. 12; Plin.
NH xxxvi. 71;
Not. Brev.; Chron. 145). The hieroglyphics on the shaft were cut partly
by Seti I and partly by Rameses II, 1292-1325 (Amm.
Marcell. xvii.
4. 17-23;
BC 1896, 145-173, 250-259=Ob. Eg. 51-90). The height of
the obelisk is 23.70 metres (cf. Plin. loc. cit.; Not. Brev.; Chron. 145;
CILviii. 212. 83=AL 1552, 83;
Jord. ii. 187). Nothing is known of the
history of the obelisk after the fourth century until the sixteenth, when
fragments of the base and inscription were found during the pontificate
of Gregory XIII (1572-1585), and the obelisk itself, broken into three
pieces, in 1587. It was then removed and erected on its present site, in
the Piazza del Popolo (
LS iv. 148-150; HJ 124;
BC 1914, 114-115).
