OBELISCUS CONSTANTII
the obelisk which is now standing at the Lateran
which was brought to Rome by Constantius in 357 A.D., and set up on
the spina of the circus Maximus (Amm.
Marcell. xvi. 10. 17;
xvii. 4. 12;
Cassiod.
Var. iii. 51. 8). It was erected by Thutmose III in the fifteenth
century B.C. in front of the temple of Ammon at Thebes. Augustus
thought of bringing it to Rome, and Constantine did bring it down the
Nile to Alexandria. Its transportation to Rome and erection by Constantius are described by Ammianus (xvii. 4. 13-16) and in the inscription
cut on four sides of the base, which has now disappeared (
CIL vi. 1163;
cf. 31249=AL 279). The obelisk is of red granite, 32.50 metres high
(cf. Cur. Brev.;
Jord. ii. 189; HJ 132)-the largest in the world and the
last brought to Rome. Its surface is covered with hieroglyphics (
BC 1896, 89-115, 129-144=Ob. Eg. 8-50). It is mentioned in the twelfth
century (Mirabilia 25), and again in 1410-17 (Anon. Magi. 17, ap. Urlichs,
159;
LS i. 45), and by Du Perac (Roxburghe, p. 107), but in 1587 it
was found, broken into three pieces and buried about 7 metres in the
ground. It was excavated by Sixtus V and erected in 1587 on its present
site (
LS iv. 148-151;
BC 1917, 23).
