Obelisco di Montecitorio

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Obelisk in front of the Palazzo di Montecitorio

The Obelisco di Montecitorio or Obelisco Solare is an Egyptian obelisk in Rome. He is on the Piazza Montecitorio in front of the Palazzo Montecitorio . With a height of 21.79 m (excluding the base and ball on top) it is the fifth largest obelisk in Rome.

history

It was built in Heliopolis in the 6th century BC under Pharaoh Psammetich II , the third king of the 26th dynasty (595-589 BC) . Augustus brought it between 12 and 10 BC. Chr. To Rome and had it set up on the Mars Field , where it served as a gnomon for the Solarium Augusti , an oversized noon wise man . In 1748, under Pope Benedict XIV , the stone behind the Palazzo Montecitorio - today Piazza del Parlamento - was rediscovered, of which an inscription by Benedict XIV reports there. In the inscription on the base, Pius VI. explicitly mention that Benedict XIV simply left the obelisk lying around. It was not until 1792 under Pope Pius VI. it was renovated using material from the destroyed honorary column for Antoninus Pius and placed in its current location.

The ancient dedicatory inscription reads:

IMP CAESAR DIVI F Emperor Caesar Augustus
AUGUSTUS Son of the deified (Caesar)
PONTIFEX MAXIMUS Pontifex Maximus
IMP XII COS XI TRIB POT XIV Imperator for the 12th, consul for the 11th, holder of tribunician power for the 14th time
AEGUPTO IN POTESTATEM after Egypt came under the rule
POPULI ROMANI REDACTA of the Roman people
SOLI DONUM DEDIT gave (this obelisk) to the sun as a gift

Most of the Egyptian inscriptions are eroded and barely legible. Only a list of the names and titles of the king is easy to decipher: The golden Horus, embellishes the two countries, loved by Aton, Lord of Heliopolis, king of Upper and Lower Egypt, loved by Re-Harakhti, who achieved the White Crown and the double crown united, Psammetich, loved by the souls of Heliopolis .

See also

literature

  • Samuel Ball Platner, Thomas Ashby : A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. Oxford University Press, London 1929, pp. 366-367 ( online ).
  • Cesare D'Onofrio: Gli obelischi di Roma. Rome 1967
  • Erik Iversen: Obelisks in exile. Vol. 1: The obelisks of Rome. Gad, Copenhagen 1968.
  • Ernst Batta: Obelisks. Egyptian obelisks and their history in Rome. Insel, Frankfurt a. M. 1986, ISBN 3-458-32465-8 ( Insel-Taschenbuch , 765).

Web links

Commons : Obelisco di Montecitorio  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. CIL 6, 702 .

Coordinates: 41 ° 54 ′ 2.4 "  N , 12 ° 28 ′ 43.2"  E