Pompey's Pillar () is a
Roman triumphal column in
Alexandria
Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...
,
Egypt
Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
. Despite its modern name, it was actually set up in honour of the
Roman emperor Diocletian between 298–302 AD. The giant
Corinthian column originally supported a colossal
porphyry statue of the emperor in armour. It stands at the eastern side of the ''
temenos
A ''temenos'' ( Greek: ; plural: , ''temenē''). is a piece of land cut off and assigned as an official domain, especially to kings and chiefs, or a piece of land marked off from common uses and dedicated to a god, such as a sanctuary, holy g ...
'' of the
Serapeum of Alexandria
The Serapeum of Alexandria in the Ptolemaic Kingdom was an ancient Greek temple built by Ptolemy III Euergetes (reigned 246–222 BC) and dedicated to Serapis, who was made the protector of Alexandria, Egypt. There are also signs of Harpocr ...
, which is now in ruins.
It is the only ancient monument in Alexandria that is still standing in its original location.
Name
The local name is , where the word 'Amud means "column". The name Sawari has been translated in many ways by scholars, including Severus (i.e. Emperor
Septimius Severus
Lucius Septimius Severus (; ; 11 April 145 – 4 February 211) was Roman emperor from 193 to 211. He was born in Leptis Magna (present-day Al-Khums, Libya) in the Roman province of Africa. As a young man he advanced through cursus honorum, the ...
).
The name of Pompey in relation to the pillar was used by many European writers in early modern times. The name is considered to stem from a historical misreading of the
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
dedicatory
inscription
Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...
on the base;
the name ΠΟΥΠΛΙΟΣ () was confused with ΠΟΜΠΗΙΟΣ ().
Construction
In 297 Diocletian,''
Augustus'' since 284, campaigned in Egypt to suppress the revolt of the usurper
Domitius Domitianus. After a long siege, Diocletian captured Alexandria and executed Domitianus's successor
Aurelius Achilleus in 298. In 302 the emperor returned to the city and inaugurated a state grain supply.
The dedication of the column monument and its statue of Diocletian, describes Diocletian as ''polioúchos'' ().
[. At ]
Searchable Greek Inscriptions
'' of the Packard Humanities Institute
The Packard Humanities Institute (PHI) is a non-profit foundation, established in 1987, and located in Los Altos, California, which funds projects in a wide range of conservation concerns in the fields of archaeology, music, film preservation, ...
. In the fourth century AD this designation also applied to Serapis, the male counterpart of
Isis
Isis was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingdom () as one of the main characters of the Osiris myth, in which she resurrects her sla ...
in the pantheon instituted by the
Hellenistic
In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...
rulers of
Egypt
Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
, the
Ptolemies. The sanctuary complex dedicated to Serapis in which the column was originally erected, the Serapeum, was built under King
Ptolemy III Euergetes
Ptolemy III Euergetes (, "Ptolemy the Euergetes, Benefactor"; c. 280 – November/December 222 BC) was the third pharaoh of the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt from 246 to 222 BC. The Ptolemaic Kingdom reached the height of its military and economic ...
in the third century BC and rebuilt under Roman rule, likely in the late 2nd to early 3rd century CE, being completed under Emperor
Caracalla
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (born Lucius Septimius Bassianus, 4 April 188 – 8 April 217), better known by his nickname Caracalla (; ), was Roman emperor from 198 to 217 AD, first serving as nominal co-emperor under his father and then r ...
. In the later fourth century AD it was considered by
Ammianus Marcellinus
Ammianus Marcellinus, occasionally anglicized as Ammian ( Greek: Αμμιανός Μαρκελλίνος; born , died 400), was a Greek and Roman soldier and historian who wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from antiquit ...
a marvel rivalled only by Rome's sanctuary to Jupiter ''Optimus Maximus'' on the Capitoline Hill, the
Capitolium
A ''Capitolium'' (Latin) was an ancient Roman temple dedicated to the Capitoline Triad of gods Jupiter, Juno and Minerva. A ''capitolium'' was built on a prominent area in many cities in Italy and the Roman provinces, particularly during the ...
.
The monument stands some high, including its base and
capital
Capital and its variations may refer to:
Common uses
* Capital city, a municipality of primary status
** Capital region, a metropolitan region containing the capital
** List of national capitals
* Capital letter, an upper-case letter
Econom ...
, and originally would have supported a statue some tall.
The only known
monolithic column in
Roman Egypt
Roman Egypt was an imperial province of the Roman Empire from 30 BC to AD 642. The province encompassed most of modern-day Egypt except for the Sinai. It was bordered by the provinces of Crete and Cyrenaica to the west and Judaea, ...
(i.e., not composed of
drums
The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...
), it is one of the
largest ancient monoliths and one of the
largest monolithic columns ever erected. The monolithic column shaft is in height with a diameter of at its base, and the socle itself is over tall.
Both are of ''lapis syenites'', a pink
granite
Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...
cut from the ancient quarries at Syene (modern
Aswan
Aswan (, also ; ) is a city in Southern Egypt, and is the capital of the Aswan Governorate.
Aswan is a busy market and tourist centre located just north of the Aswan Dam on the east bank of the Nile at the first cataract. The modern city ha ...
), while the column capital of pseudo-Corinthian type is of grey granite.
Charles Piazzi Smyth
Charles Piazzi Smyth (3 January 1819 – 21 February 1900) was a British astronomer who was Astronomer Royal for Scotland from 1846 to 1888; he is known for many innovations in astronomy and, along with his wife Jessica Duncan Piazzi Smyth, hi ...
refers to researchers of the 18th and 19th century discussing their statements of it being cast in place from manufactured stone as its transportation couldn't be explained. The weight of the column shaft is estimated to be .
The surviving and readable four lines
of the inscription in Greek on the column's
socle relate that a ''
Praefectus Aegypti'' () called Publius dedicated the monument in Diocletian's honour. A ''praefectus aegypti'' named Publius is attested in two
papyri from Oxyrrhynchus; his governorship must have been held in between the prefectures of
Aristius Optatus, who is named as governor on 16 March 297, and Clodius Culcianus, in office from 303 or even late 302. Since Publius's name appears as the monument's dedicator, the column and stylite statue of Diocletian must have been completed between 297 and 303, while he was in post. The governor's name is largely erased in the damaged inscription; the Greek rendering of Publius as ΠΟΥΠΛΙΟΣ () was confused with the Greek spelling of the
Republican general of the first century BC Pompey, ΠΟΜΠΗΙΟΣ (, ).
The porphyry statue of Diocletian in armour is known from large fragments that existed at the column's foot in the eighteenth century AD. From the size of a fragment representing the thighs of the honorand, the original height of the
loricate statue has been calculated at approximately . While some fragments of the statue were known to be in European collections in the nineteenth century, their whereabouts were unknown by the 1930s and are presumed lost.
It is possible that the large column supporting Diocletian's statue was accompanied by another column, or three smaller columns bearing statues of Diocletian's co-emperors, the ''Augustus''
Maximian
Maximian (; ), nicknamed Herculius, was Roman emperor from 286 to 305. He was ''Caesar (title), Caesar'' from 285 to 286, then ''Augustus (title), Augustus'' from 286 to 305. He shared the latter title with his co-emperor and superior, Diocleti ...
and the two ''Caesares''
Constantius Constantius may refer to:
__NOTOC__ Roman people
* Constantius I "Chlorus" (–306), Western Roman emperor from 305 to 306
* Julius Constantius (died 337), consul in 335, son of Constantius I
* Constantius Gallus (325–354), ''caesar'' from 351 to ...
and
Galerius
Galerius Valerius Maximianus (; Greek: Γαλέριος; 258 – May 311) was Roman emperor from 305 to 311. He participated in the system of government later known as the Tetrarchy, first acting as '' caesar'' under Emperor Diocletian. In th ...
. If so, the group of column-statues would have commemorated the college of emperors of the
Tetrarchy
The Tetrarchy was the system instituted by Roman emperor Diocletian in 293 AD to govern the ancient Roman Empire by dividing it between two emperors, the ''augusti'', and their junior colleagues and designated successors, the ''caesares''.
I ...
instituted in Diocletian's reign.
Ascents
Muslim traveller
Ibn Battuta
Ibn Battuta (; 24 February 13041368/1369), was a Maghrebi traveller, explorer and scholar. Over a period of 30 years from 1325 to 1354, he visited much of Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Iberian Peninsula. Near the end of his life, Ibn ...
visited Alexandria in 1326 AD. He describes the pillar and recounts the tale of an archer who shot an arrow tied to a string over the column. This enabled him to pull a rope tied to the string over the pillar and secure it on the other side in order to climb to the top of the pillar.
In early 1803, British naval officer Commander
John Shortland of
HMS ''Pandour'' flew a
kite
A kite is a tethered heavier than air flight, heavier-than-air craft with wing surfaces that react against the air to create Lift (force), lift and Drag (physics), drag forces. A kite consists of wings, tethers and anchors. Kites often have ...
over Pompey's Pillar. This enabled him to get ropes over it, and then a
rope ladder. On February 2, he and John White, ''Pandour''s Master, climbed it. When they got to the top they displayed the
Union Jack
The Union Jack or Union Flag is the ''de facto'' national flag of the United Kingdom. The Union Jack was also used as the official flag of several British colonies and dominions before they adopted their own national flags.
It is sometimes a ...
, drank a
toast to King
George III
George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland, Ireland from 25 October 1760 until his death in 1820. The Acts of Union 1800 unified Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and ...
, and gave
three cheers. Four days later they climbed the pillar again, erected a staff, fixed a
weather vane
A wind vane, weather vane, or weathercock is an instrument used for showing the direction of the wind. It is typically used as an architectural ornament to the highest point of a building. The word ''vane'' comes from the Old English word , m ...
, ate a
beef steak, and again toasted the king. An etymology of the nickname "Pompey" for the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
's home port of
Portsmouth
Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...
and its
football team
A football team is a group of players selected to play together in the various team sports known as football. Such teams could be selected to play in a match against an opposing team, to represent a football club, group, state or nation, an All-st ...
suggests these sailors became known as "Pompey's boys" after scaling the Pillar, and the moniker spread; other unrelated origins are also possible.
Gallery
File:PikiWiki Israel 44432 Zipori.jpg, Pompey's Pillar represented in a mosaic
A mosaic () is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/Mortar (masonry), mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and ...
from Sepphoris
Sepphoris ( ; ), known in Arabic as Saffuriya ( ) and in Hebrew as Tzipori ( ''Ṣīppōrī'')Palmer (1881), p115/ref> is an archaeological site and former Palestinian village located in the central Galilee region of Israel, north-northwe ...
in Roman Palestine
Roman Palestine was a period in the history of Palestine characterised by Roman rule in the Palestine region. Historians typically trace the period from the Hasmonean civil war in 63 BCE up until the end of the Byzantine rule with the Musli ...
File:View of Pompey's Pillar with Alexandria in the background in c.1850.jpg, View of Pompey's Pillar with Alexandria in the background in c.1850
File:Siege de la Colonne de Pompée.jpg, Siege de la Colonne de Pompée – Science in the pillory. 1799 cartoon, in which James Gillray
James Gillray (13 August 1756Gillray, James and Draper Hill (1966). ''Fashionable contrasts''. Phaidon. p. 8.Baptism register for Fetter Lane (Moravian) confirms birth as 13 August 1756, baptism 17 August 1756 1June 1815) was a British list of c ...
lampoons the corps of scientists, artists and architects that travelled to Egypt as part of Napoleon's force
File:Pompey's Pillar Greek Inscription.png, The Greek inscription
File:Pompey's Pillar Greek inscription 03.png, 1743 version
File:Pompey's Pillar Greek inscription 02.png, 1803 version
File:Pompey's Pillar Greek inscription 01.png, 1822 version
See also
*
List of ancient architectural records
This is the list of ancient architectural records consists of record-making architectural achievements of the Greco-Roman world from c. 800 BC to 600 AD.
Bridges
*The highest bridge over the water or ground was the single-arched P ...
*
Browne-Clayton Monument
Notes
References
Sources
*
*
*
*
*
*
{{Commons category, Pompey's Pillar, Alexandria, Pompey's Pillar
Buildings and structures completed in the 3rd century
Buildings and structures in Alexandria
Roman victory columns
Corinthian columns
Monoliths