Obelisk

Obelisk of Psametik II and Augustus
reerected by Pope Pius VI in Piazza Montecitorio


The Augustan inscriptions survive. Sometime between the 8th and 12th centuries CE, the obelisk of Psametik II and Augustus fell or was smashed down, broke into 5 pieces, and became buried. After rediscovery, excavation, and repair with rose granite taken from the badly damaged Column of Antoninus, it was reerected in 1792 by Pope Pius VI in Piazza Montecitorio, where it still stands. The Augustan inscriptions were partly reinscribed, new papal inscriptions added, and a new globe attached to the pinnacle.

When Augustus erected the obelisk on the Campus Martius, a large, new base of Egyptian rose granite was added and inscribed. Although the Augustan inscription had been damaged and was partly reinscribed when the obelisk was reconsturcted and reerected in the Piazza Montecitorio, the reading of the inscription is secure because the same inscription appears on two faces of this obelisk and on two faces of the Augustan obelisk now in the Piazza del Popolo.

IMP CAESAR  DIVI  F
AUGUSTUS
PONTIFEX  MAXIMUS
IMP  XII  COS  XI  TRIB  POT  XIV
AEGUPTO  N  POTESTATEM
POPULI  ROMANI  REDACTA
SOLI.DONUM  DEDIT

"Caesar Augustus, imperator, son of a divus,
pontifex maximus, imperator 12 times, consul 11 times, with tribunician power 14 times.
With Egypt having been brought into the domain of the Roman people,
Augustus gave this gift to the sun" (trans. Swetnam-Burland, p.135).

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