Column of Phocas: A Commemorative Monument in the Roman Forum
Site at a Glance
- Popularity
- High
- Country
- Italy
- Primary era
- Classical
- Eras represented
- Classical, Medieval
- Civilizations
- Byzantine, Roman
- Site type
- Civic
- Remains
- Monument
On this page4 sections
History
The Column of Phocas is a monument in the Roman Forum in Rome, Italy, probably made in the second century in the Corinthian style for an unidentified structure and rededicated to Emperor Phocas on 1 August 608. It was the Forum’s final architectural addition after more than 1,300 years of building there.
Imperial rededication
Rome was then part of the Eastern Roman Empire, following its reconquest from the Ostrogoths, who had ruled Italy. The dedication honored Phocas, emperor from 602 to 610, and was made by Smaragdus, a former senior official of the imperial palace, a patrician (an elite Roman honorific rank), and Exarch of Italy (a senior Byzantine governor).
The inscription credits Phocas with many acts of piety and with bringing peace to Italy and preserving its freedom. The reason for the honor is uncertain. One proposed explanation connects it with Phocas’s gift of the Pantheon to Pope Boniface IV, who rededicated the building in 609 to Mary and all the martyrs. Other interpretations see the dedication as an assertion of imperial authority amid Lombard expansion, which pressured Eastern Roman control in Italy, or as Smaragdus’s personal gratitude to Phocas, who recalled him from long exile and restored his power at Ravenna.
Overthrow and burial
Phocas was overthrown and killed in October 610. By the end of that year, his successor Heraclius had ordered the statue on the column toppled.
During the Middle Ages, the Forum fell into disuse as earth and debris washed down from nearby hills and covered the column’s base. In March 1813, workers cleared the deposits and uncovered the base’s inscription. Nineteenth-century excavations reached the Forum’s earlier paving from the Augustan period, the reign of Augustus, Rome’s first emperor.
Remains
The column stands in its original position in front of the Rostra, the Roman Forum’s public speaking platform, and rises freely among the ruins. A square brick foundation lies beneath a cubical base of white marble. The fluted shaft measures 13.6 metres in height and ends in a capital decorated with acanthus-leaf forms. The marble base had first supported a statue dedicated to Diocletian, and its earlier inscription was chiselled away to make room for the later text. The surviving Latin dedication is on the base’s north side. The column has long served as a landmark and appears in city views and engravings.
