Sallustiano obelisk

Sallustian Obelisk
L'obelisco Sallustiano
The obelisk in 2005
Interactive map of Sallustian Obelisk
LocationTrinità dei Monti, Rome, Italy
Coordinates41°54′22″N 12°29′00″E / 41.90611°N 12.48333°E / 41.90611; 12.48333 (Sallustiano)
TypeEgyptian Granite Monolithic Obelisk carved in Rome
Material13.91 metres (45.6 ft) Red Granite from Aswan
Height15.21 metres (49.9 ft) (with pedestal)
Weightc.40 long tons (41 t)
Beginning dateInitial quarrying unknown. Carved c.270CE Aurelian Rome;
Dedicated dateInitial dedication unknown. Rededicated 11 April 1789 by Pius VI.
Restored date1734 by Clement XII
Dedicated toThe Holy Trinity
Dismantled datefelled c.410CE during the Sack of Rome

The Sallustiano obelisk (Italian: Obelisco Sallustiano) is an obelisk installed at the top of the Spanish Steps, outside the Trinità dei Monti, in Rome, Italy, in the District of the Campus of Mars.[1] Historically, it was believed to be related to the Moon and its worship, giving it an alternative name, the Lunar Obelisk.[2] It was erected in its present location in the 1780s by Pope Pius VI. It is one of the 18 (previously 19) obelisks, 12 of which date to antiquity, which presently stand in the City of Rome.

History

The Obelisk itself is a (now broken and reconstructed) monolith of Red Aswan Granite. It was intended to appear that this obelisk was dedicated to the 19th Dynasty Pharaohs Seti I and Rameses II who lived in the late 1200s-early 1300s BCE. It bears their Cartouches. Ammianus Marcellinus[3] believed that the obelisk was imported to Rome after the reign of Augustus, though he does not specify the exact period. Others, however, suspect that Aurelian may have commissioned its carving in Aswan during the 3rd century and had it transported to Rome before the inscriptions were added. However, examination of the hieroglyphic writings on the faces of the obelisk indicate that it is an inaccurate Roman copy, although smaller, of the Flaminio Obelisk constructed for Rameses II now standing in the Piazza del Popolo.[4] This is because the hieroglyphs were copied from the Flaminio Obelisk, but the glyphs are sometimes backward, upside-down or incorrectly copied in some other manner, suggesting it was Italian Craftsmen in Rome, who could not read hieroglyphs, who performed the copy.[5][6][7]

The obelisk enters recorded history when it was erected in the Gardens of Sallust on the Pincian Hill, where it likely adorned the spina (central barrier) of the Circus Sallustianus, a private circus within the imperial gardens there. This is where it stood until the Sack of Rome in 410CE during the fall of the Western Roman Empire. It was toppled at some point and broken into three pieces (including its base) and remained discarded in the ruins of the house of Sallust, later a cane field, for several hundred years.[8] It came into the possession of the Ludovisi family, in 1621, when the area where the Gardens of Sallust had stood were purchased by Ludovico Ludovisi.[9] It was during this period that Athanasius Kircher noted the similarity between it and the Flaminian Obelisk, and suggested to Pope Alexander VII that it be re-erected.[10]

In 1722, the family donated the broken monument to Clement XII, who restored and reunited the two pieces of the Obelisk's shaft, and ordered it moved to the Scala Sancta in the Piazza di San Giovanni in Laterano in 1734.[11][12] It was kept horizontal, until it was re-erected in 1789 by Pope Pius VI by the architect Giovanni Antinori in its present location, and dedicated to the Holy Trinity.[13]

The Monument was capped with a top-element in bronze, featuring a Latin cross, a star-burst, and a small pine cone. The Cross is reported to contain a fragment of the True Cross, and relics of Saint Joseph, Saint Francis of Paola, Saint Pius V, and the apostles Peter and Paul.[14] These three elements are in turn mounted upon a Fleur-de-Lys, the heraldic symbol of the French King, as the monument and the church before which it now stands were funded by the Kingdom of France.[15]

The Pedestal

The Obelisk's original, monolithic, pedestal was rediscovered in 1843. It was in the Gardens of Sallust, where it had been buried, and was uncovered while removing a tree-stump. It was moved to the Villa Ludovisi and put away. Mussolini decided to make use of it in 1926 in order to construct a monument, an Altar, to those who had died during the 1922 March on Rome. It was named the Ara dei Caduti Fascisti and stood on the Capitoline Hill, between the Pallazzo Senatorio (Rome's City Hall) and the Church of Santa Maria in Ara Coeli. It was topped with a marble installation an engraved with a dedication. After the fall of the Fascist regime in Italy it was stripped of its marble decorations, inverted, and moved into a corner of the Campidoglio with its inscription facing against a Roman wall, in order to obscure the memory of its use as a Fascist memorial.[16][17][18]

Texts

The Text and Translation of the Inscriptions on the Pedestal
Latin TextTranslation Image
PIVS·VI·PONT·MAX·
OBELISCVM·SALLVSTIANVM
QVEM·PROLAPSIONE·DIFFRACTVM
SVPERIOR·AETAS
IACENTEM·RELIQVERAT
COLLI·HORTVLORVM
IN·SVBSIDENTIVM·VIARVM
PROSPECTV·IMPOSITVM
TROPAEO
CRVCIS·PRAEFIXO
TRINITATI·AVGVSTAE
DEDICAVIT		 Pius VI, Supreme Pontiff, dedicates to the August Trinity, with the trophy of the Cross fixed on its summit, this Sallustian obelisk – which in a former age, after it had been shattered by a collapse, had been left lying neglected – and having placed it on the Pincian Hill (the Hill of Gardens) so as to be seen above the roads that descend below.
III·EIDVS
APRIL
ANNO·M·DCC
LXXXVIIII		 On the 3rd day before the Ides of April, in the year 1789 (11 April 1789).
SACRI
PRINCIPATVS
EIVS
ANNO·XV		 In the 15th year of his sacred reign.
The Text inscribed by Mussolini on the original pedestal
ItalianTranslationSources
QVESTA PIETRA
SV COLLE IMPERIALE D'ROMA
RICORDERA
NEI SECOLI
IL SACRIFICIO EROICO
DEI CADVTI
PER LA RIVOLVZIONE
DELLE CAMICIE NERE

XXVIII OTTOBRE ANNO V		This stone on the Imperial Hill of Rome will remember for centuries the heroic sacrifice of the fallen for the Revolution of the Blackshirts.

28 October, Year V.		 [19]

[20]

Translations of the rest of the Hieroglyphic text on the obelisk is a pastiche of the text engraved upon the Flaminio Obelisk.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Sallustian Obelisk". Turismo Roma. 2019-01-12. Retrieved 2025-12-11.
  2. ↑ Pollett, Andrea. "Obelisks Part III: 13 - Sallusitan Obelisk". Virtual Roma: Roman Monographs. Archived from the original on 2024-01-06.
  3. ↑ Parker, J.H. (1879). The Twelve Egyptian Obelisks in Rome: Their History Explained by Translations of the Inscriptions upon them (2nd ed.). London: James Parker and Co. pp. 24–25. Retrieved 3 July 2026.
  4. ↑ Nagase, Hiroyuki; Okamoto, Shoji. "Sallustian Obelisk". Obelisks. Retrieved 3 July 2026.
  5. ↑ Pollett, Andrea. "Obelisks Part III: 13 - Sallusitan Obelisk". Virtual Roma: Roman Monographs. Archived from the original on 2024-01-06.
  6. ↑ "Sallustian Obelisk". Turismo Roma. 2019-01-12. Retrieved 2025-12-11.
  7. ↑ Budge, E.A. Wallis (1926). Cleopatra's Needles and Other Egyptian Obelisks. London: The Religious Tract Society. pp. 211–212. Retrieved 3 July 2026.
  8. ↑ Budge, E.A. Wallis (1926). Cleopatra's Needles and Other Egyptian Obelisks. London: The Religious Tract Society. pp. 211–212. Retrieved 3 July 2026.
  9. ↑ Helsin, I. "The 'Sallustian' Obelisk: A Remarkable Journey from the Villa Ludovisi to the Spanish Steps". Archivo Digitale Boncompagni Ludovisi. Retrieved 3 July 2026.
  10. ↑ "Sallustian Obelisk". Turismo Roma. 2019-01-12. Retrieved 2025-12-11.
  11. ↑ Pollett, Andrea. "Obelisks Part III: 13 - Sallusitan Obelisk". Virtual Roma: Roman Monographs. Archived from the original on 2024-01-06.
  12. ↑ "Sallustian Obelisk". Turismo Roma. Major Events, Sport, Tourism and Fashion Department, City of Rome. Archived from the original on 2026-04-11. Retrieved 3 July 2026.
  13. ↑ "Sallustian Obelisk". Turismo Roma. Major Events, Sport, Tourism and Fashion Department, City of Rome. Archived from the original on 2026-04-11. Retrieved 3 July 2026.
  14. ↑ "Sallustian Obelisk". Turismo Roma. Major Events, Sport, Tourism and Fashion Department, City of Rome. Archived from the original on 2026-04-11. Retrieved 3 July 2026.
  15. ↑ Pollett, Andrea. "Obelisks Part III: 13 - Sallusitan Obelisk". Virtual Roma: Roman Monographs. Archived from the original on 2024-01-06.
  16. ↑ Gradozzi, Marco (2024-10-24). "Il basamento dell'obelisco Sallustiano in Campidoglio" [The base of the Sallustian obelisk in the Capitol]. Inamorati di Roma (in Italian). Archived from the original on 2026-07-04. Retrieved 4 July 2026.
  17. ↑ Helsin, I. "The 'Sallustian' Obelisk: A Remarkable Journey from the Villa Ludovisi to the Spanish Steps". Archivo Digitale Boncompagni Ludovisi. Retrieved 3 July 2026.
  18. ↑ Pollett, Andrea. "Obelisks Part III: 13 - Sallusitan Obelisk". Virtual Roma: Roman Monographs. Archived from the original on 2024-01-06.
  19. ↑ Gradozzi, Marco (2024-10-24). "Il basamento dell'obelisco Sallustiano in Campidoglio" [The base of the Sallustian obelisk in the Capitol]. Inamorati di Roma (in Italian). Archived from the original on 2026-07-04. Retrieved 4 July 2026.
  20. ↑ Cinecittà, (Historical Archives Istituto Luce). "L'Ara dei Caduti Fascisti in Campidoglio". Luce Archivo. Retrieved 3 July 2026.
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