The Column of Phocas, against the backdrop of the Arch of Septimius Severus.

The Column of Phocas, which was erected before the Rostra in the Roman Forum and dedicated or rededicated in honour of the Byzantine emperor Phocas on August 1, 608, was the last addition made to the Roman Forum. The fluted Corinthian column stands 13.6 m (44 ft) tall on its cubical white marble socle and seems originally to have been made about the 2nd century. The square foundation of brick (illustration, right) was not originally visible, the present level of the Forum not having been excavated down to its earlier Augustan paving until the 19th century. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (903x1929, 801 KB) Roma, Foro Romano, colonna di Foca. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (903x1929, 801 KB) Roma, Foro Romano, colonna di Foca. ... The Arch of Septimius Severus before the excavation of the Roman Forum, painted by Canaletto in 1742 (Royal Collection, UK) The white marble Arch of Septimius Severus at the northeast end of the Roman Forum is a triumphal arch erected in 204 CE to commemorate the Parthian victories of the... The base of the column dedicated in 303, during the visit of emperor Diocletian in Rome, in occasion of the ten years of the institution of the Tetrarchy. ... The Roman Forum (Forum Romanum, although the Romans referred to it more often as the Forum Magnum or just the Forum) was the central area around which ancient Rome developed, in which commerce, business, prostitution, cult and the administration of justice took place. ... Phocas on a contemporary coin Flavius Phocas Augustus, Eastern Roman Emperor (reigned 602–610), is perhaps one of the most maligned figures to have held the Imperial title in the long history of Rome and Byzantium. ... August 1 is the 213th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (214th in leap years), with 152 days remaining. ... Events September 15 - Boniface IV becomes pope. ... The Corinthian order as used for the portico of the Pantheon, Rome provided a prominent model for Renaissance and later architects, through the medium of engravings. ...

The precise occasion for this single honour is unknown, though Phocas had visited Rome and had formally donated the Pantheon to Pope Boniface IV, who rededicated it to all the Martyr Saints—to whom Mary was added in the Middle Ages (Santa Maria ad Martyres). Atop the column's capital was erected by Smaragdus, the Exarch of Ravenna, a "dazzling" gilded statue of Phocas, which probably only briefly stood there. In October 610 Phocas, a low-born usurper himself, was treacherously captured, tortured, assassinated and grotesquely dismembered: his statues everywhere were overthrown. Rather than a demonstration to mark papal gratitude as it is sometimes casually declared to be, the gilded statue on its column was more likely an emblem of the imperial sovereignty over Rome, which was rapidly fading under pressure from the Lombards, and a personal mark of gratitude from Smaragdus, who had been recalled by Phocas from a long exile and was indebted to the Emperor for retrieving his position of power at Ravenna. The Pantheon, Rome The Pantheon is a building in Rome originally built as a temple to the seven deities of the seven planets in the Roman state religion, but has been a Christian church since the 7th century. ... Boniface IV (ca. ... Smaragdus was Exarch of Ravenna (585-589, 603-611). ... The Exarchate of Ravenna was a center of Byzantine power in Italy, from the end of the 6th century to 751 A.D., when the last Exarch was put to death by the Emperors enemies in Italy, the Lombards. ... Damnatio memoriae (Latin for damnation of memory, in the sense of removed from the remembrance) was a form of dishonor that could be passed by the Roman Senate upon traitors or others who brought discredit to the Roman Empire. ... The Lombards (Latin Langobardi, from which the alternative name Longobards found in older English texts), were a Germanic people originally from Scandinavia that entered the late Roman Empire. ... Ravenna is a city in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. ...

The column was recycled from its original earlier use supporting a column dedicated to Diocletian: the former inscription was chiselled away to provide a space for the present effusion. Emperor Diocletian Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus (245?–312?), born Diocles, was Roman Emperor as Diocletian from November 20, 284 to May 1, 305. ...

The column remains in situ. Its isolated, free-standing position among the ruins has always made it a landmark in the Forum, and it often appears in vedute and engravings. The rise in ground level due to erosion had completely buried the socle by the time Giuseppe Vasi and Giambattista Piranesi made engravings and etchings of the column in the mid-18th century. The River Thames from Somerset House: a classic veduta by Canaletto, 1747. ... Giovanni Battista (also Giambattista) Piranesi (4th October 1720 in Mogliano Veneto (near Treviso) - 9th November 1778 in Rome) was an Italian artist famous for his etchings of Rome and of fictitious and atmospheric prisons {Carceri dInvenzione). ...

References

• René Seindal, "The Column of Phocas"
• Encyclopaedia Romana "Column of Phocas"
• Christian Hülsen, 1906. The Roman Forum: Its History and Its Monuments "The Column of Phocas"