{"id":14380,"date":"2015-04-04T21:21:58","date_gmt":"2015-04-04T20:21:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/?p=14380"},"modified":"2015-04-04T21:21:58","modified_gmt":"2015-04-04T20:21:58","slug":"photos-of-the-base-of-the-colossus-of-nero-and-mussolinis-alterations-to-the-colosseum-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/2015\/04\/04\/photos-of-the-base-of-the-colossus-of-nero-and-mussolinis-alterations-to-the-colosseum-area\/","title":{"rendered":"Photos of the base of the Colossus of Nero, and Mussolini’s alterations to the Colosseum area"},"content":{"rendered":"

While looking for material about the Meta Sudans, I stumbled across something which very few people know.<\/p>\n

Most people will know that the Colosseum is named after a colossal statue of Nero that used to stand nearby.\u00a0 Originally cast in bronze and stood outside the Domus Aurea, it was changed into a statue of the Sun by the Flavians, and moved slightly to stand near their new amphitheatre.<\/p>\n

The bronze status is long gone.\u00a0 But how many people know that the base on which it stood still existed well into the 20th century?\u00a0 I certainly did not!\u00a0 Indeed there are photographs of it.\u00a0 It was demolished by Mussolini, in the course of constructing the Via del foro imperiali.<\/p>\n

A modern Italian website<\/a> identifies its location in red:<\/p>\n

\"Location<\/a>
Location of the base of the Colossus in red.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Let’s have a look at some of those photographs.<\/p>\n

First, an aerial photograph from the Beniculturali website<\/a>, taken about 1895:<\/p>\n

\"Aerial<\/a>
Aerial view of the valley of the Amphitheatre with the base of the Colossus of Nero, the Meta Sudans and the Arch of Constantine in a picture from about 1895.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the middle of the left hand side\u00a0of the Colosseum is a dark rectangular base.\u00a0 This is where the Colossus stood.\u00a0 Note that the modern Via del foro imperiali is not on this photograph – it had yet to be built.<\/p>\n

Next, a slightly fuzzy ground level photograph from the Wellcome Library, from about 1929:<\/p>\n

\"M0000104<\/a>
Wellcome Library M0000104. Base of the Colossus of Nero, Coliseum, Rome, Italy. 1929<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The hill behind the base is the Velian Hill, and it isn’t there today: Mussolini bulldozed it.\u00a0 If we stood in the same location today, we would have the Colosseum at our back, and a view straight down the Via del Foro Imperiali to the Victor Emmanuel monument in front of us.<\/p>\n

Next a couple of photos of the base from different angles, from a montage found online here<\/a>\u00a0in a set of flash cards:<\/p>\n

\"two_photos\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A look at the area indicates just what alterations Mussolini made.\u00a0 This photograph shows that the Colosseum actually stood in a hollow of the hills, approached from the Circus Maximus:<\/p>\n

\"colosseum_before_via_del_foro_imperiali\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The whole area was rather different:<\/p>\n

\"aerial_of_whole_area\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Mussolini certainly changed all that.<\/p>\n

Some may wish to know what the Colossus itself looked like.\u00a0 We have a medallion of Gordian III, which we already used for the Meta Sudans, which shows the Colossus standing behind it (via here<\/a>):<\/p>\n

\"Medallion<\/a>
Medallion of Gordian III, ca. 240, depicting the Colosseum and Meta Sudans<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Better than this is a depiction in a gem:<\/p>\n

\"colossus_gem\"<\/a>
Amethyst gem (1-2nd c. AD) in the Staatliche Museen, Berlin. Antikensammlung inv. FG 2665: Bergmann 1993, 11, pl. 2.3. Via Albertson, p.106-7.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There is a useful 2001 article by Albertson on the Colossus which is available on JSTOR.[ref]Fred C. Albertson, ‘Zenodorus’s “Colossus of Nero”‘, Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome,\u00a0<\/cite>46 (2001), pp. 95-118.\u00a0 Online here<\/a>.[\/ref]\u00a0 He calculates that the Colossus was about 100 feet tall (31.524 m).\u00a0 The statue had a radiate crown, was nude, with the right hip jutting to the side, and the right arm supported by a rudder, while the\u00a0 left leans on a pillar.\u00a0\u00a0 A globe supports the rudder.<\/p>\n

The National Geographic reconstruction<\/a> of the statue and base looks fairly accurate, therefore (although the background should be the Velian Hill, as we have seen):<\/p>\n

\"National<\/a>
National Geographic reconstruction of the Colossus of Nero<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While looking for material about the Meta Sudans, I stumbled across something which very few people know. Most people will know that the Colosseum is named after a colossal statue of Nero that used to stand nearby.\u00a0 Originally cast in bronze and stood outside the Domus Aurea, it was changed into a statue of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[19],"tags":[453,454,1122,1452,1737],"class_list":["post-14380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-from-my-diary-announcements","tag-colosseum","tag-colossus-of-nero","tag-meta-sudans","tag-rome","tag-via-del-foro-imperialia"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14380\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}