Column of Marcus Aurelius: The Philosopher's War
Why is it significant?
In the middle of the square, a column of white marble rises about thirty metres, wrapped in a spiral of carved soldiers, with a bronze Saint Paul standing on top. The palace behind it, Palazzo Chigi, is the office of the Italian prime minister, so expect police, cameras and the occasional protest.
Key Facts
| Place | Column of Marcus Aurelius: The Philosopher's War |
|---|---|
| Address | Piazza Colonna, 00187 Roma RM, Italy |
| Geo Coordinates | 41.90080, 12.48000 |
| Part of Walk | Emperors Underfoot: Augustus and the Buried Campus Martius of Rome |
| Generated | Generated |
In the middle of the square, a column of white marble rises about thirty metres, wrapped in a spiral of carved soldiers, with a bronze Saint Paul standing on top. The palace behind it, Palazzo Chigi, is the office of the Italian prime minister, so expect police, cameras and the occasional protest.
The column honours Marcus Aurelius, the philosopher-emperor who wrote the Meditations, and who spent most of his last years not philosophising but fighting Germanic and Sarmatian tribes along the Danube. He died in 180, and the column was finished by around 193. It copies Trajan's Column near the Forum, but look closely and the mood is different: the figures are cut deeper, the faces are more dramatic, and the war is far crueller. Villages burn, prisoners are executed, women and children are dragged away.
Somewhere on the spiral, if your eyes are good, is the famous Rain Miracle: a Roman army trapped and dying of thirst, saved by a sudden storm, shown as a huge winged rain god with water streaming from his arms and beard. Pagan writers credited the gods, or an Egyptian magician travelling with the army. Christian writers later insisted it was the prayers of Christian soldiers. Everyone wanted the credit for that cloud.
In 1589 Pope Sixtus the Fifth had the column restored by Domenico Fontana and put Saint Paul on top, as a pair to Saint Peter on Trajan's Column. But the new inscription on the base got the emperor wrong: it dedicates the column to Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius's adoptive father. For centuries the monument was known by the wrong name, and the mistake is still carved there in stone.
The base you see was largely reworked in that restoration, and the ground the Romans walked on lies some way below today's paving. Every century since has added its layer of rubble and river mud, lifting the city a little higher over its emperors. Now walk a few steps west, along the side of the parliament building, into Piazza di Montecitorio, where a red granite obelisk once told the time for Augustus.