DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4023#0147
OF THE OBELISKS. jot
A third at Rome in the Vatican circus os the princes Caligula and Nero,,
was made in imitation os that, which Nuncoreus the fon os Sesostris had made.
There remains alfo another, erected by the same, os an hundred cubits, which,
upon his fight having been restored, in obedience to the oracle, he dedicated to
the fun." Plin. Nat. Hisi. lib. xxxvi. cap. 8, 9, n. edit. Harduin. foL
Th e sollowing dissertation upon obelisks, is taken srom the histoire de Vaca*
<*emie 7'oyale des infcriptions et belles lettres^ vol. i.
" Sesostris, king os Egypt, aster having made himsels master of the
greateft part of Alia and Europe, applied himfelf, towards the end of his reign,
to render his fubjects happy, and to make publick works for the ornament of
the country, and for the advantage of the people. He caufed feveral forts of
them to be made; but the mod considerable were temples, which he built in
aH the cities, and which he confecrated to the god, that each city particularly
adored. In the building of thefe great edifices he would not make ufe of the
Egyptians, his ancient fubjects; but employed only the captives os thofe nations,
that he had conquered. For this reafon he ordered this infcription to be placed
upon the srontispiece os thofe temples: No Egyptian has been employed on this
^ork. He caufed six statues to be erected before the temple of Vulcan, in the
Clty os Memphis, one sor himfelf, one for the queen his wise, and the sour
others sor his sour sons. The two former were thirty cubits high, and the others
twenty. They were each of a fingle stone. Thefe works, though confidera-
ble in themfelves, appear trisling, when compared with two obelisks that
the same king erected in the city os Heliopolis; and it is on occasion os thefe
two obelisks, and of some others, which history insorms us to have been made
°y the fuccessbrs os Sesostris, that M. Pouchard gave, in one thoufand seven
hundred and one, fome hiftorical reflections upon the monuments of this kind
that are ftill fubiifting, or the memory os which has been preferved to our
^mes.
The two obelisks os Sesostris are of a very hard stone, taken out of the
Harries of the city os Syene in Egypt, entirely of one piece, and each of one
hundred and twenty cubits in height.
The emperor Augustus, aster he had reduced Egypt into a province, hav-
Ing got thefe two obelisks to be transported to Rome, caused one os them to be
erected in the great Circus, and the other in the sield of Mars. The same era-
Peror had this infcription placed on the bafis :
CAES. D. F. AVGVSTVS PONT. MAX.
IMP. XII. COS. XI. TRIB. POT. XV. AEGYPTO
IN POTESTATEM POPVLI ROM. REDAC.
SOLI DONVM DEDIT.
T^e body os these obelisks is quite silled with hieroglyphical sigures, or
ymbolical writings, which mark, according to Diodorus, the great power os
D d this
A third at Rome in the Vatican circus os the princes Caligula and Nero,,
was made in imitation os that, which Nuncoreus the fon os Sesostris had made.
There remains alfo another, erected by the same, os an hundred cubits, which,
upon his fight having been restored, in obedience to the oracle, he dedicated to
the fun." Plin. Nat. Hisi. lib. xxxvi. cap. 8, 9, n. edit. Harduin. foL
Th e sollowing dissertation upon obelisks, is taken srom the histoire de Vaca*
<*emie 7'oyale des infcriptions et belles lettres^ vol. i.
" Sesostris, king os Egypt, aster having made himsels master of the
greateft part of Alia and Europe, applied himfelf, towards the end of his reign,
to render his fubjects happy, and to make publick works for the ornament of
the country, and for the advantage of the people. He caufed feveral forts of
them to be made; but the mod considerable were temples, which he built in
aH the cities, and which he confecrated to the god, that each city particularly
adored. In the building of thefe great edifices he would not make ufe of the
Egyptians, his ancient fubjects; but employed only the captives os thofe nations,
that he had conquered. For this reafon he ordered this infcription to be placed
upon the srontispiece os thofe temples: No Egyptian has been employed on this
^ork. He caufed six statues to be erected before the temple of Vulcan, in the
Clty os Memphis, one sor himfelf, one for the queen his wise, and the sour
others sor his sour sons. The two former were thirty cubits high, and the others
twenty. They were each of a fingle stone. Thefe works, though confidera-
ble in themfelves, appear trisling, when compared with two obelisks that
the same king erected in the city os Heliopolis; and it is on occasion os thefe
two obelisks, and of some others, which history insorms us to have been made
°y the fuccessbrs os Sesostris, that M. Pouchard gave, in one thoufand seven
hundred and one, fome hiftorical reflections upon the monuments of this kind
that are ftill fubiifting, or the memory os which has been preferved to our
^mes.
The two obelisks os Sesostris are of a very hard stone, taken out of the
Harries of the city os Syene in Egypt, entirely of one piece, and each of one
hundred and twenty cubits in height.
The emperor Augustus, aster he had reduced Egypt into a province, hav-
Ing got thefe two obelisks to be transported to Rome, caused one os them to be
erected in the great Circus, and the other in the sield of Mars. The same era-
Peror had this infcription placed on the bafis :
CAES. D. F. AVGVSTVS PONT. MAX.
IMP. XII. COS. XI. TRIB. POT. XV. AEGYPTO
IN POTESTATEM POPVLI ROM. REDAC.
SOLI DONVM DEDIT.
T^e body os these obelisks is quite silled with hieroglyphical sigures, or
ymbolical writings, which mark, according to Diodorus, the great power os
D d this