DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42499#0017
CHAP. IV.]
The Egyptian Obelisks.
5
monest test which was applied to Christians in the persecutions was
that of rendering to the Emperor, or refusing to render, this honour.
The obelisk of Seti I. and Rameses II. in the Piazza del Popolo,
was brought by Augustus at the same time with this, after the con-
quest of Egypt, to be set up on the spina of the Circus Maximus ;
and, like this, it bears the date B.c. io, when he held the Tribunician
power for the fourteenth time. On the Vatican obelisk there is an
inscription of Caligula dedicating it to “ the god Augustus, son of
the god Julius, and to the god Tiberius, son of the god Augustus
but it is now surmounted by the Cross.
The small obelisk which was set up by Bernini on the back of an
elephant in the Piazza della Minerva (from which Bernini himself had
the nickname of the Elephant) has upon it the cartouches of Apries or
Pharaoh-Hophra, who reigned from b.c. 588 to 569, and to whom,
in his second year, the Jews fled for protection, in spite of the warn-
ings of the Prophet Jeremiah, carrying the Prophet himself by force
with them. So it is a monument which dates from about the time of
the burning of the temple of Solomon, and the commencement of the
Babylonian captivity of seventy years, beginning from the capture
of Zedekiah on the extinction of the kingdom of Judah, and ending
with the fourth year of Darius son of Hystaspes, when the Altar
and Temple were restored. But as set up at Rome in its present
place, under Alexander VII., it marks the date of the completion of
the present church of S. Peter’s, which, for its magnificence, is for
Roman Catholics now something like what the temple of Solomon
was for the Jews. And, if we think of Roman history, then, while
the other eight obelisks mentioned above belong to ages far more
remote than the foundation of Rome, or even those of the founda-
tion of Alba or of Lavinium, more remote than the war of Troy, or
the earliest fables connected by Roman poets and historians with
their ancestry, the last two—the ninth, that is, of Psammeticus II.,
and the tenth, of Pharaoh-Hophra,—belong to the time of the
Roman kings ; that of Psammeticus II. (b.c. 594 to 588) to the time
of Tarquinius Priscus, the fifth king, who reigned from b.c. 637 to
579 : so it is contemporary with the construction of the walls of old
Rome, with the and with the lower dungeon of the Mamertine
Prison, which are all works ascribed to Servius Tullius: and the
obelisk of Pharaoh-Hophra (b.c. 588 to B.c. 569) belongs to the
time of the same king, Servius Tullius, who reigned from B.c. 579
to 535, or may be to one of the last years of his predecessor,
Tarquinius Priscus: and so we may associate it with the formation
The Egyptian Obelisks.
5
monest test which was applied to Christians in the persecutions was
that of rendering to the Emperor, or refusing to render, this honour.
The obelisk of Seti I. and Rameses II. in the Piazza del Popolo,
was brought by Augustus at the same time with this, after the con-
quest of Egypt, to be set up on the spina of the Circus Maximus ;
and, like this, it bears the date B.c. io, when he held the Tribunician
power for the fourteenth time. On the Vatican obelisk there is an
inscription of Caligula dedicating it to “ the god Augustus, son of
the god Julius, and to the god Tiberius, son of the god Augustus
but it is now surmounted by the Cross.
The small obelisk which was set up by Bernini on the back of an
elephant in the Piazza della Minerva (from which Bernini himself had
the nickname of the Elephant) has upon it the cartouches of Apries or
Pharaoh-Hophra, who reigned from b.c. 588 to 569, and to whom,
in his second year, the Jews fled for protection, in spite of the warn-
ings of the Prophet Jeremiah, carrying the Prophet himself by force
with them. So it is a monument which dates from about the time of
the burning of the temple of Solomon, and the commencement of the
Babylonian captivity of seventy years, beginning from the capture
of Zedekiah on the extinction of the kingdom of Judah, and ending
with the fourth year of Darius son of Hystaspes, when the Altar
and Temple were restored. But as set up at Rome in its present
place, under Alexander VII., it marks the date of the completion of
the present church of S. Peter’s, which, for its magnificence, is for
Roman Catholics now something like what the temple of Solomon
was for the Jews. And, if we think of Roman history, then, while
the other eight obelisks mentioned above belong to ages far more
remote than the foundation of Rome, or even those of the founda-
tion of Alba or of Lavinium, more remote than the war of Troy, or
the earliest fables connected by Roman poets and historians with
their ancestry, the last two—the ninth, that is, of Psammeticus II.,
and the tenth, of Pharaoh-Hophra,—belong to the time of the
Roman kings ; that of Psammeticus II. (b.c. 594 to 588) to the time
of Tarquinius Priscus, the fifth king, who reigned from b.c. 637 to
579 : so it is contemporary with the construction of the walls of old
Rome, with the and with the lower dungeon of the Mamertine
Prison, which are all works ascribed to Servius Tullius: and the
obelisk of Pharaoh-Hophra (b.c. 588 to B.c. 569) belongs to the
time of the same king, Servius Tullius, who reigned from B.c. 579
to 535, or may be to one of the last years of his predecessor,
Tarquinius Priscus: and so we may associate it with the formation