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. 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.
The bronze status is long gone. But how many people know that the base on which it stood still existed well into the 20th century? I certainly did not! Indeed there are photographs of it. It was demolished by Mussolini, in the course of constructing the Via del foro imperiali.
A modern Italian website identifies its location in red:
Let’s have a look at some of those photographs.
First, an aerial photograph from the Beniculturali website, taken about 1895:
In the middle of the left hand side of the Colosseum is a dark rectangular base. This is where the Colossus stood. Note that the modern Via del foro imperiali is not on this photograph – it had yet to be built.
Next, a slightly fuzzy ground level photograph from the Wellcome Library, from about 1929:
The hill behind the base is the Velian Hill, and it isn’t there today: Mussolini bulldozed it. 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.
Next a couple of photos of the base from different angles, from a montage found online here in a set of flash cards:
A look at the area indicates just what alterations Mussolini made. This photograph shows that the Colosseum actually stood in a hollow of the hills, approached from the Circus Maximus:
The whole area was rather different:
Mussolini certainly changed all that.
Some may wish to know what the Colossus itself looked like. We have a medallion of Gordian III, which we already used for the Meta Sudans, which shows the Colossus standing behind it (via here):
Better than this is a depiction in a gem:
There is a useful 2001 article by Albertson on the Colossus which is available on JSTOR.[1] He calculates that the Colossus was about 100 feet tall (31.524 m). 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 left leans on a pillar. A globe supports the rudder.
The National Geographic reconstruction of the statue and base looks fairly accurate, therefore (although the background should be the Velian Hill, as we have seen):
I’m glad you told us that’s a rudder, because I kept wondering why Nero the Sun brought an umbrella….
The reconstruction painting certainly does a good job of making Nero look like a member of the Caesar family.
LOL! That’s what I learned from Albertson, anyway! It DOES look like an umbrella!
The suggestion is that the head was not changed, but just had rays added. So the beard is Neronian.
Thanks for all this info! I was looking for information about the god the statue became to represent after the Flavian modification. Is it Sol? Is it Apollo? Is Sol and Apollo the same?
A documentary mentioned it was Apollo but I read it was Sol.
I don’t know offhand … sorry.
The Via Sacra. Excavations in Rome from 1438 to 1882
By John Henry Parker
See page 28
https://books.google.com/books?id=Kx8XAAAAYAAJ&dq=rome+colossus+base&source=gbs_navlinks_s
Thank you!!! Will look.
The 1895 aerial photo is fantastic!! The base and the meta sudans in the same photo… Before Mussolini!!! LOVE this stuff!! (Photo from a hot-air balloon??)
I think it must be. Yes, it’s amazing to see this stuff!
Thank you for writing this article..my daughter is writing a blog / Homeschool report on this. May we quote you and the comments left here pls?
Yes, of course. Anybody may quote anything on this blog.
Thank you for this article detailing the base of the statue. With regards to the background of the National Geographic rendering, the statue was originally located within an Atrium at an entry to the Nero’s Domus Aurea (his Imperial Villa version 2.0). The relocation supposedly required 24 elephants (what a ridiculous image), and occurred during Hadrians rule (therefore after Vespasian made the addition of the radiate crown). This is a possible explanation for the background not being the Velian Hill, and would still align with how the Colossus is presented.
As I understand, its previous position was technically on the hill, as it was moved for the construction of the Temple of Venus and Roma. Various sources describe its location as being within a forecourt or vestibule (Suetonius, depending on translation) or an atrium. Regardless it was at an entry to his palace, likely somewhere on the Velian Hill.
Interesting to note, after its move to the Colosseum, Commodus, during his Megalomania, replaced the head of the Colossus with his one resembling himself, while giving it a club and placing a lion (also of bronze) at his feet. This was in an effort to emulate Hercules, who it is thought Commodus fancied himself a reincarnation of. These changes were reverted after his death, but at one point, the base in this article was also home to a bronze lion.
Commodus also supposedly inscribed the base with the phrase ‘Champion of secutores; only left-handed fighter to conquer twelve times one thousand men.’ (again sources differ, but that is per Dio, Epitome LXXIII.22.3). Commodus was left-handed and very proud of the fact.
Thank you for this article detailing the base of the statue. With regards to the background of the National Geographic rendering, the statue was originally located within an Atrium at an entry to the Nero’s Domus Aurea (his Imperial Villa version 2.0). The relocation supposedly required 24 elephants (what a ridiculous image), and occurred during Hadrians rule (therefore after Vespasian made the addition of the radiate crown). This is a possible explanation for the background not being the Velian Hill, and would still align with the way it is presented.
As I understand, its previous position was technically on the hill, as it was moved for the construction of the Temple of Venus and Roma. Various sources describe its location as being within a forecourt or vestibule (Suetonius, depending on translation) or an atrium. Regardless it was at an entry to his palace, likely somewhere on the Velian Hill.
Interesting to note, after its move to the Colosseum, Commodus, during his Megalomania, replaced the head of the Colossus with his one resembling himself, while giving it a club and placing a lion (also of bronze) at his feet. This was in an effort to emulate Hercules, who it is thought Commodus fancied himself a reincarnation of. These changes were reverted after his death, but at one point, the base in this article was also home to a bronze lion.
Commodus also supposedly inscribed the base with the phrase ‘Champion of secutores; only left-handed fighter to conquer twelve times one thousand men.’ (again sources differ, but that is per Dio, Epitome LXXIII.22.3). Commodus was left-handed and very proud of the fact.
This seems to have come through twice? – I’ve deleted the second one.
Strange it went through twice. Regardless the point still stands that despite the last line of the article, the National Geographic article is likely at an okay background, if the time period is prior to the moving to the Colosseum.
I was thinking, it sounds silly but cant the Meta Sudans and the Colossus of Nero Base be rebuilt if we found where Benito Mussolini dumped the rumble?
It’s a reasonable question! I have no idea what the answer is, tho. I suspect there is much, much more material on this in Italian.