About this piece
back to topAn antique Grand Tour marble and bronze sculpture of Phocas.
Surmounted by a bronze figure, inscribed with latin to the pedestal, and set on a stepped levanto marble base, this antique column is more than 150 years old and showcases incredible levels of detail.
This sculpture is a piece of Roman history to be appreciated on display in a period property looking to add a new decorative piece with Neoclassical flair.
Column of Phocas
This striking depiction is after the Colonnadi Foca the giallo antico Corinthian column of Phocas, a Roman monumental column that was the last addition in the Roman Forum of Rome, Italy.
On August 1, 608, it was dedicated in honour of the eastern Roman emperor Phocas, who had murdered his predecessor to take the throne in AD 602.
The inscription to the pedestal, which can also be seen on this marble depiction, reads:
‘To the best, most clement and pious ruler, our lord Phocas the perpetual emperor, crowned by God, the forever august triumphator, did Smaragdus, former praepositus sacri palatii and patricius and Exarch of Italy, devoted to His Clemency for the innumerable benefactions of His Piousness and for the peace acquired for Italy and its freedom preserved, this statue of His Majesty, blinking from the splendor of gold here on this tallest column for his eternal glory erect and dedicate, on the first day of the month of August, in the eleventh indiction in the fifth year after the consulate of His Piousness.’
However, just two years after this column was erected, he was killed and the throne was overtook once again.
