Column of Phocas

Even at street level today, one column in the Roman Forum still catches the eye: a fluted shaft rising alone, a genuinely impressive-looking monument known as the Column of Phocas. The name comes from Phocas, a Byzantine emperor who seized power in 602 and ruled until his death in 610, whose statue was placed on top of the column in 608. The column itself is much older than its famous occupant: it was probably built in the fourth century, attributed either to the late reign of Diocletian or to that of Constantine, when it would have carried a statue of one of those emperors instead.

Approaching the Forum from the Argiletum, visitors would see the column beautifully from a distance. That sightline has held since antiquity: this stretch of the Argiletum predates the Forum Transitorium built at its far end, and the wheel ruts worn into its ancient paving are still visible where the road meets the Forum.

The monument itself stands in front of the Rostra in the Forum: a fluted Corinthian column of white marble, over 13 metres tall, that once carried a gilt bronze statue of Phocas. According to the inscription on its marble base, it was formally erected in 608 CE by Smaragdus, the exarch of Italy, in honor of Phocas, emperor of the East. But Smaragdus did not build the column itself, he simply added the statue and built a pyramid of nine tufa steps around an existing pedestal, recycling stone blocks taken from other structures. The steps on the north and east sides were later removed, in 1903. The pedestal underneath was itself probably contemporary with a row of seven similar bases that once flanked the Sacred Way opposite the Basilica Julia, centuries older than the emperor whose statue it eventually carried.

The Column of Phocas was never meant to stand alone. Together with the honorary columns along the Sacred Way and those on the Rostra, it was part of a larger display meant to show the power and greatness of the emperor. Today, the column can seem out of place among the ruins because we no longer see it as part of the grand arrangement it once belonged to.

FURTHER READING

1. Ashby, Thomas. “Recent Excavations in Rome. (Continued).” The Classical Review, vol. 15, no. 2, 1901, pp. 136–42. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/694502. Accessed 11 July 2026.
2. Coarelli, Filippo, et al. “Roman Forum.” Rome and Environs: An Archaeological Guide, 1st ed., University of California Press, 2014, pp. 43–101. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt5vk043.7. Accessed 11 July 2026.
3. Kalas, Gregor. The Restoration of the Roman Forum in Late Antiquity: Transforming Public Space. University of Texas Press, 2015.
4. Platner, Samuel, and Thomas Ashby. A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. Oxford University Press, 1929.