Res Gestae 17
Res Gestae: Ammianus Marcellinus (Book 17)
Web Publication by Mountain Man Graphics, Australia

Res Gestae: Ammianus Marcellinus (Book 17)

The text of this book is not yet completely available here.
The following is an extract only ...

It deals with the Obelisk of Heliopolis, originally located
as Karnak, in Egypt.

LOEB (Rolfe)
Volume I, p.319

Ammianus Marcellinus
BOOK XVII


4. By order of Constantius Augustus an obelisk is
set up at Rome in the Circus Maximus; also an
account of obelisks and hieroglyphics

1. During these first steps towards the rehabilitation
of Gaul, and while Orutus was still conducting
his second prefecture, an obelisk was set up at
Rome in the Circus Maximus; and of it, since this
is a suitable place, I shall give a brief account.

2. The city of Thebes, founded in primitive times
and once famous for the stately structure of its walls
and for the hundred approaches formed by its gates,
was called by its builders from that feature
Hecatompylos, or Hundred-gated Thebes; and from this
name the province is to this day called Thebaid.

3. When Carthage was in its early career of wide
expansion, Punic generals destroyed Thebes by
unexpected attack; and when it was afterwards
rebuilt, Cambyses, that renown king of Persia,
all his life covetous of others' possessions, and cruel,
overran Egypt and attacked Thebes, in the hope
of carying off therefrom its enviable wealth, since he
did not spare even gifts made to  the gods.

4. But while he was exitedly running among the 
plundering troops, tripped by the looseness of his
garments, he fell headlong; and his own dagger,
which he had fastened to his right thigh, was
unsheathed by the sudden force of the fall and
wounded him almost mortally.

5. Again long afterwards,
when Octavian was ruling Rome, Cornelius Gallus,
procurator of Egypt, drained the city by extensive
embezzlements; and when on his return he was
accused of peculation and the robbery of the province, 
in his fear of the bitterly exasperated nobility,
to whom the emperor had commited the investigation
of the case, he drew his sword and fell upon it.
He was (if I am right in so thinking) the poet Gallus,
whom Virgil laments in a way in the latter part of the
Bucolics and celebrates in gentle verse.

6. In this city, amidst mighty shrines and colossal
works of various kinds, which depict the likeness of
the Egyptian deities, we have seen many obelisks,
and others prostrate and broken, which kings of long
ago, when they had subdued foreign nations in war
or were proud of the prosperous condition of their
realms, hewed out of the veins of the mountains
which they sought for even among the remotest
dwellers on the globe, set up, and in their religious
devotion dedicated to the gods of heaven.

7. Now an obelisk is very hard stone, rising gradually
somewhat in the form of a turning post to a 
lofty height; little by little it grows slenderer,
to imitate a sunbeam; it is four-sided, tapers
to a narrow point, and is polished by the workman's hand.

8. Now the infinite carvings of 
characters called hieroglyphs, which we see cut
into it on every side, have been made known by an
ancient authority of primeval wisdom.

9. For by engaving many kinds of birds and beasts, even of
another world, in order that the memory of their
achievements might the more widely reach generations
of a subsequent age, they registered the vows
of kings, either promised or performed.

10. For not as nowadays, when a fixed and easy series of letters
express whatever the mind of man may conceive,
did the ancient Egyptian also write; but individual
characters stood for individual nouns and verbs;
and sometime meant whole phrases.

11. The principle of this thing for the time will suffice to
illustrate with these two examples: by a vulture
they represented the word "nature", because, as natural
history records, no males can be found among these
birds; and under the figure of the bee making honey
they designate "a king", showing by this imagery
that in a ruler sweetness should be combined with
a sting as well; and there are many similar instances.

12. And because sychophants, after their fashion,
kept puffing up Constantius and endlessly dinning it
into his ears that, whereas Octavius Augustus
had brought over two obelisks from the cit of 
Heliopolis in Egypt, one of which was set up in 
the Circus Maximus, the other in the Campus
Martius, as for this one recently brought in, he
neither ventured to meddle with it nor move it,
overawed by the difficulties caused by its size - let
me inform those who do not know it that that early
emperor, after bringing over several obelisks,
passed by this one and left it untouched because
it was consecrated as a special gift to the Sun God,
and because being placed in the sacred part of his
sumptous temple, which might not be profaned,
there it towered aloft like the peak of the world.

13. But Constantine, making little account of that,
tore the huge mass from its foundations; and
since he rightly thought he was committing no
sacrilege if he took this marvel from one temple
and consecrated it at Rome, that is to say, in
the temple of the whole world, he let it lie for a
long time, while the things necessary for its transfer
were bing provided. And when it had been 
conveyed down the channel of the Nile and landed
at Alexandria, a ship of a size hitherto unknown was
constructed, to be rowed by three hundred oarsmen.

14. After these provisions, the aforesaid emperor
departed this life and the urgency of the enterprise
waned, but at last the obelisk was loaded on the
ship, after long delay, and brought over the sea and
up the channel of the Tiber, which seemed to fear
that it could hardly forward over the difficulties of its
outward course to the walls of its foster-child the gift
which the almost unknown Nile had sent.  But it
was brought to the vicus Alexandri distant three
miles from the city.  There is was put on cradles
and carefully drawn through the Ostian Gate and by
the Piscina Publica and brought into the Circus Maximus.

15. After this there remained only the
rising, which it was thought could be accomplished
only with great difficulty, perhaps not at all. But
it was done in the following manner: to tall beams
which were brought and raised on end (so that you
would see a very grove of derricks) were fastened
long and heavy ropes in the likeness of a manifold
web hiding the sky with their excessive numbers.
To these was attached that veritable mountain
engraved over with written characters, and it was
gradually drawn up on hight through the empty
air, and after handing for a long time while many
thousand men turned wheels resembling millstones,
it was finally placed in the middle of the circus
and capped by a bronze globe gleaming with gold leaf;
this was immediately struck by a bolt of the 
divine fire and therefore removed and replaced
by a bronze figure of a torch, likewise overlaid
with gold foil and glowing like a mass of flame.

16. And subsequent generations have brought over 
other obelisks, of which one was set up on the
Vatican, another in the gardens of Sallust, and two
at the mausoleum of Augustus.

17. Now the text 
of the characters cut upon the ancient obelisk which
we see in the Circus I add below in the Greek
translation, following the work of Hermapion. The
translation of the first line, beginning on the South
side, reads as follows:

FIRST LINE

18. The Sun speaks to King Ramestes.
I have granted to thee that thou 
shouldst with joy rule over the whole earth,
thou whom the Sun loveth - and powerful Apollo, lover
of truth, son of Heron, god-born, creator of the
world, whom the Sun hath chosen, the doughty
son of Mars, King Ramestes. Unto him the whole
earth is made subject through his valour and boldness.
King Ramastes, eternal child of the Sun."

SECOND LINE

19. "Mighty Apollo, seated upon truth, Lord of
the Diadem, who hath gloroiusly honoured Egypt
as his peculiar possession, who hath beautiful Heliopolis,
created the rest of the world, and adorned
with manifold honours the Gods erected in Heliopolis -
he whom the Sun loveth."

THIRD LINE

20.  "Mighty Apollo, child of the sun, all-radiant,
whom the Sun hath chosen and valiant Mars endowed;
whose blessings shall endure forever; whom
Ammon loveth, as having filled his temple with the
good fruits of the date palm; unto whom the Gods
have given length of life.
	"Apollo, mighty son of Heron, Ramestes, king
of the world, who hath preserved Egypt by conquering
other nations; whom the Sun loveth; to who the Gods
have granted length of life; Lord of the world,
Ramestes ever-living."

WEST SIDE, SECOND LINE

21. "The Sun, great God, Lord of Heaven;
I have granted to thee life hitherto unforseen.
Apollo the mighty, Lord incomparable of the Diadem,
who hath set up statues of the Gods in this kingdom,
ruler of Egypt, and he ardorned Heliopolis just as
he did the Sun himself, Ruler of Heaven; he finished
a good work, child of the Sun, the king ever-living."

THIRD LINE

22. "The God Sun, Lord of Heaven, to Ramastes
the king.  I have granted to thee the rule and the
authority over all men; whom Apollo, lover of truth,
Lord of seasons, and Vulcan, father of the Gods,
hath chosen for Mars. King all-gladdening, child of
the Sun and beloved of the Sun."

EAST SIDE, FIRST LINE

23. "The great God of Heliopolis, heavenly,
mighty Apollo, son of Heron, whom the Sun hath
loved, whom the Gods hath honoured, the ruler over
all the earth, whom the SUn hath chosen, a king
valiant for Mars, whom Ammon loveth, and he that
is all-radiant, having set apart the king eternal";
and so on.

The great obelisk described above by Marcellinus above is now 
located in the Piazza di San Giovanni in Laterano, Rome, Italy.

Its origination is traced to the Pharaoh Tuthmosis III (The 18th 
Dynasty, reigned B.C. 1504-1450) - Tuthmosis IV (reigned B.C. 1392-1382).
In height it is 32.18 meters or 105.6 feet, but was formerly 36 meters, 
being reduced by a cut when moving from Circus Maximus circa. 1587 CE.
The pedestal adds another 6 meters, totalling 42 meters including the 
pedestal. (Other sources say 45.7 meters, 47 meters). Its weight has
been estimated between 230 and 455 tons, and was made of Red granite. 

One account of how and when it was moved from where Marcellinus reports
it, to where it now stands is as follows:

   "...At some unknown date and by some unknown cause, the obelisk fell. 
   There is no record of this because people seem to have had lost interest 
   in Egyptian culture including obelisk. It was not until the 16th century 
   that the interest in Egypt returned, and Pope Sixtus V ordered a search 
   for it. It was found in 1587, broken into three pieces, some 23 feet down 
   in the site of former Circus Maximus. On August 3, 1588, after more than 
   a year of effort, this obelisk was raised in the Piazza di San Giovanni 
   in Laterano, where it has stood ever since, a Christian cross at its apex."

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