A Column for a Usurper
Who Was Phocas
Phocas was Eastern Roman Emperor from 602 to 610 AD. He came to power through one of the most violent transitions in late antique history: he led a mutiny of the Danubian army against Emperor Maurice, had Maurice and his entire family decapitated before his eyes, and proclaimed himself emperor on 23 November 602.
His eight-year reign was marked by ferocious persecution of political opponents, the progressive loss of eastern territories to Sassanid Persia, and a government widely condemned as tyrannical by later Byzantine sources. Pope Gregory the Great initially hailed him as a liberator; his successor Boniface IV would receive from him a gift that would permanently change a Roman monument.
In 610, a new pretender to the throne — Heraclius, son of the Exarch of Africa — arrived at Constantinople with his fleet. Phocas was deposed, tortured, beheaded, and his remains burned.
The Gift of the Pantheon
In 609 AD, one year before he was killed, Phocas donated the Pantheon to Pope Boniface IV. The pagan basilica was consecrated as a Christian church on 13 May 609 AD — the date still celebrated today as the feast of All Saints. This act was the most important in the preservation history of the Pantheon: by transforming it into a place of Christian worship, Phocas and Boniface saved it from the systematic spoliation that would otherwise have destroyed the building.
The Column: History and Structure
The Dedication
The Column of Phocas was erected on 1 August 608 AD by the Exarch of Italy Smaragdus — the military governor of Byzantine Italy based in Ravenna. The dedication is known from the inscription on the base, rediscovered in 1813 during works funded by the Duchess of Devonshire:
SMARAGDUS EX PRAEPOSITO ET PATRICIUS ET EXARCHUS ITALIAE DEVOTI EIUS CLEMENTIAE ET PACI / HANC STATUAM FELICISSIMI ET PIISSIMI IMPERATORIS DOMNI FLAVI FOCAE PERPETVI AVGVSTI AD VENERANDAM EIVS PERHENNEM GLORIAM SVBLIMAVIT / PRIMO DIE MENSIS AVGVSTI INDICT. XI P.C. FOCAE IMP. / ANN. V
Translation: "Smaragdus, former praepositus, patrician and Exarch of Italy, devoted to his clemency and peace, raised this statue of the most fortunate and most pious emperor, Lord Flavius Phocas, perpetual Augustus, to venerate his eternal glory, on the first day of the month of August, indiction XI, in year V of the post-consulate of Emperor Phocas."
A Column of Reuse
The column itself is older than the dedication: it is a shaft of Luna marble (from Carrara) of the 2nd or 3rd century AD, removed from another building and reused. This practice of spolia was common in late antiquity: marble columns were precious materials, and the Column of Phocas, like so many late antique monuments, was built with second-hand material.
The column stands approximately 13.6 metres tall with its Corinthian capital. It rises on a tall brick pedestal, itself on a stepped base. A gilded statue of Phocas originally stood at the top — now lost, probably toppled or melted down after his fall in 610.
Position in the Forum
The column was erected in front of the Rostra, on the central axis of the Roman Forum, a short distance from the three columns of the Temple of Castor. It is the first thing one sees arriving from the Arch of Septimius Severus toward the Via Sacra.
The choice of position was not accidental: the Roman Forum was still, in 608, the most symbolically charged space in Rome. Planting a column for the Eastern emperor in that space was a precise political act: signalling that Constantinople was still the centre of the empire and that Italy, despite the Lombards and the crises, was still formally part of the Eastern Roman Empire.
The Column in the Middle Ages: Oblivion and Byron
"The Nameless Column"
After the fall of Phocas, the column remained standing, but its inscription was buried beneath the accumulation of debris that over the centuries progressively raised the floor level of the Forum. The base disappeared. Only the shaft and capital remained, rising above the rubble and fields that the Forum had become in the early Middle Ages.
For centuries the column stood there, isolated, without apparent context, and no one knew to whom it belonged or why it had been erected. It became one of the most mysterious elements of the Roman landscape — a spectral presence amid the ruins.
Byron and "The Nameless Column"
It was the Romantic poet Lord Byron who immortalised this mystery in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812), where he wrote of "the nameless column with the buried base." Byron's phrase perfectly captured the sense of a monument stripped of its meaning, a form without a readable history.
Byron's verse reflected the Romantic taste for ruin and fragment: not the complete monument in its classicising legibility, but the isolated piece, torn from its context, which evokes loss more vividly than the intact monument.
The Rediscovery of 1813
The year after the publication of Childe Harold, Duchess of Devonshire Elizabeth Cavendish funded excavations around the base of the column. The inscribed base emerged, and for the first time since the early Middle Ages it was possible to read who had erected the column and in whose honour. The "nameless column" finally had a name — even if that of a murdered emperor.
Historical Significance: The End of the Roman Forum
The Last Monument
The Column of Phocas is generally considered the last monument erected in the Roman Forum in antiquity. After 608 AD, nothing more is added to the Forum as an act of imperial or official patronage. The Forum would continue to be used — medieval churches would be built on it, stones extracted — but as a space of cultural and political production its season ends with this column.
It is a silent ending. There is no solemn act of closure. The column is erected, the statue installed, the inscription carved. And then nothing more. The Roman Forum would receive no further monuments.
The End of an Era
608 AD is also, in a broader sense, the date at which late antique Rome can be considered to have ended. In that same decade:
- The Lombards control most of northern and central Italy
- Pope Gregory the Great (†604) has already traced the outlines of a papal authority independent of Byzantium
- The classical heritage is being transmitted no longer by emperors but by monastic communities
- The Roman Forum is already partly abandoned — the last public functions take place in increasingly scattered buildings
The Column of Phocas is the swan song of imperial euergetism in Rome.
How to Visit the Column of Phocas
Location
The column stands in the open area of the Roman Forum, immediately in front of the Rostra, along the Via Sacra. It is visible from outside the Forum from Via dei Fori Imperiali, but its full impact is felt from inside.
What to Look For
The column: the shaft and Corinthian capital are intact. The column is taller than it appears from a distance — its 13.6 metres make it one of the tallest vertical elements in the Forum.
The inscribed base: the Latin inscription is legible on the front face of the pedestal. The quality of the carving is characteristically late antique — less refined than classical inscriptions.
The stepped base: the structure on which the column stands is visible around the base, with the reused blocks evident in the masonry.
Access
Included in the combined Colosseum–Forum–Palatine ticket (€18).
Visit the Column of Phocas with a Private Driver
The Column of Phocas stands at the heart of the Roman Forum, a few steps from the Rostra and the Arch of Septimius Severus.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Column of Phocas? The Column of Phocas is a single Corinthian column erected in 608 AD in the Roman Forum in honour of the Eastern Roman Emperor Phocas. It is the last monument added to the Forum in antiquity.
Why was the column erected? It was erected by the Exarch of Italy Smaragdus as a tribute to Emperor Phocas, probably in gratitude for — or in anticipation of — Phocas's gift of the Pantheon to Pope Boniface IV in 609 AD.
Who was Phocas? Phocas was Eastern Roman Emperor from 602 to 610 AD. A usurper who had overthrown Emperor Maurice, his eight-year reign was considered tyrannical by later sources. He was deposed and killed by Heraclius in 610.
How was the column's inscription rediscovered? The inscription on the base was buried beneath medieval debris. In 1813, excavations funded by the Duchess of Devonshire uncovered the base and inscription, solving the mystery of the "nameless column" immortalised by Byron in 1812.
Does Phocas's statue still exist? No. The gilded statue of Phocas that crowned the column disappeared after his deposition in 610 AD — probably toppled or melted down.
Article no. 57 — TIER S — MON-03 Roman Forum + Palatine Type: HISTORY Words: ~2,400