blindness. It was removed by Pope
Sixtus V. in 1586, under the celebrated architect, Fontana, to the centre
of the area before St. Peter's, in the Vatican, not far from its former
position. This obelisk is a solid piece of red granite, without
hieroglyphics, and, with the pedestal and ornaments at the top, is 182
feet high. The height of the obelisk itself is 113 palms, or 84 feet.]

[Footnote 511: Pliny relates some curious particulars of this ship: "A
fir tree of prodigious size was used in the vessel which, by the command
of Caligula, brought the obelisk from Egypt, which stands in the Vatican
Circus, and four blocks of the same sort of stone to support it. Nothing
certainly ever appeared on the sea more astonishing than this vessel;
120,000 bushels of lentiles served for its ballast; the length of it
nearly equalled all the left side of the port of Ostia; for it was sent
there by the emperor Claudius. The thickness of the tree was as much as
four men could embrace with their arms."--B. xvi. c. 76.]

[Footnote 512: See AUGUSTUS, c. xxxi. It appears to have been often a
prey to the flames, TIBERIUS, c. xli.; CALIGULA, c. xx.]

[Footnote 513: Contrary to the usual custom of rising and saluting the
emperor without acclamations.]

[Footnote 514: A.U.C. 800.]

[Footnote 515: The Secular Games had been celebrated by Augustus, A.U.C.
736. See c. xxxi. of his life, and the Epode of Horace written on the
occasion.]

[Footnote 516: In the circus which he had himself built.]

[Footnote 517: Tophina; Tuffo, a porous stone of volcanic origin, which
abounds in the neighbourhood of Rome, and, with the Travertino, is
employed in all common buildings.]

[Footnote 518: In compliment to the troops to whom he owed his elevation:
see before, c. xi.]

[Footnote 519: Palumbus was a gladiator: and Claudius condescended to pun
upon his name, which signifies a wood-pigeon.]

[Footnote 520: See before, c. xvii. Described is c. xx and note.]

[Footnote 521: See before, AUGUSTUS, c. xxxiv.]

[Footnote 522: To reward his able services as commander of the army in
Britain. See before, c. xvii.]

[Footnote 523: German tribes between the Elbe and the Weser, whose chief
seat was at Bremen, and others about Ems or Lueneburg.]

[Footnote 524: This island in the Tiber, opposite the Campus Martius, is
said to have been formed by the corn sown by Tarquin the Proud on that
consecrated field, and cut down and thrown by or