g up, one after
another, during the sixteenth century. The principal part of the shaft
was discovered in 1748, among the ruins beneath the choir of the
Church of San Lorenzo in Lucina. These portions were damaged in such a
way as to show clearly the action of fire, proving that the obelisk
had been destroyed in the great fire of 1084. Pope Pius VI. gathered
together the fragments, and with the aid of granite pieces taken from
the ruined column of Antoninus Pius, which stood in the neighbourhood,
he formed of these a whole shaft, which represents, as nearly as
possible, the original obelisk. It is seventy-two feet high, and is
surmounted by a globe and a small pyramid of bronze, which, along with
its pedestal, increases its height to one hundred and thirty-four
feet. A portion of the lines of the celebrated sun-dial, whose gnomon
it formed, was brought to light under the sacristy of San Lorenzo in
Lucina in 1463.

All the other obelisks in Rome belong to comparatively recent periods,
to the decadence of Egypt. None of them are of any great significance
to the student of archaeology. Several of them were executed in Egypt
by order of the Roman emperors, and are therefore not genuine but
imitation obelisks. Of this kind may be mentioned the Esquiline and
Quirinal obelisks, which were brought to Rome by the emperor Claudius,
and placed in the old Egyptian manner, one on each side of the
entrance to the great mausoleum of Augustus in the Campus Martius.
They are both destitute of hieroglyphics and are broken into several
pieces. One now stands on Monte Cavallo, in front of the great
Quirinal Palace, betwixt the two well-known gigantic groups of men and
horses, statues of Greek origin, supposed to be those of Castor and
Pollux, executed by Pheidias and Praxiteles; and the other in the
large open space in front of the great Basilica of Santa Maria
Maggiore. Another of these bastard obelisks occupies a commanding
position at the top of the Spanish Stairs, in front of the Church of
Trinita dei Monti. It stood originally on the spina of the circus of
Sallust, in his gardens, and is covered with hieroglyphics of the
rudest workmanship, which sufficiently proclaim their origin, as a
Roman forgery probably of the period of the Antonine emperors. In the
midst of the public gardens, on the Pincian Hill, there is another
Roman obelisk about thirty feet high, excavated from the quarries of
Syene, and set up by Hadrian originally at Ant