[13a] Pompey's Pillar, Alexandria, Egypt [front]

Creator

Student Author

James Alexander Schmitt

Preview

Identifier

13a

Medium

Carte-de-viste

Keywords

Pompey’s Pillar; Diocletian’s Column; Alexandria, Egypt; Roman Empire, Alexandria 298 CE; Diocletian, Emperor; cartes-de-visite (card photograph); Pompey; Classical architecture; Corinthian Capital; Greco-Roman Architecture

Physical Dimensions

103mm x 65mm

Date of Publication

18uu

Name of Monument

Pompey's Pillar

Date of Creation of Monument

298

Date of Completion or Dedication of Monument

302

City of Monument

Alexandria

Location within City

Southwest

State/Province of Monument

Alexandria Governate

Country of Monument

Egypt

Description

A carte-de-viste historical photograph of Pompey’s Pillar, a Roman triumphal column in Alexandria Egypt. The column was set up in honor of the Roman Emperor Diocletian between 298-302 AD after he besieged the city for eight months and spared what remained of it from looting. During the Middle Ages, European Crusaders misidentified Diocletian’s Column as Pompey’s Pillar, believing it to be for Pompey who was assassinated in Egypt after fleeing from Julius Caesar’s forces. They believed his ashes sat in a pot at the top.

School of Art/Architecture

Classical

Comments

Name and location on the back of the C-D-V (Pompey’s Pillar, Alexandria). About 15 people are shown around the front of the column. The capital of the column is of Corinthian style, while the column itself is monolithic. There appears to be some sort of markings at the part of the base closest to the foreground. There are some buildings in the background of the photo. The column was erected in the ruins of the Temple of Serapis, an important holy site for both the Egyptians, and Romans.

Links to View

Street View of Pompey's Pillar: Taken by Omar Ashraf Elsafwani

Street View of Pompey's Pillar: Taken by Jiří Chaloupka

Alexandria Government Website Page on Pompey's Pillar

Digital Date

1-26-2022

Copyright

Original physical carte-de-viste is in the public domain. Digital copy scanned by Rod Library, ©2022 Rod Library, University of Northern Iowa

Rights Advisory

Original physical carte-de-viste is in the public domain; U.S. and International copyright laws protect this digital object. Commercial use of this digital object is not permitted without prior permission of the copyright holder.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

File Format

application/pdf