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The Solarium Augusti or Horologium Augusti (both Latin language for "Sundial of Augustus"; ) was a monument in the Campus Martius of ancient Rome constructed in 10 BCE under the Roman Empire emperor Augustus. It included an ancient Egypt Egyptian obelisk that had first been erected under the pharaoh Psamtik II used in some fashion as a gnomon. Once believed to have been a massive sundial,Edmund Buchner (1976). "Solarium Augusti und Ara Pacis", Römische Mitteilungen 83: 319-375; Die Sonnenuhr des Augustus: Kaiser Augustus und die verlorene Republik (Berlin) 1988. it is now more commonly understood to have been used with a meridian line used to track the solar year.Peter Heslin, "Augustus, Domitian and the So-Called Horologium Augusti", The Journal of Roman Studies, 97 (2007: 1-20). It served as a monument of Augustus having brought Egypt under Roman rule and was also connected with the Altar of Augustan Peace commemorating the Pax Romana established by his ending the numerous civil wars that ended the Roman Republic. The Solarium was destroyed at some point during the Medieval Rome. Its recovered obelisk is now known as the Obelisk of Montecitorio.
The Solarium Augusti was integrated with the Ara Pacis in the Campus Martius, aligning with Via Flaminia, in such a way that the shadow of the gnomon fell across the center of the marble altar on 23 September, the birthday of Augustus himself. The obelisk itself was set up to memorialize Augustus' subordination of Egypt to the control of the Roman empire. The two monuments must have been planned together, in relation to the pre-existing Mausoleum of Augustus, to demonstrate that Augustus was "born to bring peace", that peace was his destiny.Peter J. Holliday, "Time, History, and Ritual on the Ara Pacis Augustae" The Art Bulletin 72.4 (December 1990:542-557) p. 554. According to the Cambridge Ancient History, "the collective message dramatically linked peace with military authority and imperial expansion."Alan K. Bowman, Edward Champlin, Andrew William Lintott, The Cambridge Ancient History 1996:194, reporting Buchner's meticulous survey published in Buchner, "Horologium solarium Augusti: Vorbericht über die Ausgrabungen 1979/80" Römische Mitteilungen 87 (1980:355-73).
In his Natural History, Pliny remarks that in the monument had stopped accurately reflecting the solar year by about 40 CE and offers several explanations for the shift, including that the sun, the earth, or both might not be as fixed in their position and movement as was usually believed at the time.Pliny the Elder, Natural History, xxxvi.72-73. The obelisk was illustrated, supported by a reclining figure, on the base Now in the Vatican Museums; illustrated by Dr. Mary Ann Sullivan of the Column of Antoninus Pius.
The obelisk gnomon was still standing in the 8th century CE, but was thrown down and broken, then covered in sediment; it was rediscovered in 1512, but not excavated. In a triumphant rededication, the 'Montecitorio obelisk' was re-erected in Piazza di Montecitorio by Pius VI in 1789. Samuel Ball Platner and Thomas Ashby, A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome (London: Oxford University Press), 1929:366f, with William Thayer's additional notes
In 1979, a section of the ancient paving of the square was found at a depth of 8 metre pit inside a series of vaults in the Campo Marzio, bearing a calibrated line and inscriptions in Greek referring to zodiac symbols.Buchner, op. cit.
The ancient consecration inscription has been maintained and reads:
| IMP CAESAR DIVI F AUGUST PONTIFEX MAXIMUS IMP XII COS XI TRIB POT XIV AEGUPTO IN POTESTATEM POPULI ROMANI REDACTA SOLI DONUM DEDIT. | Imperator Caesar son of a deifiedThis is his adoptive father Julius Caesar, who was deified ( divus) after his death. Augustus pontifex maximus 12 times imperator, 11 times Roman consul, 14 times (clothed with) tribunicia potestas. After Egypt was brought under the authority of the Roman people he gave (this obelisk) to the sun |
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