is the only one near its original site, the _Spina_ of Nero's Circus,
which was near the Sacristy, on the left of S. Peter's. An inscription
in the pavement marks the place. Pliny (xxxvi. 14), says: "The third
obelisk at Rome is in the Vatican Circus, which was constructed by the
emperors Caius [Caligula] and Nero; this being the only one of them
all that has been broken in the carriage. Nuncorcus, the son of
Sesoses, made it [_the original, this is probably a copy_], and there
remains [in Egypt] another by him, 100 cubits in height, which, by
order of an oracle, he consecrated to the sun, after having lost his
sight and recovered it." Herodotus says: "It was dedicated by Phero,
son of Sesostris, in gratitude for his recovery from blindness." It
has no hieroglyphics, so if this was the original how could they know
who erected it? but it bears this inscription of Caligula--
DIVO. CAES. DIVI. JULII. F. AUGUSTO.--TI. CAESARI.
DIVI. AUG. F.--AUGUSTO. SACRUM.
[To the divine Augustus, son of the divine Julius, and to the divine
Tiberius, son of the divine Augustus.]
[Illustration: S. PETER'S AND THE VATICAN.]
The Nuncorcus of Pliny is supposed to stand for Menophtheus, the king
Meneph-Pthah.
Pliny (xvi. 76) gives the following particulars of how it was brought
over:--
"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 lentils 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."
Suetonius ("Claudius," xx.) says: "He sank the vessel in which the
great obelisk had been brought from Egypt, to secure the foundation of
the mole at Ostia."
Pliny (xvi. 76), says: "As to the one in which, by order of the
Emperor Caius, the other obelisk had been transported to Rome, it was
brought to Ostia, by order of the late Emperor Claudius, and sunk for
the construction of his harbour."
Marcellinus says: "Subsequent ages to Augustus brought also other
obelisks, one of which is in the Vatican."