Column of Marcian

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The Column of Emperor Marcian
The Column of Emperor Marcian

The Column of Marcian (Turkish: Kıztaşı, meaning "Column of the girl") is a monument erected in Constantinople in 455 dedicated to the Emperor Marcian. It is made of red-grey Egyptian granite, in two pieces. The basis is quadrilateral, formed by four slabs in white marble, decorated with Greek crosses inside medallions on three faces, and two genii (who account for the Turkish name of the column) holding a globe. The column is topped by a Corinthian capital, probably a basis for a statue of Marcian (as per the Column of Trajan and Column of Marcus Aurelius in Rome, which definitely were topped by statues of the emperor they commemorated).

There is an inscription engraved on the western side of the basis, which reads: Principis hanc statuam Marciani / Cernem torumque ter vovit quod Tatianus opus (This statue of the princeps Marcianus / because Tatianus vowed the work) .[1]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ White, Charles (1845). Three Years in Constantinople or, Domestic Manners of the Turks in 1844. London: H. Colburn. , p. 259.

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