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The Column of Arcadius: Reflections of a Roman Narrative Tradition

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The Column of Arcadius: Reflections of a Roman Narrative Tradition Julia Kelly The Column of Arcadius: Reflections of a Roman Narrative Tradition When Theodosius the Great died in 395, his son Arcadius was proclaimed emperor of the Eastern Empire. Arcadius' thirteen-year rule was rather insubstantial, being neither particularly good nor particularly bad. There were the usual battles against the marauding barbarians and there were palace intrigues and personal feuds, but the fifth century is better known for the weak rule of Arcadius' brother, Honorius, in the West and the sack of Rome by Alaric the Visigoth in 410. However, in the East the early fifth century is a period that stands as the turning point between Antiquity and the Byzantine age, looking backward to a magnificent past and forward to a new era founded on Christianity. 1 This turning point is very clearly illustrated in Constantinople by two imperial commemorative monuments - the Column of Theodosius and the Column of Arcadius. We know very little about the Column of Theodosius. lt commemorated the Roman defeat of the Greutungi and was begun in 386, with reliefs spiralling up the column shaft narrating the events of the Emperor's military victory and crowned with a silver statue of the Emperor. 2 As was the case with so many ancient monuments in the city, the statue of the Emperor feil down during an earthquake in 448. The column survived into the Ottoman period, but was destroyed in a hurricane in about 1517. Eighteen fragments of the column are preserved, having been built into the walls of the Beyazit Hamam and twelve of these have figural scenes, mostly of soldiers, weapons and horses. They are the only record we have of the Column ofTheodosius. Fortunately, for the Column of Arcadius we have a much better record. 3 The construction of the column began about 401 and was not finished until 421, when it was dedicated by Arcadius' son, Theodosius ll. At this time a statue of Arcadius was placed on the top, but it feil down in an earthquake in 740. The column itself lasted much longer. Despite being badly damaged by a fire in 1633 and another in 1660, it remained upright until 1715. However, by then it was in 1. This sentiment forms the basis for the research by Bente Kiilerich in her book examining the sculptural art of this period: B. Kiilerich. late Fourth Century Classicism in the Plastic Arts: Studies in the So-called Theodosian Renaissance (Odense 1993) 9. The politica) environment of the fourth and fifth centuries is also explored by Williams and Friell: S. Williams & G. Friell, The Rome Thai Did Not Fall: The Survival of the East in the Fifth Century (London 1999). 2. G. Becatti. la Colonna Coc/ide lstoriata: Problemi Storici, /conografici, Stilistici (Rome 1960) 83-150, 263-88, Tav. 49a. 50b, 51-5; Kiilerich. Classicism chap.4. esp. 50-4. fig. 25-31. 3. Becatti. Colonna 151-288. Tav. 56-76; W. Müller-Wiener. Bildlexikon zur Topographie /stanbuls (Tübingen 1977) 250-3; J.H.W.G. Licbeschuetz. Barbarians and Bishops: Army. Church and State in the Age of Arcadius and Chrysostom (Oxford 1990) app. 2. 273-8; Kiilerich, Classicism chap.4, esp. 50-4. fig. 32-6. Byzantine Narrative. Papers in Honour of Roger Scott. Edited by J. Burke et al. (Melbourne 2006). The Column of Arcadius 259 imminent <langer of collapse and had to be demolished to save the houses around it. The eight metre high base of the column survives today with the first band of the relief which wound its way up the column. Unfortunately the reliefs of the base are in a very poor state of preservation, but on the column itself we can make out the remains of a procession of men with horses and wagons, all moving to the right. Some of the men have short tunics and others long. One fragment survives which is believed to have come from the column. 4 lt shows five men - although only the three in the foreground are easily visible - and the hindquarters of a horse. This is probably a scene of marching soldiers and we can make out that one is wearing a helmet and another is carrying a shield. The three-quarter positioning of the figures, their stances and the subject matter of a procession moving to the right all support the belief that the fragment is part of the column. We don't know what became of the many other fragments of relief after the demolition of the column, but we can presume that most were reused as building material. Several antiquarians and artists from western Europe who carne to Constantinople in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries made records and illustrations of the Column of Arcadius. To Pierre Gilles, who visited Constantinople in about 1550, we owe our knowledge of the dimensions of the column, the number of blocks used in its construction and that the spiral staircase, which wound its way up the inside of the column, was still functional in the mid sixteenth century. From his detailed measurements we know that the column was over forty-two metres tall, including the base, capita! and conjoining elements. 5 Gilles, who was highly distrustful of the Ottoman Turks, describes how he measured the column from the inside, dropping a line from the top of the staircase, rather than from the outside, as he was afraid of the 'savagery' of the local inhabitants. 6 A little later, in 1559, Melchior Lorichs made a drawing of the upper spirals of the column. 7 In 1574 a German artist recorded the column as seen from the east, south and west. He made separate drawings of the base, the lower part of the column and the top and these are now in Trinity College Library, Cambridge and form the Freshfield Album. 8 In 16 I O an Englishman named Sandys made a drawing of the column in its entirety as seen from the southwest. This drawing shows the thirteen spirals of the column, but the details are rather sketchy and unclear. 9 Complementary to Sandys' and the Freshfield drawings is a representation from between 1670 and 1700, now in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. It shows again the column in its entirety, this time seen from the southwest. '° Finally we have a drawing by L.F. Cassas showing parts of the 4. Becatti, Colonna 250-1, Tav. 59a; Kiilerich, Classicism 56. 5. P. Gilles, The Antiquities o/Constantinople tr. J. Ball (2nd ed. New York 1988) book IV, chap. VII, 196-9. 6. Gilles, Antiquities book IV, chap. VII, 198. 7. Becatti, Colonna 158-9, Tav. 62b, 63d; Kiilerich, Classicism 57. 8. Becatti, Colonna 157--64, Tav. 71-6; Kiilerich, Classicism 57-8. 9. Becatti, Colonna 159, Tav. 74a; Kiilerich, Classicism 58. 10. Becatti, Colonna 161, Tav. 72-3; Kiilerich, Classicism 58. .
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