Vatican Museums

“A Roman Pharaoh: Domitian and the Pamphilj obelisk in Piazza Navona” is the title of the next event in the Thursday in the Museums programme, dedicated to an exceptional example of the encounter between Egyptian and Roman culture.
The conference, to be held on Thursday 21 March, will be presented, as usual, by the Director of the Vatican Museums, Barbara Jatta, who will then leave the floor to Alessia Amenta, Curator of the Department of Egyptian and Near Eastern Antiquities, for the introduction of the speech by Nicola Barbagli, postdoctoral fellow at the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung at the University of Trier.

The focus of the meeting will be the famous and ancient monument that stands at the centre of Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers in one of Rome's most beautiful squares. Unlike the first obelisks brought to Rome by Augustus in 10 B.C., originally erected in Heliopolis by Rameses II (1279-1213 B.C.) and Psammeticus II (595-589 B.C.), the Pamphilj obelisk is one of the few to have been commissioned by a Roman and then brought to the city by order of the emperor Domitian himself (81-96 A.D.). Only one other obelisk, the one on the Pincio Hill, commissioned by Hadrian after the death of his beloved Antinous (130 AD), can boast a similar origin. However, while the inscriptions engraved on the latter speak mainly of the honours bestowed on the young man who became a god after his death, those on the obelisk in Piazza Navona offer an articulate representation of Domitian in the guise of the king of Egypt. In fact, the hieroglyphics not only tell how the emperor dedicated this monument to the sun god, but also describe in detail his divine birth, his predestination to the throne, his rise to power after the death of his brother Titus, and the superhuman qualities of the Roman pharaoh. So central to this monument is Domitian that he is even depicted enthroned and honoured by Egyptian deities on the four sides of the pyramidion, the spire of the obelisk, some fragments of which are now preserved in the Vatican Museums.

During his lecture, the Egyptologist Barbagli will also investigate the relationship between the family of the Roman emperor Domitian and the Egyptian religion, presenting the audience with some original insights on the nature of the Pamphilj obelisk, its original location, and the representation of the emperor as a pharaoh.