Colonna di Marco Aurelio

The 30-metre (100-foot) column of Marcus Aurelius was built between AD 180 and 196 to commemorate the victories on the battlefield of that most intellectual of Roman emperors. Author of the Meditations, he died while campaigning in 180. The reliefs on the column, modelled on the earlier ones on Trajan’s Column in the Imperial Fora, are vivid illustrations of Roman army life. In 1589 a statue of St Paul replaced that of Marcus Aurelius on top of the column.