These inscriptions could be read in the Flavian Amphitheatre, better known as the Colosseum. They are no longer extant, but some fragments of them are preserved in the depots in the first storey of the monument.  The inscriptions were authored by Raffaello Santarelli and inaugurated on 18 May 1926 (according to Istituto Nazionale Luce, Il ritorno della Croce al Colosseo; cf. Palombi 2017: 58, dating the event to 24 October).

The inscriptions were carved in Roman capitals on the rectangular base of a Christian cross that stood in the arena of the Colosseum, each on one of its four sides. The cross was commissioned by Egilberto Martire (1887–1952), founder and president of the cultural association Fides Romana and member of Parliament for the Centro Nazionale Italiano, that gathered the Catholics and conservatives who supported Fascism (Ignesti 2008: 346). The cross replaced a previous cross erected by Pope Benedictus XIV (r. 1740–1758) in the centre of the arena in the Jubilee of 1750, when the Colosseum became the location of the Way of the Cross (Via Crucis), a devotional practice promoted by Saint Leonard of Port Maurice (Rusconi 2017: 123). The cross was removed because of the archaeological excavations in 1874–1875. Clerical politicians considered the removal an act of sacrilege by the Italian State. The replacement of the cross in 1926 represented a first sign of the thaw in the relations between the Italian State and the Holy See.

Inscription 1 was carved on the front of the base of the cross. It quotes a line of the hymn titled Vexilla regis prodeunt, which is itself an adaptation of a hymn of Venantius Fortunatus (Carm. 2.6) and is sung on the Feast of the Cross and Good Friday. Two fragments are preserved (Parco Archeologico del Colosseo, inv. no. 606109).

Inscription 2 was carved on the back side of the base and commemorated the history of the old cross and the placing of the new one (on which see above). Note the use of the superlative pientissime which is only attested in ancient epigraphical texts, not in classical literature (Tantimonaco 2020: 292–302). Two fragments are preserved (Parco Archeologico del Colosseo, inv. no. 606111).

Inscription 3 was carved on the left-hand side of the basement and connected the year 1926 to the reign of Pope Pius XI and the recovery of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem by Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine, which occurred, according to the tradition, in 326. No fragment is preserved.

Inscription 4 was carved on the right-hand side and dated the year 1926 in connection to the reign of Victor Emmanuel III and to Fascism, remembered as a conservative (Italia … instaurata) and a revolutionary (Italia … renovata) political regime at the same time. Five fragments are preserved (Parco Colosseo, inv. no. 606110; Palombi 2017: fig. 10). Inscriptions 3 and 4 were designed as a pair both in terms of their syntax and content: the first one anchored the event in Christian history, while the second connected it with Italian history (Bettegazzi, Lamers and Reitz-Joosse 2019: 165–67).  

Bibliography

Bettegazzi, Nicolò, Han Lamers, and Bettina Reitz-Joosse. 2019. ‘Viewing Rome in the Latin Literature of the Ventennio Fascista: Francesco Giammaria’s Capitolium Novum’. Fascism 8 (2): 153–78.

Ferraironi, Francesco. 1937. Iscrizioni ornamentali su edifici e monumenti di Roma con appendice sulle iscrizioni scomparse. Rome: Industria Tipografica Romana, no. 205.

Ignesti, Giuseppe. 2008. ‘Martire, Egilberto’. In Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani 71: 344–47. Rome: Istituto dell’Enciclopedia Treccani.

Nastasi, Antonino. 2019. Le iscrizioni in latino di Roma Capitale (1870-2018). Rome: Edizioni Quasar, pp. 16–19; 659.

Orlandi, Silvia. 1999. ‘L’iscrizione di Mussolini’. In Il Colosseo, edited by Ada Gabucci, 226. Milan: Electa.

Palombi, Domenico. 2017. ‘Storie di una identità contesa: il Colosseo, da Tertulliano a Mussolini’. In Colosseo, edited by Rossella Rea, Serena Romano, and Riccardo Santangeli Valenzani, 44–65. Milan: Electa.

Rusconi, Roberto. 2017. ‘Il Colosseo come luogo di devozione. Dal culto per i martiri alla Via Crucis’. In Colosseo, edited by Rossella Rea, Serena Romano, and Riccardo Santangeli Valenzani, 114–27. Milan: Electa.

Tantimonaco, Silvia. 2020. ‘Piissimus and Pientissimus: Two Nonexistent Superlatives of Pius?’ Journal of Latin Linguistics 19 (2): 281–307.

Antonino Nastasi