Appendix D: Mention of the Colossus
Colossi were in vogue during the period from Caligula through Ves pasian: Caligula (Philo, Embassy to Gaius 220) wanted to set up a colossal statue of himself in the Temple at Jerusalem, one to be made in Syria. After temporarily abandoning the scheme, he again ordered one to be built in Rome (Embassy to Gaius 337). Nero (Suet., Nero 31.1) erected a Colossus of himself 120 feet high, which had a mile-long triple colonnade approaching it. Martial (Liber Spectaculorum 1.2) re fers to this Nero-colossus simply as “the colossus,” a sign that, during or shortly after the period of Nero, a colossus other than that of Rhodes, or any other suggested colossus, would be immediately recognized by so simple a reference. If Longinus had the Nero-colossus in mind, then the critic whom he is attacking in 36.3 may not be Caecilius, whose name he does not spare mentioning. If it be Caecilius, one of the following would have to obtain: (a) the analogy drawn between the Colossus and Polyclitus’ “canon” was not used by Caecilius; (b) Caecilius referred to Polyclitus but not to a colossus; (c) Caecilius referred to Polyclitus and to some colossus (at Rhodes or at Athens) and Longinus deliberately left Caecilius’ reference unclear in order to take advantage of the vogue for colossi current in the Rome of his own day. Vespasian later restored Nero’s statue (Suet., Vespasian 18), as attested by Dio Cassius (65.15.1). Not to be outdone by himself, Nero also had a colossal portrait of himself painted (Pliny, Natural History 35.33).
