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Discussion

Literary record of gilded equestrian statue on columns, of Nicetas, military commander and cousin of the emperor Heraclius. Constantinople, Forum of Constantine. 610-625

SOURCES

Nikephoros Patriarch of Constantinople, Breviarium Historicum, ed and trans C. Mango, 5:
τὸν ἀνδριάντα κεχρυσωμένον καθύπερθε κιόνων ἔφιππον κατὰ τὴν τοῦ φόρου λεγομένην ἀγορὰν ἀνέστησεν.

'Niketas became in this way so intimate with the emperor that the latter erected a gilded equestrian statue of him on top of some columns in the marketplace which is called the Forum'. (trans. Mango)

Anthologia Planudea 46. An elegiac distich:
Νικήταν δορίτολμον ἄναξ, στρατός, ἄστεα, δῆμος /
στῆσαν ὑπὲρ μεγάλων Μηδοφόνων καμάτων.

'The emperor, the army, the cities, and the people (demos) set up [the statue of] Nicetas, bold in war, for his great exploits in slaying the Persians.' (trans. W. Paton)

Anth. Plan. 47. An elegiac distich:
Τὸν μέγαν ἐν πολέμοισιν, τὸν ἄτρομον ἡγεμονῆα, /
Νικήταν ἀρετῶν εἵνεκεν οἱ Πράσινοι.

'The Green Faction honoured Nicetas, the great in war, the fearless leader, because of his virtues.'

Nikephoros records the erection of a gilded equestrian statue to Nicetas, set on columns in the forum of Constantine. Anth. Plan. 46 could well be the dedicatory inscription from this statue: the impressive list of dedicators would suit such a splendid monument. Anth. Plan 47, dedicated by the Greens, could be a supplementary inscription from the same column (at this date the demos mentioned in the main inscription could be a reference to the circus factions); otherwise it was from a different dedication.

LOCATION
Nikephoros records the statue and its column κατὰ τὴν τοῦ φόρου λεγομένην ἀγορὰν, 'on the square called 'the Forum''. This is the Forum of Constantine, with the porphyry column and statue of the emperor at its centre, which was often simply referred to as 'the Forum'. It was lavishly decorated with statues.

HONORAND AND DATE
Nicetas was patricius, comes excubitorum, and perhaps dux et Augustalis Alexandriae (PLRE IIIB, 942 Nicetas 7). He was a cousin, and very close ally, of the emperor Heraclius (610-41), who must be the ruler referred to in Anthologia Planudea 47. Heraclius' accession to the throne in 610 provides our terminus post quem; records of Nicetas end in 617, and he probably died then or shortly thereafter.

FURTHER DISCUSSION
This is the very last reliably attested statue of the Roman world.

Ulrich Gehn

Main Reference

Aubreton, R. & F. Buffière, Anthologie Grecque XIII : Anthologie de Planude, Paris 1980, nos. 46; 47

Discussion References

Bauer, F. A., Stadt, Platz und Denkmal in der Spätantike, Mainz 1996,

Martindale, J. R., The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire. Volume III A. D. 527-641, Cambridge 1992,

Müller-Wiener, W., Bildlexikon zur Topographie Istanbuls, Tübingen 1977,

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