Beirut Cardo Maximus Colonnade
About
Berytus laid its Cardo Maximus out as the north-south spine of the Roman colony, later dressing it in imported grandeur. Under Trajan, workers raised red granite columns quarried at Aswan in Egypt, spaced 2.5 meters apart on carved pedestals. The colonnaded street ran roughly 100 meters from the forum toward the harbor, sheltering pedestrians under a continuous portico. Five re-erected columns still mark its crossing with the Decumanus in downtown Beirut.
What happened here
A single shaft, standing alone, carrying a statue or a story. The freestanding column is a Roman way of putting one thing above everything else in a crowded skyline, and where it is set matters as much as what is on it. Some carry a spiral relief read from the ground with difficulty and never meant to be read closely — the point is the sheer weight of narrative. Others carry a portrait, and the portrait is replaced when the politics change while the column stays. The drums are hollowed for an internal stair in the ambitious ones. At the base there is usually an inscription and, often enough, a burial. Around it, day to day, people sell things and arrange to meet.
Sources
Nearby
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →