18/11/2025
Moving Mountains: How Rome Transported Obelisks, Art, and Knowledge Across the Mediterranean
The Vatican Obelisk is an ancient Egyptian obelisk, one of the thirteen ancient obelisks of Rome. Credit: Wikimedia Commons / Rolf Süssbrich CC BY 3.0 The rise of Rome was deeply shaped by the advanced cultures of Ancient Greece and Egypt, which provided essential knowledge, artistic models, technologies, and religious traditions. The empire?s later grandeur, too, drew heavily on these same civilizations?peoples Rome conquered yet continued to look to for intellectual and artistic inspiration. Cultural transmission through conquest was a reality that Roman scholars and authors openly acknowledged. Horace famously wrote, ?Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit???Captive Greece took captive her...
