Stones of Rome II: A Geological Map of Empire

Porphyry

Porphyry columns in the second century temple of Roma in the Parco Archeologico del Colosseo. June 2022.

In my first post on this subject, I mentioned Pliny the Elder’s writings in Chapter 36 of his Natural History on the stones imported from the far reaches of Rome’s territories. I mentioned that these stones created a sort of geological map of empire which, like the exotic animals of the Colosseum, sought to advertise the “empire without end” (Aeneid Book I, line 282).