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((short description|Roman triumphal column in Constantinople (Istanbul, Turkey)))
((Infobox ancient site
|name                  = Column of Leo
|event                 = 
|height                = c. 21-26 m (total original without statue)
20.75 m (column shaft)
6 m (granite socle)
|builder               = Euphemia or [[Verina]] ''augusta''
|material              = marble
|built                 = 457-474 AD (reign of [[Leo I the Thracian|Leo I]])
|abandoned             = 
|epochs                = <!-- actually displays as "Periods" -->[[Late Antiquity]]
|cultures              = [[East Roman Empire]]
|dependency_of         = 
|occupants             = 
|discovered            = 
|diameter              = c. 2.10 m (column drums)
c. 3m (capital)
|excavations           = 
|archaeologists        = Aziz Oğan
|condition             = Ruined
|ownership             = 
|management            = 
|public_access         = 
|other_designation     = 
|website               = <!-- ((URL|example.com)) -->
|architectural_styles  = Corinthian
|architectural_details = Roman
|circumference         = 
|volume                = 
|native_name           = ((lang-grc-byz|Πιττάκια))
|map_size              = 
|native_name_lang      = 
|alternate_name        = 
|image                 = Second_Court_Topkapi_2007_76.JPG
|image_size            = 
|alt                   = 
|caption               = 
|map                   = 
|map_type              = Istanbul#Turkey
|map_alt               = 
|map_caption           = Location in [[Constantinople]]##Location in Turkey
|altitude_m            = <!-- Enter a number for altitude in meters (m) -->
|area                  = 
|altitude_ref          = 
|relief                = 1
|coordinates           = ((Coord|41.013276|28.984825|display=inline,title))
|gbgridref             = 
|map_dot_label         = 
|location              = Forum of Leo, [[Constantinople]]<br />
[[Topkapı Palace, Fatih, Istanbul]], Turkey
|region                = 
|type                  = [[Roman triumphal column]]
|part_of               = 
|length                = 
|notes                 = 
))
The '''Column of Leo''' was a 5th-century AD Roman [[Victory column|honorific column]] in [[Constantinople]]. Built for [[Leo I the Thracian|Leo I]], ''[[Augustus (title)|Augustus]]'' of the [[Byzantine Empire|East]] from 7 February 457 to 18 January 474,<ref>((PLRE|volume=2|title=Leo 6))</ref> the column stood in the '''Forum of Leo''', known also as the ''Pittakia''. It was a marble column, without [[Fluting (architecture)|flutes]], composed of [[Column drum|drums]] with a [[Corinthian order|Corinthian]] [[Capital (architecture)|capital]], surmounted by a statue of the emperor.<ref name=":0">((Cite web|url=http://laststatues.classics.ox.ac.uk/database/discussion.php?id=2836|title=LSA-2462 Remains of column, once crowned with colossal statue, almost certainly of Leo I, emperor. Constantinople, Forum of Leo I ('Pittakia'). 457-474.|last=Gehn|first=Ulrich|date=2012|website=laststatues.classics.ox.ac.uk|access-date=2020-03-07))</ref>

The column no longer exists, but fragments belonging to it were discovered in the mid-20th century in the grounds of the [[Topkapı Palace]], including the capital and the [[Impost (architecture)|impost]] block atop it, a complete column drum and some parts of a second, and the statue's pedestal, which was originally separated from the impost by a missing plinth. The remains are visible in the second courtyard of the Topkapı complex.<ref name=":2">((Cite journal|last1=Dark|first1=K. R.|last2=Harris|first2=A. L.|date=2008-03-26|title=The Last Roman Forum: the Forum of Leo in Fifth-century Constantinople|url=https://grbs.library.duke.edu/article/view/831|journal=Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies|language=en|volume=48|issue=1|pages=57–69|issn=2159-3159))</ref> The column's own [[Socle (architecture)|socle]], pedestal, and base are lost. The statue too may be lost, or it may be the bronze statue now known as the [[Colossus of Barletta]] in Italy.<ref name=":0" />

== Literary references ==
The column's existence in the Forum of Leo, near the Topkapı Palace, is attested by mentions in several [[Medieval Greek|Byzantine Greek]] texts: the ''[[Patria of Constantinople]]'', the ''[[Parastaseis syntomoi chronikai]]'',<ref>''Parastaseis'' 67:

Ὁ Πιττάκης ὁ λεγόμενος Λέων ὁ μέγας ἐστὶν.

'The so called Pittakis is Leo the Elder'.</ref> and [[George Kedrenos|George Cedrenus]]. According to [[John the Lydian|John Lydus]], the Forum of Leo, where the column was, was at the ''pittakia''.<ref>((Cite book|last=Bauer|first=Franz Alto|title=Stadt, Platz und Denkmal in der Spätantike: Untersuchungen zur Ausstattung des öffentlichen Raums in den spätantiken Städten Rom, Konstantinopel und Ephesos|publisher=P. von Zabern|year=1996|isbn=9783805318426|location=Mainz|pages=215–217))</ref> According to the ''Patria'', the column of Leo was dedicated in his honour by a sister of his called Euphemia,<ref>''Patria'' II, 31:

((lang|grc|Ὁ δὲ λεγόμενος Πιττάκης στήλη ἐστὶν τοῡ μεγάλου Λέοντος τοῡ Μακέλλη, ἣν ἀνήγειρεν Ἐυφημία ἡ τούτου ἀδελφή))

'The so called Pittakis is a statue of Leo the Elder, the slayer, which his sister Euphemia set up'</ref><ref>((PLRE|volume=2|title=Euphemia 3))</ref> while Cedrenus mentions Leo's wife [[Verina]];<ref>George Cedrenus, I, 563, 18:

((lang|grc|Ὅτι ὁ εἰς τὰ Πιττάκια κίων στήλην ἔχει Λέοντος τοῦ τῆς Βερίνης ἀνδρός))

'The column in the Pittakia has a statue of Leo, the husband of Verina'.</ref> no record of any dedicatory inscription has been preserved.<ref name=":0" /> The column no longer existed when [[Petrus Gyllius]] was writing his ''De Topographia Constantinopoleos et de illius antiquitatibus libri IV''. in the 1540s.<ref>((Cite book|last=Gilles|first=Pierre|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x-LCDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT114|title=The Antiquities of Constantinople|date=2019-12-06|publisher=Good Press|language=en))</ref>

== Reconstruction ==

After the discovery of the various fragments around the column's site, Byzantinist and archaeologist Urs Peschlow determined the fragments to be related to one another and published a reconstruction of the Column of Leo in 1986. In it he argued the Colossus of Barletta, a much restored Late Antique bronze statue of an emperor in armour, came originally from the summit the Column of Leo, on account of its fitting the proportions of the reconstructed column.<ref name=":1">((Cite book|last=Peschlow|first=U.|title=Studien zur Spätantiken und Byzantinischen Kunst, Friedrich Wilhelm Deichmann Gewidmet, Teil 1.|publisher=Habelt|year=1986|editor-last=Feld|editor-first=O.|series=Monographien / Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum. Forschungsinstitut für Vor- und Frühgeschichte (Book 10)|location=Bonn|pages=21–34|chapter=Eine wiedergewonnene byzantinische Ehrensäule in Istanbul.|editor-last2=Peschlow|editor-first2=U.))</ref> It has elsewhere been suggested the 1561 drawing by [[Melchior Lorck]] of the reliefs of an honorific column pedestal, usually believed to show the now-obscured pedestal of the extant [[Column of Constantine]], could show instead the vanished pedestal of Leo's column.<ref>((Cite book|last=Engemann|first=J.|title=Quaeritur inventus colitur. Miscellanea in onore di padre Umberto Maria Fasola, B.|publisher=Pontificio Istituto di archeologia cristiana|year=1989|series=Studi di antichità cristiana, 40.|location=Città del Vaticano|pages=249–265|chapter=Melchior Lorichs Zeichnung eines Säulensockels in Konstantinopel.))</ref>

According to Peschlow's reconstruction, the column would have been between 21 and 26 m tall, without its statue, with a column shaft of about 15 m made up of eight drums, and a socle, pedestal and base nearly 7 m high.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" /> These determinations were made by analogy to the proportions of the [[Column of Marcian]]. Leo's column was probably of eight drums; the surviving complete column drum was marked with an [[Eta|Η]], [[Greek numerals#Table|meaning "№ 8"]], and according to Peschlow, indicating it was the eighth drum.<ref name=":1" /> The top of the drum is somewhat concave, to bed in the capital above. Carved representations of laurel wreaths surround one edge of the surviving drums of the column shaft. The joins between the drums were concealed by these sculpted wreaths. Each wreath had in its centre a medallion at the "forehead" of the wreath, inscribed with a wreathed Christian symbol related to the [[Chi Rho]] and resembling the [[IX monogram]].<ref name=":0" />

The capital, more than two metres high, and nearly 3 m broad, tapers towards a diameter at its bottom of 1.78 m, similar to the thickness of the column drums below, which measure 1.79 m at their bottom and 2.10 m at the top, where the wreath is. The capital itself had human face [[protome]]s projecting from the centre of each side of the block, between the [[volute]]s where a [[Fleuron (architecture)|fleuron]] would typically be.<ref name=":0" /> Acanthus buds appear on the volutes at each corner.

The preserved column drums show that the 34&nbsp;cm broad wreaths concealed joins fixed by three or more metal [[dowel]]s, whose holes survive. The capital too was attached by dowels: four connected it with the impost block above.<ref name=":0" />

The impost block, over a metre high and nearly 3 m wide at the top, has a [[frieze]] of vegetal decoration of [[Acanthus (ornament)|acanthus]] leaves. On its upper side are four dowel holes in a recessed area and numerous other rectangular holes for attachments. Another surviving marble block fits the attachment above the impost block; this block itself had four dowels for the attachment of a plinth above. This plinth will have carried the statue and was fixed with metal cramps on its sides.<ref name=":0" />

With its laurel wreaths connecting its stacked column drums, the Column of Leo recalls the porphyry Column of Constantine, while the Column of Marcian is the closest stylistic parallel to the capital. Marcian's column was set up in the early 450s and is thus also the closest chronologically to Leo's.<ref name=":0" />

== Forum of Leo ==

The Forum of Leo was the last forum to be built in a Roman capital city.<ref name=":2" /> Its exact location is uncertain.<ref name=":2" /> According to a 15th-century [[Latin]] translation of a work by [[Manuel Chrysoloras]], it stood "on the hill of Byzantium, to the right of the temple of Peace" (((Lang-la|super Byzantiorum tumulo ad dexteram templi Pacis|label=none))).<ref name=":2" /> The ''templum Pacis'' was the church of [[Hagia Irene]], and the "hill of Byzantium" the [[acropolis]] of the pre-Constantinian Roman city of [[Byzantium]].<ref name=":2" /> Here, according to [[John Malalas]], were ancient temples dedicated to [[Helios]], [[Artemis]], and [[Aphrodite]] and later used for other purposes.<ref name=":2" /> Subsequently, the area was the site of the Topkapı Palace.<ref name=":2" /> The ''[[Chronicon Paschale]]'' states that the temple of Aphrodite was opposite the theatre.<ref name=":2" /> According to Dark and Harris, this means the Second Courtyard of the Topkapı complex is likely the site of the Forum of Leo.<ref name=":2" /> [[Archaeological excavations]] there have revealed the remains of an asiled [[basilica]] with a [[narthex]] and a polygonal [[apse]].<ref name=":2" /> There may also have been an atrium.<ref name=":2" /> The basilica was a church and may have been built in 471 as an original part of the forum.<ref name=":2" /> It may have been the same church of Saints Peter and Paul that a hundred years later the ''augustus'' [[Justin II]] had (re)built in 571.<ref name=":2" />

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Colosso di Barletta.jpg|The [[Barletta Colossus]], possibly from Constantinople's Column of Leo
File:TopkapiSarayi-SecondoCortile-ColonnaLeoneCapitello.jpg|Partial view of the capital
File:TopkapiSarayi-SecondoCortile-ColonnaLeoneImpostaBis.jpg|Impost block
File:Second Court Topkapi 2007 80.JPG|Column drum, probably the uppermost of eight
</gallery>

==References==
((Reflist))

((Ancient columns of Constantinople))
((Public spaces of Constantinople))

[[Category:Constantinople]]
[[Category:Ancient Roman buildings and structures in Turkey]]
[[Category:5th-century Roman sculptures]]

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