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"Pompey's Pillar (... romanized: 'Amud El-Sawari) is the name given to a Roman triumphal column in Alexandria, Egypt. Set up in honour of the Roman emperor Diocletian between 298–302 AD, the giant Corinthian column originally supported a colossal porphyry statue of the emperor in armour. It stands at the eastern side of the temenos of the Serapeum of Alexandria, beside the ruins of the temple of Serapis itself.
It is the only ancient monument still standing in Alexandria in its original location today.
Name
The local name... romanized: 'Amud El-Sawari, where the word 'Amud means "column". The name Sawari has been translated in many ways by scholars, including Severus (i.e. Emperor Septimius Severus).
The name of Pompey in relation to the pillar was used by many European writers in early modern times. The name is considered to stem from a historical misreading of the Greek dedicatory inscription on the base...
Construction
1809 publication in the Description de l'Égypte: "Vue profils et détails de la grande colonne appelée communément Colonne de Pompée"
In 297 Diocletian, Augustus since 284, campaigned in Egypt to suppress the revolt of the usurper Domitius Domitianus. After a long siege, Diocletian captured Alexandria and executed Domitianus's successor Aurelius Achilleus in 298. In 302 the emperor returned to the city and inaugurated a state grain supply. The dedication of the column monument and its statue of Diocletian, describes Diocletian as polioúchos (...romanized: polioúchon Alexandreias, lit.?'city-guardian-god ACC of Alexandria'). In the fourth century AD this designation also applied to Serapis, the male counterpart of Isis in the pantheon instituted by the Hellenistic rulers of Egypt, the Ptolemies. The sanctuary complex dedicated to Serapis in which the column was originally erected, the Serapeum, was built under King Ptolemy III Euergetes in the third century BC and rebuilt under roman rule, likely in the late 2nd to early 3rd century CE, being completed under Emperor Caracalla. In the later fourth century AD it was considered by Ammianus Marcellinus a marvel rivalled only by Rome's sanctuary to Jupiter Optimus Maximus on the Capitoline Hill, the Capitolium."