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Meta Sudante

Typology: Monuments

Address

Address: Piazza del Colosseo
Zone: Rione Celio (Terme di Caracalla) (Roma centro)

Contacts

Description

The monumental fountain called Meta Sudans was situated in the area that lies between the Arch of Constantine and the Colosseum. Its name comes from its original cone shape similar to the "meta" of a circus: a conical pillar that marked the point where the horses had to turn to complete the lap and poured water (hence the word "sudante" (pouring). The fountain consisted of a basin placed on a cylindrical pedestal, from the middle of which rose a 17-meter "meta" made of bricks covered with marble or bronze. A pinecone- or flower-shaped decorative element was placed on top of the cone. The fountain was built in the period of the emperors of the Flavia family, between 70 and 80 A.D., at the time when the Colosseum was built. A railing with transennae or columns was built around the monument at the time of Emperor Constantine, as shown by the remaining foundations. In 1936 the Meta Sudans was demolished together with the pedestal of the Colossus of Nero for the opening of the new Via dell’Impero and Via dei Trionfi. Today all we have are several photographs taken at the end of the nineteenth century and in the first years of the twentieth century, in addition to some more or less fanciful engravings that date back to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
 
Notes: Visible from the outside.

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Last checked: 2023-03-22 15:16