The Romans built specialized ships to transport the up-to 455 ton unwieldy cargo up the Nile, across the Mediterranean, and up the Tiber, employing up to 300 rowers, displaying their power through superior engineering that only they could muster. Whereas the Egyptians usually placed obelisks in pairs in front of temples and funerary monuments, the Romans usually placed them as solitary monuments, in places such as the spina (central spine) of a circus (racetrack). ![]() Subsequent emperors Caligula, Diocletian, Domitian and Hadrian all stole obelisks from Egypt and erected them in Rome. Beginning with Augustus, they began confiscating obelisks from Egypt and bringing them to Rome as trophies of conquest. When Augustus defeated Marc Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 30 BC, and the empire thereby acquired control of Egypt, the Romans became infatuated with all things Egyptian.
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