C. Cornelius Gallus Foroiuliensis Reconsidered

Abstract

Gaius Cornelius Gallus was not only an outstanding poet of the Augustan period, but also a military commander and the first prefect of Egypt. This paper contains a discussion of an alternative interpretation of the Forum Iulium or Forum Iulii, considered as possibly referring not to the poet’s place of birth but to his foundation of a town bearing that name. In this context the author discusses the obliterated inscription of Cornelius Gallus on the Vatican obelisk which mentions a forum Iulium. The location of this forum Iulium is the subject of the author’s further discusssion. On the basis of some evidence, it seems probable that the Vatican obelisk originally stood not in a forum in Alexandria as usually presumed but in neighbouring Nicopolis. The writer demonstrates that Nicopolis was otherwise called Iuliopolis and assumes that the original Latin name of that new Roman military settlement near Alexandria could have been Forum Iulium. Cornelius Gallus, who in his inscription claims to be the builder of a forum Iulium in his capacity as praefectus fabrum Caesaris, seems to have carried out building works at Nicopolis.