Roman tri­umphal col­umn. The col­umn was built in 328 by Emper­or Con­stan­tine I the Great (r. 306–337), who found­ed the new cap­i­tal of the Roman Empire on the site of ancient Byzan­tium (lat­er called Con­stan­tino­ple). Erect­ed on the III Hill of Con­stan­tino­ple, the col­umn was meant to remind us of Rome, which stands on sev­en hills, and to sym­bol­ize the con­nec­tion of the old cap­i­tal of the empire with the “New Rome”. The column’s shaft, 25 m high, con­sist­ed of sev­en por­phyry drums — cylin­dri­cal blocks with a diam­e­ter of 2.9 m. They were sur­round­ed by iron hoops and gild­ed bronze wreaths of lau­rel leaves. The eighth upper drum was made of mar­ble.