Caligula’s Giant Ship

• Caligula’s Giant Ship was a huge vessel constructed by Caligula to bring the Vaticano Obelisk from Egypt to sit on the Spina of the Circus of Nero.
• Afterwards, it was sunk between the extended moles of Portus, to create an artificial island on which to build a Roman Lighthouse.

Excavation

• Whilst digging the foundations of Rome’s Fiumicino Airport, a giant Roman ship was excavated from the old harbour at Portus.
• Also excavated were the extensive harbour moles.

The Ship’s dimensions

• The ship’s length was between 312-341 ft (95-104m) and the width was 66 ft (20m). It had the height of six decks.
• This makes it larger than the Lake Nemi Roman Shipwrecks

Two Giant Ships to transport an Obelisk

• It was one of two giant vessels constructed by Caligula to transport the Vaticano Obelisk from Egypt to Rome in 37 CE.
• The second vessel was moored at Puteoli where it caught fire and burned.

Caligula’s Lake Nemi Ships

• The Lake Nemi Roman Shipwrecks, although huge, were smaller than Caligula’s Giant Ship.
• These three ships were the only survivors of Rome’s giant sea going ship building capability.

Sources

• Pliny the Elder (23-79 CE) Pliny xvi 40. s. 76
  • Pliny describes the sinking of the giant ship used to transport the Obelisk from Egypt and states that it weighed 800 tons.
  • Apart from the weight of the Obelisk, 331 tons, the vessel carried ballast of 120,000 Modii of lentils, about 1100 tons.

• Suetonius
  • In Claudius XX, he recounts that the Pharos of Portus was built in imitation of the Pharos of Alexandria, upon the foundations of a giant sunken ship.
• Cassius Dio.
  • Also mentions the same story.