Plain column shaft in “greco scritto” marble, made of two drums cut in modern times: the central (h. 46 cm; diam. 32 cm) and the lower one (h. 90 cm); the top part is missing and the total height of the shaft originally measured 2.80 m ca. The bottom end of the column, chipped and badly eroded, is carved with a cavetto molding and a plain fillet (h. 3.5 cm, projecting 1.5 cm). ù

The plain shaft, with a well smoothed surface, is cut in a quality of “greco scritto” characterized by the presence of numerous small lines of dark grey-black colour, grouped in large parallel veins, running diagonally over the shaft.

The Italian name “greco scritto” (literally meaning “written Greek”) derives from its external appearance that actually resembles alphabetical signs, and not from its provenance. It was used in Rome from the beginning of the II to the whole IV century AD to carve columns and pilasters, as well as floor and wall revetment panels. In the lack of specific data connecting our shaft to a precise building context, its chronological frame can only remain rather broad.

The shaft rests on an ancient, not pertaining, Attic base (h. 20 cm) with plinth, which is slightly chipped, has a fractured surface and has all the plinth’s corners broken. The base is distinguished by the presence of the plinth on which rests the lower torus (h. 4 cm), separated from the open profiled scotia (h. 3.5 cm; d. 2 cm) by an astragal (h. 1 cm); the scotia is framed by two fillets (h. 0.5) and topped by the upper torus (h. 3 cm), which has a smaller circumference but is regularly expanded with a rounded profile; on the summit, there remain a thin portion of the lower end of the shaft originally carried by the base (h. 1 cm). Given such characteristics, it is possible to date the base between the end of the II and the III century AD.