ABSTRACT
Discussions of the monument by modern historians of art and architecture show a general agreement on the meaning of the term. In papers and lectures on the subject the word is not commonly defined, but a broad consensus appears to obtain that a monument is a tangible, material construction, usually of stone, brick, or metal, that serves to remind passersby of some person, event, or concept. The English word monument entered our language from Old French, which inherited it from Latin. Monumentum could also be used metaphorically to refer to the virtues of a good person that live after him or her as a continuing reminder. During the later Middle Ages, the popes, concerned about the threatened patrimony of ancient monuments in the Eternal City, began to refer to them in the old way as “Urbis monumenta.” The Alexander Column stands in the twilight of the old monumental tradition of art in the service of the state.
