Bees, Barbarians & the Barberini

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A Bee Crowns One of the Columns of the Pantheon

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May 20th is World Bee Day, which seems a good time to talk about the bees buzzing about Rome, thanks to the patronage of one seventeenth pope, namely Urban VIII (r. 1623-44).   

Eagle-eyed visitors to the Pantheon may spot a bee on the capital of the column at the eastern corner of the portico. The Pantheon's bee is one of the many secrets of Rome that are known only to the few, but why is it there? 

In 1625, Pope Urban VIII ordered the removal of the ancient bronze trusses from the roof of the portico, as he wanted the metal to cast new cannons for the Castel Sant' Angelo. The Romans were outraged by this act of official vandalism and one wag penned the famous pasquinade: 'Quod non fecerunt barbari, fecerunt Barberini' ('What the barbarians didn't do, the Barberini did'). 

A plaque on the exterior of the Pantheon states the pope's side of the story. It reads: VRBANVS VIII PONT MAX / VETVSTAS AHENEI LACVNARIS / RELIQVIAS / IN VATICANAS COLVMNAS ET / BELLICA TORMENTA CONFLAVIT / VT DECORA INVTILIA / ET IPSI PROPE FAMAE IGNOTA / FIERENT / IN VATICANO TEMPLO / APOSTOLICI SEPVLCHRI ORNAMENTA / IN HADRIANA ARCE /INSTRVMENTA PVBLICAE SECVRITATIS / ANNO DOMINI MDCXXXII PONTIF IX (Urban the Eighth, Pontifex Maximus, forged the ancient remnants of bronze coffering into columns for the Vatican and into engines of war, in order that these idle and well-nigh forgotten baubles might be made ornaments of the Apostle's tomb in the Vatican basilica, and implements of public safety in the Citadel of Hadrian, in the year of the Lord, 1632, the ninth of his pontificate).
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In apparent compensation for his pillaging of the Pantheon, Urban VIII made some reparations to its fabric, which included the replacement of a broken granite column with one salvaged from the nearby Baths of Nero. The pope was a member of the Barberini family, whose coat of arms is made up three bees. He duly had a bee carved on its capital for all to see. Almost 400 years later, there it remains. 

• See also: Bees & the Barberini. 

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Plaque to Pope Urban VIII, Portico of the Pantheon