Colossus of Barletta
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The Colossus of Barletta is a large bronze statue of an Eastern Roman emperor, nearly three times life size (5.11 meters) and currently located in Barletta, Italy.
A legend says the statue washed up on a shore, after a Venetian ship sank returning from the sack of Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade (1204 AD), and that it represents Emperor Heraclius (reign 610-641 AD). Modern scholars think the statue should represent Theodosius II (reign 408-450 AD), who had it erected in Ravenna in 439; Honorius (reign 393-423 AD) has been also proposed with some success.
It is known that a colossal statue was discovered in 1231-1232 during excavations commissioned by emperor Frederick II in Ravenna, and is probable that he had it transported to his southern Italian lands. The first certain news about the statue date however from 1309, when its legs and arms were used by local Dominicans to cast bells. The missing parts were remade in the 15th century.
The statue evidently depicts an emperor, identifiable from his imperial diadem and his commanding gesture that invokes the act of delivering a speech, with his right arm raised, now holding a cross, but probably originally wielding a labarum. The emperor wears a cuirass under his short tunic. His cloak is draped over his left arm in a portrait convention that goes back to Augustus. In his outstretched left hand he now holds an orb. His diademed head wears a Gothic jewel, similar to the one worn by Aelia Eudoxia, mother of Theodosius II.
The Italian-American author/illustrator Tomi Di Paola wrote a book about the statue, The Mysterious Giant of Barletta: An Italian Folktale (Voyager Books) (ISBN - 0152563490)
