Everything about Arch Of Septimius Severus totally explained
The white marble
Arch of Septimius Severus at the northeast end of the
Roman Forum is a
triumphal arch dedicated in AD
203 to commemorate the
Parthian victories of Emperor
Septimius Severus and his two sons,
Caracalla and
Geta, in the two campaigns against the
Parthians of
194/195 and
197-199.
After the death of Septimius Severus, his sons Caracalla and Geta were initially joint emperors. Caracalla had Geta assassinated in
212; Geta's memorials were destroyed and all images or mentions of him were removed from public buildings and monuments. Accordingly Geta's image and inscriptions referring to him were removed from the arch.
Description
The arch was raised on a
travertine base originally approached by steps from the Forum's ancient level. The central archway, spanned by a richly
coffered semicircular
vault, has lateral openings to each side archway, a feature copied in many Early Modern triumphal arches.
The three archways rest on
piers, in front of which are detached
composite columns on
pedestals. Winged Victories are carved in relief in the
spandrels. A
staircase in the south pier leads to the top of the monument, on which were statues of the emperor and his two sons in a four-horse chariot (
quadriga), accompanied by soldiers.
History
The Arch stands close to the foot of the
Capitoline Hill. A flight of steps originally led to the central opening, as one still does to the
Arch of Trajan at Ancona. By the 4th century erosion had raised the level of the Forum so much that a roadway was put through the Arch for the first time. So much debris and silt eroded from the surrounding hills that the arch was embedded to the base of the columns. The damage wrought by wheeled medieval and early modern traffic can still be seen on the column bases, above the bas-reliefs of the socles.
During the Middle Ages repeated flooding of the low-lying Forum washed in so much additional sediment and debris that when Canaletto painted it in
1742, only the upper half of the Arch showed above ground. The well-preserved condition of the arch owes a good deal to its having been incorporated into the structure of a Christian church. When the church was refounded elsewhere, the arch remained ecclesiastical property and wasn't demolished for other construction.
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