The Arch of Septimius Severus () at the northwestern end of the Roman Forum is a white marble triumphal arch dedicated in 203 AD 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 Rome; in the practice now known as damnatio memoriae, Geta's memorials were destroyed and all images or mentions of him were removed from street buildings and monuments. Accordingly, Geta's image and inscriptions referring to him were removed from the arch.
The Severan dynasty were avid builders of triumphal or honorary arches, especially in the Roman Empire; the Arch of Septimius Severus in the emperor's hometown of Leptis Magna, Libya was built in the same year. The Monumental Arch of Palmyra is also sometimes called the "Arch of Septimius Severus".
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 Arch is about in height and wide. The arch bears two sets of reliefs. The first set includes four large panels on each face of the attic and the second set consists of eight panels that are set into the inner face of the four archways.
thumb|upright|[[The Arch of Septimius Severus painted by Canaletto in 1742, before the excavation of the Roman Forum (Royal Collection, UK)]]
The three archways rest on piers, which are 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. Previously, the top of the arch had statues of the emperor and his two sons in a four-horse chariot (quadriga), accompanied by soldiers.
The master architect is unknown, but he worked with a skill level that allowed him to create the arch in a quick and traditional manner. Although traditional with the columns, piers, and cornices, the style in which the architect shows the effects of texture, and the prominent and versatile planes, show a hint of deviation from the classical style. According the scholar Richard Brilliant, the variety of styles shown on the arch signify that many different workshops and sculptors were involved. This was a way to have the commission completed quickly. Brilliant made this conclusion by identifying how the same models for the motifs have small differences throughout the reliefs. Even individual sections such as the panels, middle reliefs, and column pedestals have distinctive techniques or styles that must have come from separate artists. These sculptures most likely acted as trophy-bearers. The attic was designed to decoratively frame the inscription on the arch.
Coins with images of the arch began to be created by Septimius and Caracalla in order to show the Romans the completion of this work. Emperor Septimius Severus decided to name his sons Geta and Caracalla heirs to his throne where they were meant to rule alongside each other. After the Death of Septimius Severus, Geta was murdered by his brother Caracalla.
Topography
thumb|In its setting
Many triumphal arches are in the Sacra Via, which is the triumphal procession inside the Roman Forum. This made the arch of Septimius Severus stand out as an independent arch. Because of its positioning near the comitium, only people who got around on foot could witness the monument. 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, given 1199 by Pope Innocent III to the church of Ss. Sergio and Bacco. Half the Arch belonged to the Cimini family, who is also attributed for the preservation of the structure (Claustrum Cimini). The stronghold included a tower placed on top of the Arch itself. When the church was refounded elsewhere, the arch remained ecclesiastical property and was not demolished for other construction.
In English:
"To the emperor Caesar Lucius Septimius Severus Pius Pertinax Augustus Parthicus Arabicus Parthicus Adiabenicus, son of Marcus, father of his country, Pontifex Maximus, in the eleventh year of his tribunician power, in the eleventh year of his rule, consul thrice, and proconsul, and to the emperor Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus Pius Felix, son of Lucius, in the sixth year of his tribunician power, consul, and proconsul (fathers of their country, the best and bravest emperors), on account of the restored republic and the rule of the Roman people spread by their outstanding virtues at home and abroad, The Roman Senate and People (sc. dedicate this monument)"
Septimius Severus was ruling jointly as emperor with his son Caracalla (Marcus Aurelius Antoninus) when the arch was dedicated. The parenthesized section in the middle is text that replaced an original reference to his other son Geta, which was chiseled out upon Geta's damnatio memoriae by Caracalla to erase his memory in history.