cultural

Arch of Septimius Severus Dedicated in Rome

Date

203

Part of

cultural

In 203, a white arch rose in the Roman Forum, proclaiming Septimius Severus’ Parthian victories and restoration of the state. Its inscription later lost a name—Geta’s—scraped away after fraternal murder. Stone celebrated power; stone recorded erasure.

What Happened

Victories demand memory. For a soldier‑emperor who had marched from Pannonia to Syria and back, memory needed a frame of stone. In 203, masons finished a triple‑arched monument at the northwest edge of the Roman Forum, its creamy travertine catching the midday light. The Arch of Septimius Severus spoke in reliefs and in Latin, celebrating Parthian campaigns and the claim to have “restored the state and extended the Roman people’s rule”—ob rem publicam restitutam imperiumque populi Romani propagatum [10][12].

The location mattered. Between the Curia and the Capitol, the arch stood in the old city’s political throat. Senators could not walk to debate without passing beneath it. Merchants threading their carts across the Forum heard wagon axles creak and saw, above them, sculpted scenes of standards recaptured and cities humbled. The soundscape of commerce met the iconography of conquest.

The message traveled beyond marble. Denarii struck in the same years showed the arch in miniature on their reverses, a portable Forum for every purse. Citizens in Londinium, Carthage, and Antioch could buy bread or bronze lamps with Severan victories stamped into silver. The emperor understood the circuit: stone fixed glory in the capital; coins carried it to the provinces [14][5].

Then the arch recorded a different truth. In 211–212, after Septimius Severus died at Eboracum, his sons tried co‑rule. Caracalla murdered Geta, purged his supporters, and forced Rome to forget. Geta’s name, originally carved into the arch’s dedicatory inscription, was chiseled away—letters cut to smooth scars where “GETAE” once stood. CIL VI 1033 preserves the formula; the stone itself preserves the absence [10][11].

So the arch told two stories. One, about empire expanding east into Mesopotamia. Another, about family power contracting under a single murderous heir. The color of the marble did not change, but its meaning did. Travelers from the Subura to the Capitoline read both, whether they wanted to or not.

Why This Matters

The arch functioned as state media before paper—linking military success, legal authority, and public space. It gave visual form to Severus’ claim that he restored and expanded Roman imperium, reinforcing the legitimacy of a military principate in the city’s most symbolic corridor [10][12].

It perfectly fits “Propaganda Through Stone and Silver.” The same imagery appeared on coins, making ideology circulate as currency. Art and money spoke together, in marble and in metal, across three continents [14][5].

Its later erasures teach how the Severans wielded memory. Damnatio memoriae turned chisels into political tools, removing Geta from civic space while keeping the scar visible. The monument thus became a palimpsest of victory and violence, a durable source for historians and passersby alike [10][11].