ARCUS SEPTIMII SEVERI (in foro Boario)
ARCUS ARGENTARIORUM
MONUMENTUM ARGENTARIORUM
modern names given to an arch, which probably
served as an entrance to the
FORUM BOARIUM (q.v.), that stands at the
south-west angle of the church of S. Giorgio in Velabro, the campanile
resting partly upon one pier of the arch and concealing two of its sides.
It was erected in 204 A.D. by the
argentarii et negotiantes boarii huius
loci qui invehent, in honour of Septimius Severus, his wife, his sons
Caracalla and Geta, and Caracalla's wife Fulvia Plautilla, the daughter
of Plautianus (
CIL vi. 1035 ; cf. 31232). The inscription seems to have
been modified thrice-after the fall of Plautianus in 205, after the murder
of Plautilla in 211, and after the murder of Geta in 212.
The arch is not a true arch, but a flat lintel resting on two piers, and
is entirely of marble, except the base, which is of travertine. It is
6.15 metres in height and the archway is 3.30 metres wide. At the
corners of the piers are pilasters with Corinthian capitals, and the whole
exterior surface is adorned either with coarse decorative sculpture or
reliefs representing sacrificial scenes. On the inside the figures of the
imperial family are carved in relief (those of Plautilla and Geta have
been removed) ; the ceiling is cut in soffits, and the inscription is on the
lintel (Bull. d.
Inst. 1867, 217;
Jord. i. 2. 470;
PAS ii. 70;
LS iii. 42;
M61. 1924, 111-150; Fiechter and Hulsen ap.
Tobelmann i. 88-96; SScR
305; Reinach, Rep. des Reliefs, i. 271-272).
