The white marble Arch of Septimius Severus at one end of the Roman Forum is a triumphal arch erected in 204 CE to commemorate the Parthian victories of the Emperor and his two sons Caracalla and Geta. The three archways rest on piers, in front of which are detached Composite columns on pedestals. The central archway, with a richly coffered semicircular vault, has lateral openings to the side archways, a feature copied in many Early modern triumphal arches. A staircase in the south pier leads to the summit, on which were statues of the Emperor and his two sons, in a quadriga or four-horse chariot, accompanied by with soldiers. Winged Victories are carved in relief in the spandrels.
After the death of Septimius Severus, when Caracalla had Geta assassinated in 212 CE, Geta's memorials were condemned, and all images or mentions of Geta were to be removed from all public buildings and monuments. Geta's image and all mention of him were removed from the arch.
The Arch stands close to the foot of the Capitoline Hill. A flight of steps originally led to the central opening, as they still do 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. During the Middle Ages, repeated flooding of the low-lying Forum washed so much additional sediment and debris that when Canaletto painted it in 1742, only the upper half of the Arch showed above ground (illustration, right). 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 was not delapidated for other construction.
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