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Arch of Alexander Severus
About
Thugga raised this triumphal arch in 228 CE to thank Alexander Severus for imperial favor, framing the road toward Carthage. It formed one of the town's grandest gateways for travelers arriving from the coast. In 117 CE, 111 years earlier, that road ran past open fields with no arch standing over it.
What happened here
It carries no gate and defends nothing. An arch marks a threshold — a boundary, a road junction, the entrance to a forum — and it exists to make you look up while you pass under it. The attic carries the dedication in bronze letters set into cut sockets; the letters go missing and the sockets stay. The panels beneath show the campaign being celebrated, arranged so that the version of events the emperor prefers is the one at eye level. Traffic goes through it all day, ox carts scraping the jambs. A triumph passes under it once, if at all; the rest of its working life is as a landmark, a meeting point and a shaded spot for someone selling something.
Sources
Nearby
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Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →