Arch of Augustus
About
The Roman Senate dedicated this arch to Augustus in 27 BCE for restoring the Via Flaminia, and it stands today as the oldest surviving Roman triumphal arch. Carved from pale Istrian stone, it rises 9.92 meters at the point where the Via Flaminia met the Via Aemilia. Medallions of Jupiter, Apollo, Neptune, and Minerva face outward above its arch. Travelers on foot and horseback still pass beneath it, exactly as they did in 117 CE.
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
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 →