 everyone. This is Ancient Rome Live, a live lecture. We're going to be talking about the lost triumphal arches of Rome. First, we'll take a brief look at what the triumphal route was, who celebrated it. We'll look at the triumphal arches that are preserved, and then we'll look at the arches that have been lost, what remains of those arches. The triumphal procession is a route that would change over time. It was celebrated by Republican generals, and then exclusively the Roman Emperor. You won a great victory for the state, so you were god for a day with a special ticker tape parade. You were in a chariot, and your face was painted red like the Colt statue of Jupiter Optimus Maximus. The culmination of your procession. There were your troops. There were captured barbarians. There were spoils of war. There were painted panels depicting the moments of battle that were critical. And of course the people turned out for this incredible display of pageantry, particularly in the Circus Maximus. That was the great venue to view all of that material. Essentially though you waited outside the magical boundary line of the city, the Pomerium. Somewhere in the campus marshes, you got your approval and started your route, which could vary, but essentially over time it's roughly a very similar route. And you're making your way from the floodplain the campus marshes. For example, the station was waiting, we know, at the Portuguese of Octavia in the Circus Dominius area, and then made his way through the Velaverum in the form Boerium, and essentially is then circling the Palatine Hill, the epicenter historic epicenter of the original city, founded by Romulus on the Palatine Hill. So you passed through the Circus Maximus, you made your way over to the Valley of the Colosseum, turning at the Metasudans, and you went into the Roman Forum on the Via Sacra, and then up the Via Clevis Capitolinas to the Temple of Jupiter, Optimus Maximus on the Capitoline Hill. Some arches are preserved on that route. Let's take a look at those three first. You have the Arch of Titus, celebrating the victory of Titus and Vespasian. When you had that famous revolt in Judea, this was built by Domitian to honor his brother after he died after a short reign of Rome, having succeeded Vespasian. So there are some nuanced realities associated with each individual arch as well. It celebrates the triumph of Titus, but Titus didn't build it. It does celebrate Titus because his younger brother Domitian wanted to have that association and attachment to his brother who had been successful and had celebrated a triumph. Domitian hadn't yet celebrated his own triumphs. Here is the Arch of Septimius Severus, and you see a representation of a panel, a painted panel that would have been carried in the processions, but here's a stone version of it showing some of the battles that Septimius Severus won over the Parthians. So this is the famous Parthian Arch of Septimius Severus in the heart of the Forum versus the Arch of Titus that was on the hill, the Velia hill overlooking the Roman Forum. And this is quite magnificent and so much better preserved than the Arch of Titus, which is heavily restored by Velidie. And this is the third arch preserved from Imperial Rome, the Arch of Constantine, reutilizing famously so much art from previous emperors. Here we can see some panels from a lost arch of Marcus Aurelius, we'll be talking about a lot of lost arches today, and that's already a clue that some of the material from the lost arches are recycled in later structures such as the Arch of Constantine over in the valley of the Colosseum next to the Metasudans. So on that famous trample route, although what kind of triumph was this? It wasn't against the foreign foe, it was for defeating the forces of Mccentius, the previous emperor. So what's missing? What can we talk about? What's missing from ancient Rome? Let's start off with the Arch of Augustus. The Arch of Augustus celebrated the Parthian defeat of 20 BC, more a political victory than a physical war victory, but we see it here preserved as a background structure on the Anaglipha Triani, currently located in the Coria Giulia in the Forum. Not much of it survives in the Forum today, next to the Temple of the Castors. This is the Arch of Tiberius. Well, what's left of it? It is subject to dispute in the Roman Forum, but here it is preserved again on the Anaglipha Triani panel, and it's shown here between on the left the Temple of Saturn and on the right the Temple of Concordia. So it's on the Vigis Jugadius and it celebrates the triumph of Tiberius in 8016, returning the standards lost in Germany previously. The Arch of Nero is an arch where we have very little of it, really nothing except for this coin. Through a great study by Fred Kleiner, we know that it was a huge physical presence on the capitaline hill along the slopes, and it was indeed demolished after his death, but originally intended to celebrate a victory over the Parthians. There were two arches of Domitian, one on the Cleavus Pilatinas and one in the Forum Boerium. It seems that they're reduced or removed or renamed after his death, that famous assassination in 8096, but that arch that we see right here in the panel of Marcus Aurelius' triumph very well could be that arch that was built by Domitian. Here is an arch of Trajan, preserved on a coin, also originally located on the capitaline hill in the Temple of Jupiter, Optimus Maximus, celebrating his Decian victory, we think, is most likely. The arch of Marcus Aurelius we've already referred to, a number of the panels, eight are embedded into the arch of Constantine, with the face of the emperor recarved to look like Constantine, but there are another four that are on display in the capitaline museums today. It seems that all these panels are associated with an arch once located next to the Curia and the Forum of Caesar, roughly in the location, roughly in location of the Church of Luca and Martina, the Baroque Church, so in that nearby vicinity. And there are three triumphal arches that straddle the road known as Via Lata or the Via Flaminia, today's Via del Corso, that then have a sad and sorry end because we can walk along that road today and we will not see those three arches, but they were attributed to some of the great emperors of the city, Claudius, Hadrian, and quite possibly Aurelian. So let's take a look at the first one chronologically, the Arch of Claudius was celebrating a victory over Britain and we have the inscription partially preserved and we can read on one of the lines, Regis Brit, and we have his name at the top, type of area is Claudius, as we discovered in the Renaissance times, we also have a panel associated with this arch that depicts a group of Victorian soldiers. This literally was originally straddling the Via Lata and it's this sort of attitude in the Renaissance times and beyond that you're interested in widening the street with the first thing you need to do is remove the arch that's restricting the passageway on the street. Same thing goes to the Arch of Portugal, the Portogallo Arch, which was named in the 16th century due to the fact that it was next to the Embassy of Portugal. Now it seems to be a later arch reutilizing earlier reliefs, three of Hadrianic date, so they're being used as Spolia and quite possibly due to its proximity to the temple of Hadrian it could have been originally associated with an arch that tied to the divinity of Hadrian. This is conjecture but it is quite possible that's where those reliefs came from keeping in mind that ultimately we don't have so much to go on because in the 17th century this arch was obliterated. Here we have the Arch of Portugal, here are those three panels, we have Hadrian addressing the populace including the genius of the sent in the people of Rome, Hadrian addressing Roma and then we have a seated Hadrian in the Capuch Marches area looking at his wife ascending to the heavens her apotheosis being cared in the back of a Victoria angelic like figure. Finally we have the Arcus Novus also in the Violata celebrating 10 years of the reign of Diocletian but it's using previously existing panels possibly from a Julio Claudian altar of Piatos which today we find inserted into the façade of Vila Medici on the Pinchot Hill. This arch again was destroyed in the case of the expansion of the church of Sentimentia de Lata and there were other 16th century Spolia found that could have been or would have been part of the entrance to the temple of Sol built by Aurelian. They've been transported to the Boboli Gardens along with some barbarian figures and their statue bases. Let's take a look at the Boboli Gardens in Florence and see the exquisite remains of the arch that could have actually had an earlier life as part of the decoration of the temple of Sol built by Aurelian. This is again one of these famous temples that's disappeared from record. How rare it is to have these figures in porphyry exquisite stone. Their hands are held together a sign of submission and we take a look at the bases. We see great example of what's being produced in the third century. We see a victory figure. We see Catherine Pollux and a kneeling figure with chains. Their arms behind her back. She's kneeling in submission. So many details. Such rich history that helps us understand and reconstruct the lost, triumphal arches of Imperial Rome. Thanks for joining and be sure to subscribe to our newsletter to get the link for future live lectures.