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75 ft. in height, 82 ft. in breadth, and constructed entirely of marble. It was erected in honour of the emperor and his sons Caracalla and Geta in A.D. 203, to commemorate their victories over the Parthians, Arabians, and Adiabeni, and was surmonted by a bronze chariot with six horse, on which stood Severus, crowned by Victory. The letters of the inscription were inlaid with metal, as was usual in such cases. Caracalla afterwards erased the name of his brother Geta, whom he had murdered. The gap thus made was filled by the addition of the words 'Father of his country, the best and bravest princes', to the titles of Caracalla and his father.
In the spandrels of the main arch are figures of Victory and of the seasons; in the spandrels of the side arches are the river-gods of the conquered countries. Over the side of the arches are crowded scened from the wars of the emperor. On the pedestals of the columns, Captive barbarians. All these figures are in the degraded style of the sculpture of that period. In the middle ages the arch was temporarely converted by the ruling powers into a kind of castle, and was deeeply imbedded in rubbish, but it was unearthed by Pius VII in 1803.
The Arch of Severus, like other triumphal arches, was originally accessible by means of steps only, and for triumphal processions and on similar occasions a carriage-way through the central span had to be made by means of planks or by heaping up earth.