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Next we come to the Arch of Septimius, built A.D. 203. It formerly bore an inscription, probably in letters of bronze, setting forth the virtues of the Emperor and his sons Caracalla and Geta. But Caracalla murdered his brother and caused his name to be erased from the arch; hence the unevenness in the third and fourth line of the sockets by which the inscription can still be read. The reliefs illustrate the Parthian and Arabian campaigns of Severus and, as historical documents, have a certain value; but as a work of art they merely demonstrate the decadence into which, by that time, Roman art had fallen.