Parthian Arch

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Denarius, 18 BC From Tarraco , representation of the Parthian Arch, RIC ² I, 136

As Partherbogen one is triumphal arch in the Roman Forum in Rome referred to the 19 v. At the instigation of the Senate for Augustus .

Reason and place of installation

Remains of the arch south of the Caesar temple

The reason for the establishment was the return of the standard , which under Crassus in 53 BC. Were lost to the Parthians in the battle of Carrhae . Augustus succeeded in the year 20 BC. Taking advantage of a crisis in the Parthian Empire, without major military action to persuade the Parthian King Phraates IV to return. This symbolic act was hyped up in Rome to a victory over the Parthians. In this context, Cassius Dio narrates that Augustus was honored by the Senate with "a trophy-adorned bow". In a medieval scholion on Virgil's Aeneid (7, 606) there is a reference that Victorias , which represent the return of the standard, were attached to an arch next to the temple of Divus Iulius in the Roman Forum. In fact, the remains of a three -sided arch found between the Divus Iulius and Dioskur temples have been found that fit both the written records and the coin images of the Parthian Arch.

  • The remains of the arch from the southeast

  • The remains of the arch from a northwest perspective

Problems

Situation plan south of the Caesar temple: foundations of the three-sided arch, foundations by Gamberini Montgenet and Castor temple
Denarius of L. Vinicius, 16 BC BC, representation of the Parthian Arch (?), RIC ² I, 359

In addition to the Arch of the Parthians, the so-called Arch of Actium was built ten years earlier for Augustus in the Roman Forum on the occasion of his victory in the Battle of Actium over Mark Antony and Cleopatra . The location of this arch has not been established with absolute certainty. Therefore the already mentioned foundation is sometimes mentioned as belonging to the Actium arch.

The coin images from the years 29 to 16 BC Chr. Give different arcs, which are to be connected with those of the forum. One emission shows a single-door arch with a quadriga and a driver on the attic , which is labeled IMP.CAESAR. Round picture fields, imagines clipeata , adorn the arched pillars. Since the 27 BC The honorary title awarded to Octavian is still missing, the coins are dated before this year and generally refer to the arch of the year 29 BC. Chr. Related. However, the possibility cannot be ruled out that the coins refer to an arch decided by the Senate after Octavian's victory at Naulochos . Some coin series from the western provinces show a three-sided arch, on the attic of which a quadriga with Augustus can be seen, but this time flanked by barbarians wearing trousers and handing him the regained signa . The circulating legend names the occasion, the August title and the sixth tribunic power of Augustus, which he took in 17/16 BC. Chr. Held. The assignment to the Parthian Arch is undisputed. Another series comes from the mint master of the year 16 BC. Chr. Lucius Vinicius . It shows a very similar motif as the provincial coins, but shows the side passages not as arches, but flatly covered and crowned by small gables. The parapet is labeled SPQR / IMP.CAE. It is unclear which arch should be shown. Because the minting of this period, which is related to the 17 BC The Ludi saeculares celebrated in the 3rd century BC and opened the new "Golden Age" consciously fall back on events from the end of the Roman Republic : Philippi , Naulochos , Actium. In this context, an interpretation of the arch shown as an Actium arch is possible.

A second theory is therefore that two foundations immediately to the east of those of the three-sided arch are remnants of the Actium arch, which was never completely constructed and then removed again. According to a third theory, the foundations that emerged immediately to the north and thus on the opposite side of the Divus Iulius Temple are the remains of one of the two Augustan arches. However, there seems to have been no room for a three-sided arch at this point. The medieval Scholion emphasizes the close proximity of the Parthian Arch to the Divus Iulius Temple. The coin images from the western provinces show it three-sided. The most obvious assumption is therefore that the proven remains of the three-sided arch are precisely those of the Parthian Arch. However, the thesis, which is not accepted in research, is also held that the Arch of the Parthians never was built.

literature

  • Fritz Toebelmann : Roman entablature. Winter, Heidelberg 1923, pp. 23-24.
  • Filippo Coarelli : Il Foro Romano. Volume 2: Periodo Repubblicano e Augusteo. Quasar, Rome 1985, ISBN 88-85020-68-2 , pp. 258-308.
  • Elisabeth Nedergaard: On the problem of the Augustus arches in the Roman Forum. In: Mathias Hofter (ed.): Emperor Augustus and the lost republic. An exhibition in the Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, June 7th - August 14th, 1988. von Zabern, Mainz 1988, ISBN 3-8053-1007-2 , pp. 224-239.
  • Marion Roehmer : The arch as a state monument. On the political significance of the Roman honor arches of the 1st century AD (= sources and research on the ancient world. Volume 28). Tuduv, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-88073-557-3 , pp. 19-32, (also: dissertation, University of Cologne 1995).
  • John W. Rich: Augustus's Parthian honors. The temple of Mars Ultor and the arch in the Roman Forum. In: Papers of the British School at Rome. Volume 66, 1998, pp. 69-128, doi : 10.1017 / S0068246200004244 .
  • Torsten Mattern : cornice and ornament. On urban Roman architecture from the Republic to Septimius Severus. Scriptorium, Münster 2001, ISBN 3-932610-11-3 , pp. 142-143.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Cassius Dio, Roman History 54,8,3.
  2. ↑ Cassius Dio, Roman History 51,19,1.
  3. ^ RIC² I, 267.
  4. ↑ Cassius Dio, Roman History 49.15.1; so Filippo Coarelli: Il Foro Romano. Volume 2, Quasar, Rome 1985, pp. 258-308; Paul Zanker : Augustus and the power of images. CH Beck, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-406-32067-8 , p. 64; see. Robert Alan Gurval: Actium and Augustus. The Politics and Emotions of Civil War. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor MI 1995, ISBN 0-472-10590-6 , pp. 40-47.
  5. ↑ RIC² I, 131-137.
  6. ↑ Walter Trillmich : Coin Propaganda. In: Mathias Hofter (ed.): Emperor Augustus and the lost republic. An exhibition in the Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, June 7th - August 14th, 1988. von Zabern, Mainz 1988, pp. 474–528, here pp. 515 f.
  7. ↑ RIC² I, 359th
  8. ↑ Walter Trillmich: Coin Propaganda. In: Mathias Hofter (ed.): Emperor Augustus and the lost republic. An exhibition in the Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, June 7th - August 14th, 1988. von Zabern, Mainz 1988, pp. 474–528, here pp. 488 f .; see also: Hans-Werner Ritter: Considerations on the inscription of the Arch of Augustus on the Roman Forum. In: Communications from the German Archaeological Institute. Roman department . Volume 85, 1978, pp. 371-384.
  9. ^ Christopher J. Simpson: On the Unreality of the Parthian Arch. In: Latomus . Volume 51, Number 4, 1991, pp. 835-842, JSTOR 41536451 ; Christopher J. Simpson: The Original Site of the Fasti Capitolini. In: Historia . Volume 42, Number 1, 1993, pp. 61-81, JSTOR 4436271 .