View of the arch at dusk.
The Arch of Argentarians is a small door located in Rome, attached to the portico of the church of San Giorgio al Velabro. It has a form of architraved door, so it is not really an arch as its modern name indicates.
The monument was erected in 204, at the point where the old urban road of the vicuna Jugarium overlooked the Boario Forum square, in the present area of the square of the Bocca della Verità. It is a private dedication of the argentarii et negociantes boari huius loci (the bankers and merchants of this place) to the Augustors Septimius Severus and Caracalla, to Caesar Geta, Julia Domna, wife of Septimius Severus, and Fulvia Plaucila, wife of Caracalla. The inscriptions were soon produced by the Damnatio Memoriae, erasing the names of Plaucila (exiled in 205 and dead in 211) and Geta (died in 212). At first the dedication conserved perhaps also the prefect of the pretorio Cayo Fulvio Plauciano, fallen in 205.
The monument has a height of 6.80 m and a width of 5.86 m. The door is made up of a marble architrave supported by two large pilasters, decorated with angels, of which the most oriental was half-built in the 7th century in the church of San Giorgio in Velabro. The structure is lined with white marble tiles, while the basement is travertine. It is probable that the statues of the imperial family were placed on the arch.
The decoration is rich, with vegetable motifs and covers all available spaces (horror vacui), freeing itself for figurative spaces: On the southern side the dedicatory inscription, which overlaps the frieze and the architrave of the work, is framed by two bas-reliefs representing Hercules and a genius. The panels of the interior of the passage present reliefs with scenes of sacrifice, with the figures symmetrically opposed: in the right side are represented Septimio Severo and Julia Domna, whereas a erased figure had to represent Geta; and on the left side Caracalla, which originally had Plaucila and Plauciano next, then also erased by the damnatio memoriae. On the outer side of the western pillar, the panel depicts barbarian soldiers and prisoners, while on the front side, between the two angular lesions decorated with Roman banners, a figure with a short robe is preserved. Complete the same, on the larger reliefs, smaller panels with Victories or eagles, and under it, scenes of immolation of the sacrificed victims. Bibliography
Coordinates: 41 ° 53'22.24 "N 12 ° 28'58.71" E / 41.8895111, 12.4829750
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