Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

ARCUS.. ARCUS TRIUMPHALIS. 125
of the present article by the late Sir William — to erect bridges and aqueducts, and the most
Gell. Thus it seems that the Greeks did under- durable and massive structures of brick. The
stand the constructive principle upon which arches Romans, however, never used any other form of
arch than the semicircle. [A. R.]
ARCUS TRIUMPHA'LIS (a triumphal arch),
was a structure peculiar to the Romans, among
whom it seems to have taken its origin from the
Porta Triumnphalis, the gate by which a general
celebrating a triumph led his army into the city, on
which occasions the gate was adorned with trophies
and other memorials of the particular victory celebrated. In process of time other arches were
erected, both at Rome and in the provinces, to
celebrate single victories, the memorials of which
were carved upon them or fixed to them, and these
remained as permanent monuments. They even
came to be erected in memory of a victory for
which there had been no triumph; nay, even to
commemorate other events than victories. That
at Ancona, for example, was erected in honour of
Trajan, when he had improved the harbour of the
are formed, even in the earliest times; although city at his own expense.
it did not occur to them to divide the circle by a Triumphal arches were insulated structures
diameter, and set the half of it upright to bear a built across the principal streets of the city,
superincumbent weight. But they made use of a and, according to the space of their respective
contrivance even before the Trojan war, by which localities, consisted of either a single arch-way,
they were enabled to gain all the advantages of our or of a central one for carriages, with two smaller
archway in making corridors, or hollow galleries, ones on each side for foot passengers, which
and which in appearance resembled the pointed sometimes have side communications with the
arch, such as is now termed Gothic. This was centre arch. Sometimes there were two arches of
effected by cutting away the superincumbent stones equal height, side by side. Each front was ornain the manner already described, at an angle of mented with trophies aand bas-reliefs, which were
about 450 with the horizon. The mode of con- also placed on the sides of the passages. Both
struction and appearance of such arches is repre- favades had usually columns against the piers,
sented in the annexed drawing of the walls of supporting an entablature, surmounted by a lofty
Tiryns, copied from Sir William Gell's Argolis. attic, on the front of which was the inscription,
The gate of Signia (Segni) in Latium exhibits a and on the top of it bronze chariots, war-horses,
similar example. statues, and trophies.
Stertinius is the first upon record who erected
- -'Sb -,' any thing of the kind. He built an arch in the
Forum Boarium, about B. C. 196, and another
in the Circus Maximus, each of which was surmounted by gilt statues. (Liv. xxxiii. 27.) Six
years afterwards, Scipio Africanus built another on
the Clivus Capitolinns, on which he placed seven
Ah9' "~ \. 4 A gilt statues and two figures of horses (Liv. xxxvii.'~"':l At ) -i- 3); and in B. C. 121, Fabius Maximus built a
fourth in the Via Sacra, which is called by Cicero
(in Verr. i. 7) the Fossir Fmbianus. None of
i. these remain, the Arch of Augustus at Rimini
4'.. being one of the earliest among those still stand-. -i'..r.. ij,~il>,,~ X ling. That these erections were either temporary
or very insignificant, may be inferred from the
silence of Vitruvius, who says nothing of.triumphal
— w A -- spl'tarches. We might be sure, from the nature of
the case, that such structures would especially' ]! \~ ~:]~~- - l ll mark the period of the empire.
There are twenty-one arches recorded by dif
r\ < — -- -:' — = —~ - ~~~ ~~~_~.__ ferent writers as having been erected in the city
of Rome, five of which now remain:- 1. Anc as
Drusi, which was erected to the honour of Nero
Claudius Drusus on the Appian way. (Suet.
Clcud. 1.) 2. A trcs Titi, at the foot of the
The principle of the true arch seems to have Palatine, which was erected to the honour of
been known to the Romans from the earliest Titus, after his conquest of Judaea, but was not
period: it is used in the Cloaca Maximna. It is finished till after his death; since in the inscripmost probably an Etruscan invention. The use of tion upon it he is called Dices, and he is also
it constitutes one leading distinction between represented as being carried up to heaven upon an
Greek and Roman architecture, for by its applica- eagle. The bas-reliefs of this arch represent the
tion the Romans were enabled to execute works spoils from the temple of Jerusalem carried in
of far bolder construction than those of the Greeks | triumphal procession; and are among the best