ARCHITECTURE. G1 
-archivolts are in a pure and handsome style. The middle arch is 38 feet high 
by 22 feet span. The little arches are 23 feet high and about 10} wide. 
The arches have beautiful deep panels with rosettes. The three arches 
communicate with each other through little doors which are also arched. 
The keystones of the great arch are adorned with armed warriors, and 
the archivolts with Genii of Glory with trophies; those of the smaller ones 
with Victories with palm branches. Over the little arches there is between 
the columns, first a frieze with a triumphal procession, and over that 
bas-reliefs with many figures representing battle scenes, indifferently exe- 
cuted. Here the decline of art that distinguished this period is very 
evident. There are no bas-reliefs upon the great frieze or the attic. In 
the interior of the arch is a staircase leading to a platform, upon which, 
formerly, was a triumphal chariot with six horses abreast, upon which 
stood statues of Septimius Severus, Caracalla, and Geta. The money changers 
and traders erected a little triumphal arch in honor of the emperor 
‘serving as an entrance to the Forum Boarium. Here Severus was represented 
with his wife Julia, and his sons Caracalla and Geta sacrificing. But later, 
after Caracalla had murdered his brother Geta, he carried his hatred to the 
degree of removing his figure from this bas-relief. 
An important building of the emperor Septimius Severus was the Septi- 
zonium, of which pl. 18, fig. 10, gives the general view. The emperor erected 
it as a family sepulchre on the Appian Way. His funeral urn was not, how- 
ever, placed here, but in the tomb of the Antonines, 2. e. of Hadrian, but 
the body of Geta was buried here. Nothing remains of this building, but 
Martianus has left a description of it, from the extensive ruins existing in 
histime. There were seven tiers of columns one over the other, but according 
to others there were only three stories with seven rows of columns. 
Sixtus V. took a great many yellow marble columns from this monument 
for St. Peter’s. It seems asif the vision of the Tower of Baal at Babylon 
had floated before the minds of the builders of this monument, and of 
Hadrian’s mausoleum. 
Septimius Severus built also a great number of splendid dwelling-houses, 
which he presented to his friends. One of these houses was called the 
Palace of the Parthians, and another the Lateran. The Pantheon, the Porch 
of Octavia, and the temple of Jupiter Tonans, were repaired by him. 
15. Caracatta. Upon the buildings which bear the name of Septimius 
Severus appears also that of his son Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Pius, for 
he received the name Caracalla from the tabard which he wore, and which 
he enjoined his soldiers to wear. To the buildings which he independ- 
ently erected belong préeminently the baths, whose walls yet remain, and which 
bear witness to the extent of the undertaking, which seems to have surpassed 
all similar ones. The masonry is of brick, and looks as in its best days. 
The vaults are all cast work, made, however, not of tufa but of pumice ; and 
are firm and light, for which reason they do not weigh heavily upon 
their supports. Some of them were so flat that it was supposed they had a 
metal support within. They now lie in rubbish, and it is evident that there 
‘was no metal, but that they held by their own lightness. The excavated 
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