Identification: Arcus Severianus Following a suggestion by Jordan, the authors of PM 1960 tentatively identified the inscription in this fragment as area Severiana (PM 1960, p. 158). E. Rodriguez-Almeida, however, proposed that this lost piece joined with fr. 681, also lost, and that the full inscription read: AR[CUS]/[SE]VERIAN[US]/ME[NIA], thus labeling the Arch of Septimius Severus in the Roman Forum (AG 1980, p. 170, fig. 45). The monument shown in fr. 681, however, cannot be identified as the Severan arch, which must have appeared somewhere above or to the left of the inscription. Dedicated in 203 CE to Septimius Severus and his two sons, Caracalla and Geta, to commemorate Severus' Parthian victories, the 23 meter tall, free-standing, three-bayed arch stood in the NW corner of the Roman Forum, at the foot of the Capitoline hill (LTUR I, pp. 103-104). The square feature surrounded by four columns in fr. 681 is identified by the inscription ME[NIA]. It probably represented the columna Maenia or Menia, which is known to have stood close to the Arch of Septimius Severus in the Forum (AG 1980, p. 171; LTUR I, p. 106). If this interpretation is correct, the lost fragments must have been part of slabs V-10 or V-11, which covered the NW corner of the Roman Forum (AG 1980, p. 170; LTUR I, p. 106).

Significance This lost fragment is from an area of the Marble Plan that was destroyed when a passageway was punched through the wall of the aula in the 5th century. It is unlikely that many fragments from this area have survived, and the information provided by the Renaissance drawing of this fragment is therefore extremely valuable for our knowledge of this part of the Forum.

Text by Tina Najbjerg