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Arch of Gallienus, Rome

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Arco di Gallieno

The Arch of Gallienus was built in Rome in 262 on the site of the Porta Esquilina, the start of the via Labicana and via Tiburtina. It was built by a private citizen, the equestrian Marcus Aurelius Victor, and dedicated to the emperor Gallienus and his wife Cornelia Salonina.

It still stands in the Via di S. Vito (the ancient Clivus Suburanus - the sequel, the Via S. Madonna dei Monti, follows the course of the ancient Argiletum, the main road to the Roman Forum).

Already in the Augustan period the Porta Esquilina should be included in the Esquiline Forum, that included the market called the Macellum Liviae. When these buildings were abandoned in late antiquity, the diaconia and monastery of San Vito (cited in the Einsiedeln Itinerary) took them over, cited already in the itinerary of Einsiedeln. It is this church against which the arch's remains now rest.([1] and [2])

The surviving single arch is of travertine, 8.80 metres high, 7.30 wide, and 3.50 deep. The piers which support it are 1.40 metres wide and 3.50 deep, and outside of them are two pilasters of the same depth, with Corinthian capitals. The entablature is 2 metres high with the dedicatory inscription on the architrave. Beneath the spring of the arch on each side is a simple cornice. A drawing (HJ 343) of the 15th century shows small side arches, but all traces of them have since disappeared (PAS ii.76; Sangallo, Barb. 25v.).

GALLIENO CLEMENTISSIMO PRINCIPI	To Gallienus, the most clement princeps,
CVIVS INVICTA VIRTVS SOLA PIETATE	whose unconquered virtus is only outdone
SVPERACTA EST ET SALONONAE	by his pietas, and to Salonina,
SANCTISSIMAE AVGVSTAE AVRELIVS	most holy Augusta, Aurelius
VICTOR V[ir] E[gregius] DICTATTISSIMVS	Victor, the excellent man, [dedicated this] in complete devotion
NVMINI MAIESTATISQVE EORVM	to their numines and majesties

These two surviving lines represent the end of an inscription. The large rectangular blank space above them had marble slabs fixed onto it, with the beginning of the inscription - the drilled holes for these slabs' metal fixings are still visible. These lost slabs probably named Gallienus's father Valerian as the first dedicatee (with Gallienus following in the dedication as the second dedicatee as Valerian's heir and co-emperor, rather than as sole emperor and first dedicatee). However, this would have been removed after Valerian was captured in the disastrous Parthian expedition of 259, leaving only the surviving inscription above that was carved into the architrave itself.

• Platner
• CIL VI.1106
• Livius Picture archive