SITES IN PULA
The private memorial arch of the Sergii family was raised late in the 1st century BCE or early in the 1st century CE to the rear of the Golden Gate (Porta Aurea), inside the walls of the Roman colony of Pola. It is among the earliest triumphal arches of the imperial era. The richly decorated arch is a true treasure trove of figural motifs with symbolic meaning. The iconographic program of the relief and lost sculptural decoration includes funerary, heroic, honorary, and triumphal symbolism. The eastern side, abutting the city gate, has no relief work; all the figural decoration and epigraphic content is on the western side, visible from inside the city. The western sides of the arch's pilasters are adorned with acanthus clusters and tendrils, while the inner sides feature vine tendrils emerging from acanthus clusters, which differ in detail on the two piers. On the north pier, the vine tendrils incorporate mating birds and a bird pecking at grapes.
The inside of the arch is covered with diagonal coffers featuring rosettes and palmettes. The triangular interspaces along the edges of the coffered field are filled with fantastic creatures: sphinxes, eagle-headed griffins with the body of a lion or sea monsters, ceti, various hippocampi with heads of horses or hippos, and depictions of a dog and a panther. At the centre is a coffer depicting an eagle seizing a snake, framed by triangles with depictions of dolphins. An eagle with a snake symbolises heroic apotheosis. In the corners above the arch, there is a pair of floating Victories carrying a wreath and a tropaeum. Five inscriptions, one on the frieze and four on the attic, contain the names of three men and one woman, from two generations of the family.
The frieze above the architrave bears the inscription of Salvia Postuma, the dedicant of the arch. She was born into the Salvia family and entered the Sergii family through marriage. Salvia commissioned and personally financed the construction of the arch following the death of the other family members. The inscription is placed between facing depictions of light chariots with two harnessed horses (a biga). The charioteers, the celestial deities Aurora and Luna, are depicted with trailing cloaks. To the sides, above the architrave that tops the piers, there is a frieze with two Erotes carrying festoons and a bucranium with a garland set around its horns. Above the festoons are rosettes. The frieze on the side panels of the piers is decorated with the relief depiction of piled weapons.
At the are three pedestals with inscriptions on which the statues of three Sergii once stood facing the city. To the left, on the northern side, is the pedestal of Lucius Sergius, son of Gaius, husband of Salvia Postuma, aedile and duumvir of Pola. At the centre is the pedestal of his son, Lucius Sergius Lepidus, aedile of Pola and military tribune of the XXIX legion, which was disbanded after the Battle of Actium. The right, southern pedestal bears an inscription honouring Gnaeus Sergius, son of Gaius, aedile and quinquennial duumvir of Pola, Lepidus's uncle and Salvia's brother-in-law. Between the statues of her husband and son stood a statue of Salvia Postuma. Lucius Sergius Lepidus, a member of a prominent decurional family in Pola, participated in the civil war after Caesar's assassination on the side of Octavian Augustus and died young, having just taken the first steps towards a senatorial career. Towards the end of her life, the grieving mother erected a triumphal arch at the main entrance to her city in honour of her family, replete with symbols celebrating the hero and the nascent imperial rule.
