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 ARCH OF JANUSOn the Via del Velabro, a name that recalls the marshy river bank (Velabrum) of the Tiber river, where the legendary she-wolf is said to have found Romulus and Remus, a great arch rises above an arm of the Cloaca Maxima. It has passages on all four sides, but it was not dedicated to the god Janus, as one might suppose from the name Ianus Quadrifrons. Ianus in latin simply means passage, and quadrifrons refers to the four fronts of the arch.
In all likelihood, the arch served as a roofed street crossing in the midst of the lively commercial quarter, providing a meeting point for the traders on the Forum Boarium. It is listed in the antique regional directories as arcus constantini, which suggests that it may have been built in the first half of the 4th c. A.D.. Fragments of a dedicatory inscription in the walls of the façade and the interior of the neighboring church, S. Giorgio in Velabro, are thought to have once been part of this building. The arch is faced in marble and its subdivided on the exterior by two rows of shell-shaped niches framed by delicately profiled columns that probably once held statues. The tops of the four arches have reliefs of Roma and Juno seated, and Minerva and Ceres standing. It was originally completed with an attic, which was demolished by mistake when a tower built atop it - in the medieval period by the Frangipane family - was demolished in 1830.
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