The Trump administration said it will begin excavation within two weeks for President Trump’s “Great Triumphal Arch” near Arlington National Cemetery, despite ongoing legal challenges and the project still lacking final approval from federal planning authorities.
Mike Fontaine, is a Cornell professor of classics and the director of the Program on Freedom and Free Societies.
Fontaine says: “The triumphal arch isn't simply a decorative gateway. It's an architecture of military victory and political legitimacy. That raises an obvious historical question about Trump's proposed arch: what victory, exactly, does it commemorate?
“The Romans developed monumental arches during the Republic (i.e. democracy) to honor successful commanders and public achievements. Under the Empire (i.e. authoritarianism, monarchy), though, military glory increasingly became the emperor’s monopoly. The arch turned the temporary spectacle of a victory parade into a permanent feature of the city, so long after the event was over, everyone still had to move through the ruler’s version of history.
“The founders of the United States consciously borrowed the political and architectural vocabulary of the Roman Republic, but they were much more wary of the imagery of Roman emperors and military triumphators. There is surely a reason why they didn't choose to commemorate the American Revolution by imitating imperial Rome or Napoleonic France.
“More seriously, and ironically, this arch will commemorate the 250th anniversary of a republic by means of an architectural form closely associated with emperors, military conquest, and the projection of centralized power.”
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