In 79 A.D., Gaius Plinius Secundus, known today as Pliny the Elder, was the supreme commander of the Roman imperial fleet, permanently stationed at Misenum near Naples. He died during the eruption of Vesuvius, after sailing across the bay on a valiant but unsuccessful rescue mission. Amid such heavy responsibilities, Pliny also wrote one of antiquity’s great encyclopedic works. He read and excerpted books of all kinds, and he knew something about Roman monuments. On the form and meaning of the triumphal arch, his explanation was characteristically blunt: “The point of columns with statues on top is to raise a The post Fornication in America: Trump’s Arch, Rome’s Emperors, and the Meaning of Victory appeared first on War on the Rocks .