Porte Noire

The limestone arch was located at the southern end of the cardo, the main north-to-south route of a Roman city. It measured 5.6 metres in width and 11.2 metres in height, and its two facades were identical, of which the northern one is the better preserved.The arch lacks a dedication, but research has dated it to the second half of the second century AD, and the reign of the emperor Marcus Aurelius. It is believed that depictions of war show the victories of his adoptive brother and co-emperor Lucius Verus in the Roman–Parthian War of 161–166. Disturbances by the local Sequani Gallic tribe around 175 AD may have been the trigger event for erecting the arch, as a tribute to Marcus Aurelius restoring peace. A differing hypothesis is that the arch commemorates the same emperor's victory over Germanic peoples in 176 AD, and that this would be more likely than an arch remembering internal turmoil in the empire.

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