Bridges That Bridge Civilisations(Contd.)Shocking Monument of Royal Fratricide

Cendere Bridge
 
Cendere bridge located in the Adiyaman Province in south east Turkey, and built in the years 198-200 CE is as much a glorious relic of Roman bridge architecture as it is a reminder of a brutal and merciless fratricide.
This Roman bridge is one of the best preserved structures of that era, and while a new modern bridge a little distance away is the one that really serves the people, and the old one more visited by stray dogs and of course, tourists, its architectural importance and historical legacy lingers on local lore.
It is a major attraction in one of the most important National Parks of Turkey, and a UNESCO World Heritage. It is still in use but rarely by carriages.

Also known popularly as Severan Bride or Septimius Severus Bridge, it was built between 198 and 200 CE by the XVI legion (XVI Flavia Firma) based at Samosata. The Cendere Bridge was probably built as part of construction efforts to facilitate the military campaign of Septimius Severus in the Parthian Empire and Mesopotamia.
Lucius Septimius Severus
Lucius Septimius Severus (146-211) was Roman emperor of Byzantium from 193CE to 211CE. He was born in Leptis Magna in the Roman province of Africa. As a young man he advanced through the customary succession of offices under the reigns of Marcus Aurelius and his son Commodus. 
In AD 193, Lucius Septimius Severus was named ruler of the Roman Empire and in doing so became Rome’s first African Emperor, marking the cosmopolitism of Roman Empire. After emerging victorious from a period of civil war, Severus expanded the border of the empire to new heights, ushered in a period of imperial transformation and founded a dynasty. His reign is notable for the militarization of the government, growing Oriental influences in society, and high development of civil law.
The Bridge
It’s a single arch bridge and crosses the Cendere River at its narrowest point and is 118 meters long. A bridge of still older vintage, stood at the place where the present bridge stands as a mute testimony of history, but little is recorded about that. Possibly some of the existing structure carries the remnants of what existed earlier.
The Tale of the Four Columns
The most fascinating and famous feature of the bridge are the four Corinthians-style columns added to the bridge. These Doric columns with statues were built in in honour of the Roman Emperor Lucius Septimius Severus, his second wife Julia Domna, and their sons Caracalla and Publius Septimius Geta. Two columns each stood on either side of the bridge, inscribed with dedication texts.
While the columns of Septimius and Julia stand proud, erect and intact as does the column commemorating Caracalla on the other side, the column raised in memory of Geta, brother of Caracalla was removed on the orders of Caracalla.
This fourth column, or rather the absence of it, is a reminder of pernicious and ruthless Roman politics and the cruelty of Caracalla’s spirit. And thereby hangs the tale of a sad, sordid and sorrowful aspect of the then Roman history.
Caracalla
Caracalla or Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, was the elder son of Septimius Severus and was proclaimed co-ruler with his younger brother Geta in 209 CE. When Septimius died in 2011, Caracalla got his younger brother murdered by the Praetorian Guards later the same year. Geta was invited to Caracalla’s place, and was assassinated there. He, then, reigned afterwards as sole ruler of the Roman Empire. Caracalla was a tyrant and a cruel leader.
After killing Geta, he then systematically went about destructing every visible reminder of his brother, notably among them the statue at the column on Cendere bridge erected in his memory.
But Geta is still remembered as much as Caracalla. While statues of Geta were destroyed, the inscriptions could not be.
These inscriptions while ensuring Geta’s place in the history, reveals a tale of royal intrigue, ambition and cruelty – shocking, scandalising but not uncommon.