 There is extensive discoloration of the stone and degradation of the inscriptions.Patronage of the arch has been attributed to either the Athenian state or to the "Panhellenes", a newly formed association of all the Greek cities, based in Athens.Early scholarship held that the Athenians were responsible for its creation, on the argument that the quality of material and execution did not equal the other known buildings of Hadrian in Athens, and on the assumption that an emperor who loved Athens so much could not have been so arrogant as to put such an inscription on a structure of his own making.