The Arch of Constantine commemorates the emperor Constantine's victory over Maxentius at the battle of the Milvian bridge on October 28, 312. By virtue of its function as a triumphal arch, it stands along the route taken by Constantine when he entered the city of Rome in triumph on the day following the battle. However, this arch did not yet exist. Only in the mid-summer of 315 (July 25, to be exact) was the arch in a state of completion so that it could be dedicated by the Senate and Roman people to the emperor who, "through divine inspiration and magnanimity", had freed "the state of a tyrant as well as his followers". While most of the artwork upon this triumphal arch consists of pieces taken from other, earlier imperial monuments -- the Forum of Trajan and a triumphal arch erected for Marcus Aurelius in 176, for example -- there are pieces that are Constantinian in date, and one of these (a frieze running around all four sides of the arch) has a scene depicting the battle of the Milvian bridge. In this scene showing the decisive encounter, we see Constantine's troops victorious and driving the defeated soldiers of Maxentius backwards into the Tiber river. Amid the confused waters of the Tiber, Maxentius's heavily armed troops are drowning. This is happening because the bridge was cut prior to the battle. As we learn from written sources, Maxentius himself was among those to drown. His lifeless body was later recovered; the defeated emperor's head was severed, stuck upon a pole, and paraded about the Italian peninsula and north Africa so as to make manifest Constantine's victory. All of this was to happen after the battle, however, and it is the moment at which the battle has turned distinctly in Constantine's favour that the artist has chosen to represent.

The battle of the Milvian bridge derives its importance from its legendary connection to Constantine's conversion to Christianity. Christian authors, such as Lactantius (a rhetorician who had been teaching Latin at the imperial capital of Nicomedia towards the beginning of the fourth century) and Eusebius (a bishop in charge of the community of Caesarea in Palestine) variously report the vision that Constantine had before the decisive battle of the Milvian bridge. Nonetheless, their different accounts are unanimous about the emperor's envisioning a Christian symbol in the heavens. Whether this vision was a solar halo or a hallucination induced by stress or a genuine miracle is a question that must remain unanswered. In the end, the battle and its preceding omen came to be seen as a turning point in Rome's conversion to Christianity through the person of her first Christian emperor. When Constantine celebrated his triumph, he did not conclude it in time-honoured fashion by ascending the Capitoline Alley so as to sacrifice to Jupiter Optimus Maximus.

The battle also possesses importance because of its place within Constantine's move towards monopolizing power within the Mediterranean basin. With this battle, Constantine became undisputed master of the whole western half of the Mediterranean. The emperor Diocletian (284-305) had established a system of collegial rule by four emperors in 293, and this system had continued after his abdication in 305. However, the system had broken down by mid-306, and by 308 there were six individuals laying claim to the title of emperor. By 313, the number was reduced to two: Constantine in the West and Licinius in the East. By 324, Constantine was alone supreme ruler of the Roman world. Within this context, the battle of the Milvian bridge appears as the opportunity for Constantine to aggrandize his position. Italy and the upper reaches of the Danube constituted a useful stepping-stone for conquest of the Balkans and the Near East. Moreover, possession of Rome gave Constantine the symbolic edge as emperor: he held the old capital of empire and could now claim supremacy in rank over his colleagues. To conclude this sample, let us attend to the significance of the location of this commemorative monument. The Arch of Constantine lies along the street that passes from the Circus Maximus to the Roman Forum between the Caelian and Palatine hills. This is to say that it lies directly on the route used by triumphal processions as they moved in counter-clockwise fashion about the city of ancient Rome. Reflecting further on the arch's monumental context, we find that there is a juxtaposition between the victory monuments of the first Flavian dynasty (Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian) and that of the second Flavian dynasty (Constantine). Both Vespasian and Constantine gained control of Rome through civil war. Moreover, the Arch of Titus celebrates the sack of Jerusalem, whereas the Arch of Constantine recalls the aid given to a Roman emperor by that deity whose temple had been desecrated by Roman forces during the fighting of 66-70. The Arch of Constantine is rich with political and religious significance, and is appropriate to its place along the triumphal route.

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Richard Westall, "The Arch of Constantine and the Triumphal Route of Ancient Rome,"
©1996