Arch of Constantine
A triumphal arch rich in sculpture. The Arch of Constantine is the largest honorary arch that has come down to our times. It is located between the Colosseum and the Arch of Titus on the Roman road used for triumphal processions and going towards the Capitoline temple of Jupiter.
The arch celebrates the Roman Emperor Constantine's victory over Maxentius after the Battle of the Milvian Bridge on 28 October 312 AD and the tenth anniversary of his reign (315 AD).
The Arch of Constantine is part of a long Roman tradition where triumph in battle was represented. The art of representation was configured in Rome with defined rules, which sometimes proceeded autonomously with respect to the phenomenology of historical events, but interacted strongly with it. Rostrate columns, equestrian monuments, images of victories and trophies, subdued enemies and divine statues began to decorate the Capitoline Hill, the Forum, then all the relevant political spaces and temples of Rome from the end of the 4th century B.C., configuring the first traces of a genre destined to have a long vitality.
Above the fornix, in the centre of the two sides of the attic, is the inscription:
Imp - caes - fl - constantino - maximo - p - f - avgusto - s - p - q - r - qvod - instinctv - divinatatis - mentis - magnitvdine - cvm - exercitv - svo - tam - de - tyranno - qvam - de - omni - eivs - factione - vno - tempore - ivstis - rem-publicam - vltvs - est - armis - arcvm - trivmphis - insignem - dicavit -
Translation:
"To the Emperor Caesar Flavius Constantine Maximus, pious, happy, augustus, the Senate and people of Rome, because by inspiration of the divinity and by the greatness of his spirit with his army he avenged the state on a tyrant and on his entire faction with just arms, dedicated this distinguished arch for triumphs."
The Arch of Constantine has three arches with a larger central passage and two smaller lateral ones.
The arch is built of marble square work in the piers, while the attic, which is accessible, is made of concrete masonry and covered with marble blocks on the outside.
The Arch of Constantine is decorated with relief marble slabs taken from the perusal of older monuments. In fact, the entire arch is decorated mainly with sculptures from earlier monuments from the age of Trajan, Hadrian and Comicus.
Other elements such as cornices, capitals and columns were also recycled.
The decoration in marble relief slabs was conceived and realised in the Constantinian age according to a unified design, using mainly materials from other imperial monuments. On the main faces of the arch and on the sides, reliefs from the age of Trajan, Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius and finally, in the lower section, from the age of Constantine alternate in symmetrical patterns. All the faces of the emperors that appear in the reliefs have been remodelled in the likeness of Constantine, with the nimbus connoting his imperial majesty.
The arch has been assigned by modern critics the function of synthesising the changes of the Constantinian era in monumental form. Both in the iconographic details of the figurative programme and in the large inscription that appears, identically, on the attic of both façades, clues are sought to reconstruct the events of 312, and to identify the symbols of Constantine's early conversion and the emperor's rejection of the traditional ascension as the concluding scene of the triumph, at the Temple of Capitoline Jupiter. A deliberate figurative ambiguity is seen in the monument, reflecting the implementation of a compromise between the emperor's Christian faith and the customs of pagan Rome.
Including the attic, the monument is 25 metres high.
On the whole, the Arch of Constantine can be regarded as a kind of museum of official Roman sculpture because it gathers together precious 'pieces' from different periods belonging to different important monuments.
General this is considered Rome's triumphal arch par excellence and being a triumphal arch next to the Colosseum it has also become one of the symbolic places most immortalised by tourists.
It is a triumphal arch commemorating the capture of Jerusalem by Titus in the year 70 AD. The arch is built with a single fornix and in opus quadratum of Pentelic marble, the inner core is in concrete and the plinth in travertine.
It is flanked by composite semi-columns, the central ones with fluted shafts and those at the corners with smooth shafts. Above the columns rests an entablature with an Ionic epistyle representing a sacrifice, a denticulated cornice and corbels, the whole surmounted by a high attic.
In the vault, one can admire a beautiful coffered decoration with an eagle in the centre, carrying the deified Titus to heaven after his death. The two reliefs on the interior walls depict moments of triumph in the victory over the Jews.
On the south side, one can see the representation of the procession as it passes through the triumphal gate with the bearers raising the sacred objects of Jewish ritual plundered from the Temple of Jerusalem: the two silver trumpets calling the faithful to prayer, the table with the sacred vessels, the seven-branched golden candelabra.
On the north side is depicted the Emperor Titus triumphant on the quadriga, while behind him a winged victory crowns him, with the armed goddess Roma accompanying him to the Capitol, and to the right the half-naked figure, who is perhaps another allegory, the genius of the Roman people.
The monument has survived in excellent condition because in the Middle Ages it was incorporated into the Frangiane fortress and integrated in travertine in 1822 by Valdieri. The tito arch is so well known that even the belli, in a sonnet, masterfully illustrates it.