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Arch of Constantine, Rome

Tanya McMillion #2010

History of Architecture

Mon/Wed 6:30-8:00pm

There is a lot that can be learned from architecture from our past. Every structure had its own purpose and story of its origin. The battle at the Milvian Bridge in 312 CE was the breaking point in Constantine's quest for power. He had been proclaimed Augustus by the troops in Britain in 306 CE, after the death of his father in York, and even though he had no legal right to that title, he refused to relinquish it. Maxentius also claimed the title of Augustus of the western empire. The conflict finally resulted in the battle of the Milvian Bridge just North of Rome, when Constantine's army defeated the numerically superior, but less experienced troops of Maxentius. Maxentius fell to his death while trying to flee across the Tiber River, as a temporary bridge made of boats collapsed under him and his troops.

Constantine entered Rome victorious, and because of this victory the senate awarded him a triumphal arch. "Construction began immediately, and the arch was finished in a few years, to be consecrated in 315/316 CE on the tenth anniversary of Constantine's rise to power." During that time, arches were built to either celebrate a triumph or in memorial of someone in power. The arch is said to be one of the greatest inventions of Roman architecture. The largest and best preserved of Rome's triumphal arches, "Arch of Constantine", which is generally referred to as the most flamboyant because of its use of colored stone, was raised to celebrate Constantine's victory over his co-emperor Maxentius, in 312AD.

The arch of Constantine is located in the valley of the Colosseum, and stands near the west side of the Colosseum , at the start of the road that leads south between Palatine and Caelian Hills to the Circus Maximus. Despite its mixed origins the arch is outstanding for its architectural harmony and pure proportions. The arch of Constantine is the largest of only three such structures that exists in Rome today. "The two others are the Arch of Titus and the Arch of Septimius Severus, both in the nearby Forum Romanum."

The Arch of Constantine is a three-way arch, measuring 21m in height, 25.7m in width and 7.4m in depth. The central archway is 11.5m high and 6.5m wide, while the lateral archways are 7.4mÐ"--3.4m. Eight detached Corinthian columns, four on each side, stand on plinths on the sides of the archways. The lower part, the arches and supporting piers, is built of white marble in opus quadratum, while the attic is opus latericium covered with marble slabs. Theory has it that the different construction techniques might indicate different construction times for the two parts.

The decorative elements on the monument are from different periods and are said to be spolia. Spolia means parts taken from earlier monuments. "The arch has parts from the reigns of Trajan, Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius and Constantine himself." Some of the older reused parts have been reformed to give the images of former emperors and the semblance of Constantine.

Diagram of the Arch of Constantine. The colors indicate the dating of the decorative elements.

Because so many of the decorative sculptures on the Arch of Constantine have been incorporated from other monuments, the diagram above was designed to show from where the relics have come. The eight medallions or roundels, for instance, set in pairs above the side arches, alternately representing scenes of hunting and sacrifice, and are from the time of Hadrian nearly two hundred years earlier. On four of the roundels, the head of the principle figure has been re-sculpted to represent Constantine, which sometimes has a halo (nimbus) around it, signifying the sacred character of the emperor, an iconography that was adopted by Christians to signify divinity. His head also has been substituted on the reliefs of Marcus Aurelius. Re-cutting the heads and incorporating the sculptural adornments of the great second century emperors into his own arch also served to publicly affirm Constantine as their embodiment and legitimate successor

"The eight rectangular reliefs in the attic come from an arch erected in 176 AD to celebrate the victories of Marcus Aurelius. Three other panels from the same series are in the Palazzo dei Conservatori." Standing on the cornice above the columns, the eight Dacian captives, which have been partially restored, may have come from the Forum of Trajan, as do the two large panel reliefs at one end of the arch and in the reveals of the central arch, which originally formed part of a long frieze. "It is possible, too, that the original emperor was Domitian, who damnatio memoriae would have made

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