Rome’s Archo di Constantino, also called the Arch of Constantine in English, was built to commemorate the victory of Emperor Constantine over Maxentius at the Battle of Milvian Bridge. Built in 315 CE, this is the most recent still extant truimphal arch in the city.
The arch is an impressive twenty one meters high, twenty-five and a half meters wide and nearly seven and a half meters deep, sporting three distinctive archways. The center one is eleven and a half meters wide and six and a half meters wide, and is the largest of the set, flanked by smaller arches.
The arch’s design is very similar to that of the Arch of Septimus Severus, which is located on the Roman Forum. Both arches have a main section sporting detached columns and an upper portion, which is referred to as an attic and which sports an inscription.
Visiting the Arch of Constantine is easy to do if you’re in Rome, as it spans the ancient Via Triumphalis, or the road emperors used when returning to Rome in triump. Locating the triumphal arch here says a lot about what Constantine though of himself, as well as about the message he wanted to send both to his rivals and to later people.
The arch is quite close to the more famous Colosseum, and is easy to visit by Metro. If you’ll be taking a tour of other ruins in this area of the city, you’ll almost certainly pass by the arch on your way.
The lighting and angle from which you view the arch may tell you a few unusual things. You might notice that portions of the arch aren’t quite the same color or type of stone.
This is because the Arch of Constantine is made up of other monuments! Pieces were borrowed, especially for the lower portion of the arch, and incorporated into a finished piece.
The arch’s lower portion is made from solid marble blocks, and has a staircase in its thickness some distance up from the ground, making it difficult or impossible to use and implying that it was once in a different location. The attic is made from bricks sheathed in a different marble.
Some people have said that this kind of borrowing was done in order to make construction go faster or to make up for the lack of skill of builders. It’s hard to say exactly why the arch was made this way, but it provides another interesting historical detail.
Later on, the arch itself was recycled, being incorporated into a family stronghold during the Medieval period. Restoration started in the eighteenth century, and continued intermittently until the late 1990s.
On your trip to Rome, you’ll probably be stopping to see a number of ancient monuments. Don’t forget to spend a few minutes appreciating the Arch of Constantine while you’re near the Colosseum. It’s really something to see.
