Before we look at what happened to the Roman world after the death of Constantine, let's look at perhaps his most famous monument. The arch of Constantine of circa 315 CE in Rome is another venue familiar to tourists visiting the Colosseum, since it stands on the ancient Triumphal Way and it celebrates Constantine's triumph over Maxentius. This triple arch is a compendium made up from earlier monuments of Rome that had been quarried for their art. Thus in the upper or attic portion of the arch are images of daetian captors, recalling the glory days of empire under Trajan. Inside the central passageway and on the short sides of the arch are sculptures taken from a great Trajanic frieze, showing the emperor in battle and greeted by a personification of victory. Eight roundels or rounded frames appear in pairs over the lateral passageways on each side. Although much of the arch is made of Proconnesian marble from the Sea of Marmara, the roundels are placed against a recycled Egyptian porphry background. They date to the Hadrianic period, and they show the emperor hunting and performing sacrifices to various deities. Another set of reused sculpture consists of eight panel reliefs placed on either side of the attic above the lateral passage ways. These come from a monumental arch, perhaps a triumphal arch dedicated to Marcus Aurelius, one of the five good emperors, showing him as a war hero and city administrator. The remaining decoration is all contemporary with Constantine and reveals in a frieze running above the side passage ways Constantine's historic march on Rome and the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in which he defeated Maxentius. The Constantinian sculptors also added some quasi-classical river gods and victories in the spandrils of the arch and victories and barbarian captives for the pedestals, giving the arch a traditional, more classical flavor. But the stumpy popular art of their primary work shows how far the empire had come in the depiction of symbol over reality, which we had already seen playing a prominent role in the official art of the Severan period. Formerly thought to be a sign of late antique incompetence, art historians now see that this kind of art, this popular art, reflects undercurrents that were long present in Roman art. In light of Constantine's fame as the first Christian emperor, it is important to notice that there is nothing specifically Christian about anything on the arch. The sculpture shows him doing the same things that his pagan predecessors did, making war, triumphing, carrying out pagan sacrifices, hunting, addressing the people of Rome, and doing good deeds. The main inscription emphasizes his defeat of the tyrant, i.e. Maxentius. The only element that might be claimed to show Constantine's Christianity is the inscription's phrase, by divine inspiration, which is at best a veiled and disputable reference. It may be that on his arch, Constantine was concerned to place himself in the Imperial tradition rather to draw attention to his new religious beliefs, or as some scholars believe, Constantine's real conversion did not occur at the Milvian Bridge. In 330 C.E. as we have seen Constantine moved his capital to Constantinople, now Istanbul, n Anatolia. And from that time forward, Rome was never again the center of power. He also, nonetheless, transformed Rome by leaving it a city of churches such as St. John Lateran, seat of the pope, as the bishop of Rome, the bishop's church in Ostia, St. Peter's in the Vatican, where Peter was alleged to be buried. All were creations of the Constantinian period or era.
