imperial residence, which had a templelike facade with an arch
within its pediment, as in the Temple of Venus (FIG. 10-72) at Baal-
bek. Diocletian wanted to appear like a god emerging from a temple
when he addressed those who gathered in the court to pay homage
to him. On one side of the court was a Temple of Jupiter. On the
other side was Diocletian’s mausoleum(FIG. 10-74,center right),
which towered above all the other structures in the complex. The
emperor’s huge domed tomb was a type that would become very
popular in Early Christian times not only for mausoleums but even-
tually also for churches, especially in the Byzantine East. In fact, the
tomb is a church today.
Constantine
An all-too-familiar period of conflict followed the short-lived con-
cord among the tetrarchs that ended with Diocletian’s abdication.
This latest war among rival Roman armies lasted two decades. The
eventual victor was Constantine I (“the Great”), son of Constantius
Chlorus, Diocletian’s Caesar of the West. After the death of his fa-
ther, Constantine invaded Italy. In 312, at the battle of the Milvian
Bridge to Rome, he defeated and killed Maxentius and took control
of the capital. Constantine attributed his victory to the aid of the
Christian god. The next year, he and Licinius, Constantine’s co-
emperor in the East, issued the Edict of Milan, ending the persecu-
tion of Christians.
In time, Constantine and Licinius became foes, and in 324 Con-
stantine defeated and executed Licinius near Byzantium (modern
Istanbul, Turkey). Constantine, now unchallenged ruler of the whole
Roman Empire, founded a “New Rome” at Byzantium and named it
Constantinople (“City of Constantine”). In 325, at the Council of
Nicaea, Christianity became the de facto official religion of the Ro-
man Empire. From this point on, paganism declined rapidly. Con-
stantinople was dedicated on May 11, 330, “by the commandment ofGod,” and in 337 Constantine was baptized on his deathbed. For
many scholars, the transfer of the seat of power from Rome to Con-
stantinople and the recognition of Christianity mark the end of an-
tiquity and the beginning of the Middle Ages.
Constantinian art is a mirror of this transition from the classical
to the medieval world. In Rome, for example, Constantine was a
builder in the grand tradition of the emperors of the first, second,
and early third centuries, erecting public baths, a basilica on the road
leading into the Roman Forum, and a triumphal arch. But he was
also the patron of the city’s first churches (see Chapter 11).
ARCH OF CONSTANTINE Between 312 and 315, Constan-
tine erected a great triple-passageway arch (FIGS. 10-2,no. 15, and
10-75) next to the Colosseum to commemorate his defeat of
Maxentius. The arch was the largest erected in Rome since the end
of the Severan dynasty. Much of the sculptural decoration, however,
was taken from earlier monuments of Trajan, Hadrian, and Marcus
Aurelius, and all of the columns and other architectural elements
date to an earlier era. Sculptors refashioned the second-century re-
liefs to honor Constantine by recutting the heads of the earlier em-
perors with the features of the new ruler. They also added labels to
the old reliefs, such as Liberator Urbis (liberator of the city) and
Fundator Quietus (bringer of peace), references to the downfall of
Maxentius and the end of civil war. The reuse of statues and reliefs
on the Arch of Constantine has often been cited as evidence of a de-
cline in creativity and technical skill in the waning years of the pa-
gan Roman Empire. Although such a judgment is in large part de-
served, it ignores the fact that the reused sculptures were carefully
selected to associate Constantine with the “good emperors” of the
second century. That message is underscored in one of the arch’s few
Constantinian reliefs. It shows Constantine on the speaker’s plat-
form in the Roman Forum between statues of Hadrian and Marcus
Aurelius.282 Chapter 10 THE ROMAN EMPIRE10-74Restored view of the
palace of Diocletian, Split,
Croatia, ca. 298–306.
Diocletian’s palace resembled
a fortified Roman city
(compare FIG. 10-42). Within
its high walls, two avenues
intersected at the forumlike
colonnaded courtyard leading
to the emperor’s residential
quarters.