Approaching the Arch of Constantine in fourth-century Rome, the northbound traveler beheld a spectacular tableau of monuments. The position of the arch negotiated the divergent orientations of the triumphal road and the monuments in the Colosseum Valley. It also framed the colossal Neronian statue of Sol through the arch’s central passageway, in a highly scenographic display of the comity between the emperor and the sun god. This appropriation of the ancient colossus sheds light on the arch’s overall program, on other acts of appropriation in Constantinian Rome, and on the emperor’s religious tendencies.
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