#milvian

[meisterdrucke]

The Battle of Milvian Bridge, Victory of Constantine over Maxentius by Nicolas Tournier

Oil on canvas, Musee des Augustins, Toulouse, France

[escapismsworld]

This image depicts the imperial scepter of Roman Emperor Maxentius (r. 306-312 CE), a significant historical artifact. It is notable as the only surviving imperial scepter from ancient Rome. The scepter, topped with a crystal sphere, was discovered in 2006 near the Palatine Hill in Rome, alongside several imperial banners.

The Palatine Hill was an important site in ancient Rome, often associated with imperial power, and the discovery of these objects adds important archaeological insight into the symbolism and authority of Roman emperors. Maxentius was a notable figure, remembered for his rivalry with Constantine the Great, which culminated in the famous Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312 CE.

[illustratus]

Conversion of the Emperor Constantine

[ancientcharm]

Who was Valentine and why February 14 is "Valentine's Day"

Valentine was a Roman physician who converted to Christianity and became a priest. He performed marriages for soldiers, despite the fact that the emperor forbade it, as he considered it incompatible with a military career. Valentine then began to perform secret marriages for couples in love. When he was discovered, Emperor ordered his arrest. In prison he was tortured for refusing to renounce his faith and beheaded on 14 February 269.

He is commemorated on February 14 in the Roman Martyrology, which remembers him only as a martyr: "At Rome, on the Via Flaminia, near the Milvian Bridge, Saint Valentine, martyr."

Relic of St. Valentine in the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, Rome, Italy. Photo: Dnalor 01 , CC BY-SA 3.0 AT , vía Wikimedia Commons

[blueiscoool]

Rome’s Ancient Arch of Constantine Struck by Lightening

During a storm on September 3, lightning struck Rome’s Arch of Constantine, chipping the structure’s marble surface. The 1,700-year-old arch and its neighbor, the Colosseum, were two of several sites affected by the thunderstorm, which produced 2.36 inches of rain in less than an hour. Usually, the city sees a similar amount over the entire month of September.

“A lightning strike hit the arch right here and then hit the corner,” a tourist at the site told Reuters’ Alberto Lingria. “We saw this fly off,” the tourist added while pointing to a fallen block of stone.

Finished in 315 C.E., the Arch of Constantine is one of Rome’s three surviving ancient triumphal arches, each erected to honor a person or event. This arch commemorates Constantine I’s 312 victory over the emperor Maxentius. That same year, Constantine devoted himself to Christianity—the first Roman ruler to do so.

The fierce storm also felled two large trees near the Circus Maximus, flooded the Trevi Fountain and flooded the Colosseum’s subterranean tunnels, reports CNN. After lightning struck the arch, staff of the Colosseum Archaeological Park quickly gathered its dislodged pieces and placed them in a secure location, according to a statement from Italy’s Ministry of Culture.

In the days that followed, some tourists stumbled upon additional pieces on the ground.

​​“My American group found these fragments, and we’re handing them over to the workmen,” tour guide Serena Giuliani told the London Times’ Tom Kington on the morning of September 4.

Specialists are now examining the condition of the fragments. Officials say the damage was limited to the monument’s southern side, where unrelated restoration work had started just days earlier, allowing for quick repairs.

At roughly 70 feet tall and 85 feet wide, the Arch of Constantine contains three separate arches, each framed by columns. The intricately decorated structure is adorned with recycled fragments, or spolia, taken from other ancient buildings, including monuments honoring Trajan, Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius.

The arch is also decorated with carvings of Constantine, including a series of reliefs depicting his victorious fight against Maxentius in the Battle of the Milvian Bridge.

In 306, Constantine was leading Roman troops in Britain—then part of the Roman Empire—when his military declared him their emperor. His brother-in-law, Maxentius, also declared himself the emperor around the same time. After years of complex power struggles, the two rulers ultimately faced off in 312 at Rome’s Milvian Bridge, which overlooks the river Tiber. Panels on the Arch of Constantine depict the battle’s conclusion, showing Maxentius’ troops drowning in the river.

The arch’s recent encounter with lightning may have carried spiritual significance for its ancient builders, as “the bolts were believed to be the work of the gods,” per the Times. These spots were sacred for the Romans, who sometimes erected temples at such sites.

By Sonja Anderson.

[m1male2]

Details of the Arch of Constantine, Rome, erected in 315 to commemorate the victory of Constantine I the Great at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge (28 October 312) against Maxentius. It was the last triumphal arch built in Rome during antiquity.

[whencyclopedia]

This map illustrates Constantine I's (also known as Constantine the Great, c.272 - 337) rise to power, beginning with his proclamation as emperor by his troops in 306 CE and solidified through key military victories, including the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312 CE, which led to his conversion to Christianity. By 324 CE, he became the sole ruler of the Roman Empire after defeating Licinius...

[licncourt]

Have you read TVA and Blood and Gold? I would LOVE your rundown on all the historical inaccuracies in BaG.

Unfortunately yes, I have read those with my eyes :/

(the Marius/Armand pederasty conversation I've been meaning to have for like a year below the cut btw)

I wish I hadn't read B&G so young, I didn't have the breadth of knowledge or the foresight to mark anything for later when I was sixteen. I'd reread it for this exact analysis but really I don't think I have it in me so memory and ctrl + f to confirm will have to suffice.

Honestly, the biggest problem I had with it wasn't inaccuracies so much as the fact that the whole book reads like a Wikipedia entry. It's so clumsy and dry, it feels like AR just wants us to know how many Roman Facts she learned. It overshadows the story rather than adds to it. Fr, read this (if you can stand it).

There was not one reason in the world that she needed to explain the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in that level of detail, and that's coming from me. This sounds like a bad undergrad paper from a student who wants to prove they did the reading.

The whole book feels like this except when it detours into creepy and pedophilic, and I just don't need my vampire book to explain the Council of Nicaea AND the Edict of Milan AND the Parthian Wars AND the Vatican wall frescoes AND the Medici bank and a million other things to me like I'm in a survey lecture. It's mind-numbing for me and this is literally what I DO, so I can only imagine how other people must feel with no context or particular interest in this stuff.

It's not that she's WRONG per say, it's more that she clearly has no understanding of these subjects outside the rote recitation of facts. It's just regurgitated bullet points about Roman history and the Italian Renaissance. She also repeats some well known apocryphal stories in there, but I'm going to be generous and hope she doesn't think these are facts (like the Chi-Rho epiphany).

If anything seems sus and I don't remember it though, feel free to send it to me and I can yay or nay the information to the best of my ability!

*cw here for discussion of CSA*

With that said, I do think AR had a very skewed understanding of the pederastic dynamic or was choosing to ignore it, which is unfortunate considering how attached she was to the idea. A lot of my thesis research coincided with Greco-Roman pederastic tradition, so it's a pet peeve of mine when it's misapplied. It's not an uncommon problem (Call Me By Your Name has this going on too), but authors sending gay relationships with a rapey age gap through a "pederasty" funnel always pisses me off.

The history of pederasty is very long and complicated and ancient (we're talking Homer and Iliad kind of old here), but the bare bones explanation of the process and logic is this:

The ancient Greeks were deeply invested in turning their upper class boys into good citizens. To accomplish this, sometimes an established adult man would woo a younger male (most often starting at 14-19 years old) with gifts and attention over an extended period of time. Once the courtship was complete and the boy's self control had been proven, there were sexual relations between the two for a period of time.

The purpose of this relationship was ultimately to educate the boy, and the physical pleasure was used as a teaching tool to establish rapport and intimacy that could then be escalated to instruction on matters of philosophy and intellect in general. Essentially using the mastery and maturation of one's body as a stepping stone to the mastery and maturation of the mind. Once the boy was appropriately prepared to enter elite male society and/or had become physically developed as a man, the relationship ended.

It's pretty obvious that she's trying to do a whole pederastic erastes/eromenos thing with Marius and Armand, but she took an already very bad and gross practice from history and muddled it up with her own awful ideas about consent from minors and sexual fantasies of a kinky student/teacher savior relationship in her vampire books.

I hate the erotic and romanticized version of pederasty that's become weirdly popular in gay media, and AR was one of the first to really do this. It just picks up the historical thread of CSA under the guise of a kid's "consent" and continues to normalize it to modern readers with a new sexy twist. Using a bastardized version of a fucked up ancient practice to implicitly justify or downplay the severity of statutory rape is simply not the move, especially when gay and bisexual men already face stigma around being predatory and pedophilic. Just don't.

[transgenderer]

In 310 Constantine had a vision in one of the sanctuaries of Apollo in Gaul, perhaps at Grand, m the Vosges. The Sun God appeared to him, accompanied by Victory, presenting him with laurel crowns on each of which was inscribed the sign for the number thirty-three X's thus promising a life and reign of exceptional length

...

Constantine captured Maximian in Marseilles and had him put to death (or forced to commit suicide) in May 311 He then sought the support of the Christians against his rival, Maxentius, Maximian's son, who was defeated and killed on October 28, 312, at the battle near the Milvian bridge, at the gates of Rome. Like Apollo in 310, the god of the Christians sent him, before the battle, a sign of his favor. Two divergent and equally authoritative accounts of the precise nature of this apparition have come down to us from two of the emperor's associates, Lactantius and Eusebius.

Lactantius wrote On the Death of the Persecutors (meaning those emperors who persecuted Christians) in the West in 314-315, not long after the actual event. He placed the vision at night, just before the battle at the Milvian bridge . Lactantius more than likely heard about this from Constantine him self, with whom he was already in favor. (Before 317 he was named tutor in Latin literature to the emperor's elder son, Crispus.) In the dream Constantine was instructed to place on his soldiers' shields the monogram of Christ.

The second witness, Eusebius, wrote only after Constantine's death (337), but he had met him several times and claimed to be relating personal confidences. The emperor, on his way to overthrow Maxentius but perhaps still in Gaul, is said to have seen in the sky, just past midday, the glowing sign of the cross with the inscription "Conquer with this" (rendered in Greek by Eusebius). The next night a dream told him to use this sign for protection. This account contains the same elements as the Apollonian vision: the sun, X's or a cross, victory. It is explained by a dream that reminds us vividly of the dream before the battle of the Milvian bridge, which led Constantine to use Christ's monogram as a military insignia. This might be considered a reinterpretation of the Apollonian miracle and the Christian dream, combining their virtues in a unique episode. Such an arrangement could have been devised by the emperor himself, not necessarily as a trick, when, near the end of his life, he had completely renounced his devotion to the Sun

-Chuvin, A Chronicle of the Last Pagans

Constantine pulled the old "i had a dream where god promised me stuff" trick twice in two years. bit tacky

[head-post]

Lightning damaged Constantine Arch in Rome amid thunderstorm

Lightning struck the Arch of Constantine in Rome near the Colosseum during a severe thunderstorm, according to AP News.

Fragments from Tuesday’s lightning strike were immediately collected and secured by workers at the Colosseum Archeological Park, officials reported.

The recovery work by technicians was timely. Our workers arrived immediately after the lightning strike. All of the fragments were recovered and secured.

The Arch of Constantine, over 20 metres (almost 70 feet) high, was erected in 315 AD to commemorate Emperor Constantine’s victory over Maxentius after the Battle of the Milvian Bridge. The extent of the damage is estimated.

Read more HERE

[brookstonalmanac]

Holidays 10.28

Holidays

Bhai Dooj (India)

Bhai Tika (Nepal)

Children’s Day (Australia)

Chucks-N-Pearls Day

Civil Servants’ Day (Brazil)

Common Fig Day (French Republic)

Cox Plate Day (Australia)

Day of International Concern About Young People and Gun Violence

Engineer’s Day (Venezuela)

Flying Baby Day

Folly Day

Gone-ta-Pott Day [every 28th]

Hari Sumpah Pemuda (Youth Pledge Day; Indonesia)

Honoring the Nation’s First Responders Day

International Animation Day

International Creole Day

Liberation of Ukraine from Nazi Invaders Day (Ukraine)

Milvian Bridge Day

National Caroline Day

National Comprehensive Sex Education Call-In Day

National Cry Yourself to Sleep Day

National Day of Outrage

National First Responders Day

National I Love You Day

National Immigrants Day

National Internal Medicine Day

National Internment Commemoration Day (Canada)

National William Day

Ohi Day (a.k.a. Ochi! Day or Oxi Day; Cyprus, Greece)

Part Your Hair Crooked Just To See If Anyone Will Say Anything About It Day

Plush Animal Lover's Day

Prefectural Earthquake Disaster Prevention Day (Gifu, Japan)

Q Day

Republic Day Eve (Turkey)

Separation of Church and State Day

Stan Lee Day (Los Angeles)

Stargate Day

Statue of Liberty Day

Ticker-Tape Parade Day

Time Day

Twitter Emancipation Day

Ugly Pickup Truck Day

Vote Early Day

World Judo Day

World Tobacco Growers’ Day

Youth Pledge Day (Indonesia)

Food & Drink Celebrations

National Chocolate Day

Wild Foods Day

4th & Last Monday in October

African-American Cotton Pickers’ Day [4th Monday]

Bank Holiday (Ireland) [Last Monday]

Equality Day (Antarctica) [4th Monday]

Green Monday [Monday of Last Full Week]

International School Library Day [4th Monday]

Labour Day (New Zealand) [4th Monday]

La Saoire i mi Dheireadh Fomhair [Last Monday]

Meatless Monday [Last Monday of Each Month]

Meditation Monday [Every Monday]

Monday Musings [Every Monday]

Moody Monday [Last Monday of Each Month]

Motivation Monday [Every Monday]

October Bank Holiday (Ireland) [Last Monday]

School Library Day (Canada) [Last Monday]

Independence & Related Days

Bokonton (Declared; 2007) [unrecognized]

Czechoslovakia (Now the Czech Republic; from Austria-Hungary, 1918)

Erusia (Declared; 2008) [unrecognized]

Foundation Day (Davao Occidental, Philippines)

United Republics of Michigan (Declared; 2019) [unrecognized]

Weekly Holidays beginning October 28 (Last Week of October)

Hudson Valley Restaurant Week (Hudson Valley, New York) [thru 11.10]

Festivals Beginning October 28, 2024

American Indian Tourism Conference (Marksville, Louisiana) [thru 10.31]

Supply Side West (Las Vegas, Nevada) [thru 10.31]

TechCrunch Disrupt (San Francisco, California) [thru 10.30]

Tokyo International Film Festival (Tokyo, Japan) [thru 11.6]

Feast Days

Abdias of Babylon (Christian; Saint)

Abgar V of Edessa (Eastern Orthodox Church)

Ayad Akhtar (Writerism)

Eadsige (Christian; Saint)

Evelyn Waugh (Writerism)

Extra Kinky Day (Pastafarian)

Faro, Bishop of Meauz (Christian; Saint)

Feast of the Einherjar (Norse)

Feast of the Lord of Miracles (Peru)

Fidelis of Como (Roman Catholic Church)

Firmilian (Christian; Saint)

Francis Bacon (Artology)

Fyribod (a.k.a. Forebode; Norse beginning of Winter)

Godwin of Stavelot (Christian; Saint)

Gumby Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Isis/Osiris Mysteries I (Pagan)

Job of Pochayiv (repose) (Eastern Orthodox Church)

Jude Thaddeus (a.k.a. Jude the Apostle; Western Christianity)

Leibnitz (Positivist; Saint)

Lord of Miracles (Lima; Christian; Saint)

Makoshe’s Holiday (Honoring Mother Earth; Asatru/Pagan Slavic)

Michael Noakes (Artology)

Neot (Christian; Saint)

Paraskrevi of Iconium (Christian; Saint)

Simon the Zealot (a.k.a. Simon the Canaanite; Simon the Apostle; Western Christianity)

The Tortoise (Muppetism)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Butsumetsu (仏滅 Japan) [Unlucky all day.]

Umu Limnu (Evil Day; Babylonian Calendar; 50 of 60)

Premieres

All Quiet on the Western Front (Film; 2022)

An Alpine Symphony, by Richard Strauss (Tone Poem; 1915)

Barking Dogs Don’t Fite (Fleischer/Famous Popeye Cartoon; 1949)

Because I Got High, by Afroman (Song; 2001)

Bee Movie (Animated Film; 2007)

Black Beauty (Hanna-Barbera Animated TV Special; 1978)

The Blue Danube (MGM Cartoon; 1939)

Breakfast at Tiffany’s, by Truman Capote (Novella; 1958)

Decade, by Neil Young (Compilation Album; 1977)

Decline and Fall, by Evelyn Waugh (Novel; 1928)

The Desperate Showers (George of the Jungle Cartoon; 1967) [#8]

Droopy (Tex Avery Droopy MGM Cartoon; 1955)

Educating Rita (Film; 1983)

The Futurological Congress: From the Memoirs of Ijon Tichy, by Stanisław Lem (Novel; 1971)

Gulliver’s Travels, by Jonathan Swift (Novel; 1726)

How Green Was My Valley (Film; 1941)

Inferno (Film; 2016)

Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park (TV movie; 1978)

The Legend of Zorro (Film; 2005)

Man's Search for Meaning, by Viktor E. Frankl (Philosophical Book; 1959)

News of the World, by Queen (Album; 1978)

The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, by Ursula K. Le Guin (Short Story; 1973)

The Pet Store (Disney Cartoon; 1933)

Pinterest (Social Media App; 2009)

Pop ‘im Pop! (WB LT Cartoon; 1950)

Puss in Boots (Animated Film; 2011)

Pussy Willie (Oswald the Lucky Rabbit Cartoon; 1929)

Puttin’ On the Dog (Tom & Jerry Cartoon; 1944)

The Quail Hunt (Oswald the Lucky Rabbit Cartoon; 1935)

Richard Pryor … Here and Now (Stand-Up Comedy Film; 1983)

Rotten Hood (Super Chicken Cartoon; 1967) [#18

The Rum Diary (Film; 2011)

Stargate (Film; 1994)

String Along Pink (Pink Panther Cartoon; 1978)

Supermarket Pink (Pink Panther Cartoon; 1978)

Talking Book, by Stevie Wonder (Album; 1972)

Tinker Bell (Animated Film; 2008)

We Can’t Dance, by Genesis (Album; 1991)

Today’s Name Days

Judas, Simon, Thaddeus (Austria)

Juda, Šimun, Siniša, Tadej, Tadija (Croatia)

Státní Svátek (Czech Republic)

Judas, Simon (Denmark)

Siim, Siimo, Siimon, Siimu, Simmo, Simmu, Simun (Estonia)

Simo (Finland)

Jude, Simon (France)

Freddy, Simon (Germany)

Evniki, Vili (Greece)

Simon, Szimonetta (Hungary)

Giuda, Simone (Italy)

Antoņina, Ņina, Ninona, Zemgals (Latvia)

Almantė, Gaudrimas, Simas, Simonas, Tadas (Lithuania)

Simen, Simon (Norway)

Juda, Szymon, Tadeusz, Wszeciech (Poland)

Iachint (Romania)

Dobromila (Slovakia)

Judas, Simón (Spain)

Simon, Simone (Sweden)

Nestor (Ukraine)

Dayanara, Eunice, Jonah, Jonas, Jude, Liberty, Simeon, Simon, Simone, Thad, Thaddea, Thaddeus (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 302 of 2024; 64 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 1 of Week 44 of 2024

Celtic Tree Calendar: Hagal (Hailstone) [Day 2 of 28]

Chinese: Month 9 (Jia-Xu), Day 26 (Yi-Chou)

Chinese Year of the: Dragon 4722 (until January 29, 2025) [Wu-Chen]

Hebrew: 26 Tishri 5785

Islamic: 24 Rabi II 1446

J Cal: 2 Wood; Oneday [1 of 30]

Julian: 14 October 2024

Moon: 12%: Waning Crescent

Positivist: 22 Descartes (11th Month) [Gibbon / Robertson]

Runic Half Month: Wyn (Joy) [Day 6 of 15]

Season: Autumn or Fall (Day 36 of 90)

Week: Last Week of October

Zodiac: Scorpio (Day 5 of 30)

[theartofmetal]

123. Cross. Deny. Glorify. - AthanaTheos (Death Metal, 2023)

Art by Giulio Romano (and other assistants of the Italian Renaissance artist Raphael): "The Battle of the Milvian Bridge", 1520-1524

 "The Battle of the Milvian Bridge shows the battle that took place on 28 October 312 between the Roman Emperors Constantine I and Maxentius. Legend says that Constantine had a dream where a cross appeared in the heavens; a voice told him he would win the battle of Ponte Milvio if he used the cross as his standard. The cross became his standard and he won the battle, and attributed his victory to the god of Christianity."

[zanmor]

top 5 roman deaths that could have changed the world

5. quintus fabius maximus verrucosus

hannibal is rampaging across italy, destroying every army the romans raise against him in humiliating defeats. fabian becomes dictator and proceeds to do... nothing. but it works and just keeping a roman army in the field without leading them all to their deaths is important. other commanders adopt his strategy of not engaging unless victory is certain. probably he's why rome survives the second punic war and eventually is able to go on to win it. what if instead he had been assassinated for his 'cowardice' or 'treason' in refusing to confront hannibal head on. what if instead the roman empire had died in the cradle and the carthaginian empire had been born, having conquered its greatest rival.

4. marcus licinius crassus

imagine the dude kicks the bucket on the eve of his debacle in parthia. instead of leading these men and his son to their deaths in the desert sands, the army is mustered and ready to march off but he dies and his son takes over instead. would he have made the same disastrous mistakes as his father or would he have returned to rome a conquering hero greater than gaius julius?

3. constantine the great

diocletian had all his ducks in a row with the previous emperors retiring and their caesars rising to the rank of co-augusti. but constantine (and others who felt their right to inherit the empire was being unduly ignored, but constantine was most successful) is here to fuck all that up. suppose instead he gets trounced at the milvian bridge and even dies or is captured (and then executed). maybe diocletian's succession sticks and becomes a precedent where every 10 years the augusti step down and their caesars step up. and more importantly, maybe the empire never becomes christian.

2. irene of athens

what if instead of blinding her own son and damning her line she had instead kicked the bucket and let the seemingly capable emperor take full control? this period is so wild and so scant for sources that it's even harder to imagine how this counterfactual might play out than any of the others but certainly blinding and killing your only heir isn't a strong play.

antoninus pius

he was supposed to keep the seat warm after hadrian died until marcus aurelis could take over as a capable and long-reigning man. but the 54-year-old kept on kicking for another 23 years, keeping marcus bottled up in the capital with him. even assuming shit still hits the fan upon his death and rome is attacked by those who had been peaceful under the capable emperors hadrian and antoninus pius, rome might have been better able to fend it off a decade earlier. because a decade later a plague was making fighting a war and keeping the army supplied and manned a debilitating task, especially for a man who spend 23 years essentially bookkeeping alongside the emperor.

[ancientcharm]

Arch of Constantine the Great. Piazza del Colosseo, Rome.

Located between the Palatine Hill and the Caelian Hill, on the Via Triumphalis, the route taken by Roman emperors after a military victory, it was built in 315 to commemorate the victory of Constantine I the Great at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge. It's the largest triumphal arch in Rome.

[blueiscoool]

The Rise and Fall of The Praetorian Guard

THE PRAETORIAN GUARD WERE AN ELITE UNIT WITHIN THE IMPERIAL ARMY, SERVING PRIMARILY AS PERSONAL PROTECTORS AND INTELLIGENCE OPERATIVES FOR THE ROMAN EMPERORS.

The roots of the guard can be found during the Roman Republic, when soldiers served as protectors for Roman generals and important figures, or as elite guards for military praetors.

High-ranked generals with imperium held public office by serving as a magistrate or promagistrate. They were assigned a civil servant, lictors, to serve as an attendant and bodyguard. Where no personal bodyguard was assigned, senior field officers safeguarded themselves with temporary bodyguard units of selected soldiers.

Around 40 BC, Octavian, who would later become Emperor Caesar Augustus, installed praetorians within the pomerium (a religious boundary around the city of Rome), the first example of troops being permanently garrisoned in Rome proper.

Members of the guard accompanied Augustus on active campaigns, protecting the civic administrations and rule of law. At camp, the cohors praetoria (a cohort of praetorians guarding the commander), were posted near the praetorium, the tent of the commander, which the guard is believed to be named after.

After the construction of Rome’s Praetorian camp known as the Castra Praetoria around 23 BC, their role extended to escorting the emperor and the members of the imperial family, and to serve as a policing force during times of riot.

According to the Roman historian and politician, Tacitus, the guard around this time numbered nine Praetorian cohorts (4500 men, the equivalent of a legion), however, an inscription from near the end of Augustus’s rule suggests that their numbers were briefly increased to twelve.

The Praetorian Guard, like all legionaries, shared similar insignia, mainly on their shields. Praetorian Guard shields included wings and thunderbolts, referring to Jupiter, and also uniquely included scorpions, stars and crescents.

The first military engagement of the Praetorian Guard took place during the mutinies of Pannonia and the mutinies of Germania. Drusus Julius Caesar, son of Tiberius, accompanied by two Praetorian cohorts, the Praetorian Cavalry, and Imperial German Bodyguards, suppressed the mutinies of Pannonia. Germanicus, later known as Germanicus Julius Caesar, led a force of legions and detachments of the Praetorian Guard in a two-year campaign in Germania against the uprising.

In the three centuries that followed, the guard influenced imperial politics by overthrowing emperors and proclaiming the successor. Members of the guard were also directly involved in the assassination of emperors, such as: Aurelian, Balbinus, Caligula, Caracalla, Commodus, Elagabalus, Galba, Pupienus, Pertinax, Philip II, and Probus.

In AD 305, Diocletian and Maximian abdicated, and the former Caesares, Constantius and Galerius became Augusti. Although two sons of emperors, Constantine I and Maxentius were eligible, they were passed over for a new tetrarchy, and Valerius Severus and Maximinus Daza were appointed Caesars.

Severus planned to disband the Praetorian Guard on the orders of Galerius, resulting in the guard giving their allegiance to Maxentius and proclaiming him emperor. By AD 312, Constantine I marched on Rome with a force of 40,000 soldiers to eliminate Maxentius, facing off against an army that encompassed the bulk of the Praetorian Guard garrisoned in Rome at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge on the River Tiber.

Contemporary accounts record Maxentius’s forces being pushed back against the river and retreating across the bridge. The weight of soldiers fleeing caused the bridge to collapse, stranding elements of the guard on the northern bank of the river who were either killed or taken prisoner.

Lucius Caecilius Firmianus, a Christian author and advisor to Constantine recorded the events: “The bridge in his rear was broken down. At sight of that the battle grew hotter. The hand of the Lord prevailed, and the forces of Maxentius were routed. He fled towards the broken bridge; but the multitude pressing on him, he was driven headlong into the Tiber [drowned].”

Maxentius’ body was fished out of the Tiber and decapitated, and his head was paraded through the streets of Rome. Supporters of Maxentius were eliminated and the Praetorian Guard and Imperial Horse Guard were disbanded. The remaining guard were sent in exile to the corners of the empire, and the Castra Praetoria was dismantled in a grand gesture that marked the end of the Praetorians.

[m1male2]

Arch of Constantine in Rome, is a triumphal arch that is located between the Palatine Hill and Celio, on the Via Triumphalis. It was erected in the year 315 to commemorate the victory of Constantine I the Great, against Maxentius in the battle of the Milvian Bridge (year 312).

Its state of conservation is extraordinary, being with the Arch of Titus and the Arch of Septimius Severus (both in the Forum) the only ones still standing today in the city of Rome.

It is curious because it was built with pieces from different buildings, such as statues taken from Trajan's Forum and reliefs in which Marcus Aurelius appears distributing bread to the poor, and Trajan represented after his victory in Dacia. The monument is made up of three arches and is 21 m high and 25 m wide.