Liberator Urbis Suae

Sammanfattning: In 293 A.D, the emperor Diocletian introduced the tetrarchy. Each one of the four emperors was to rule one part of the Roman empire so the stability could be assured. But as most of the Roman emperors, all of them sought to rule the empire by themselves. Between the years 309-313 most of the candidates to the imperial office died or were killed in internal wars. Some of them were strangled, some of them died a natural death, and some of them were forced to commit suicide. On 28th of October 312 Constantine defeated Maxentius at the Milvian bridge, just north of Rome. Maxentius rejected, just like Constantine, the tetrarchic system. He did not persecute Christians as his predecessors did, and he wanted to revive Rome as capital of the empire. He began extensive building projects concentrated in the center of the capital, and he revived and expanded the Forum significantly. Maxentius saw himself as the protector of his own city, Rome. He used various legends and images, such as the shewolf with Romulus and Remus, the god Mars, Castor and Pollux, the goddess Roma and the temple of Jupiter, which all express the concept romanitas. Some might say that romanitas was the leading idea of Maxentius’ propaganda. Constantine saw the monuments in Rome that Maxentius had built as symbols of his opponents tyranny, and he replaced them with new ones. Maxentius had defined himself as the protector of the city of Rome and it´s keeper. Constantine, with the view that the former emperor was a dictator and a tyrant, defined himself as the liberator At the end of all this, how did Constantine manifest himself in the city of Rome after 28th of October 312? Why does he start to build so immensely? And, where was his buildings and monuments located in relation to the buildings of Maxentius? What are the topographical differences?