shaping memories in the west 127

at Rome, his distribution of coins to the people, and his departure from
Rome.
The designers of the iconography on the arch had many earlier pan-
els, sculptures, and architectural marbles available for reuse, because
the construction of the massive Aurelian Wall around Rome starting in
the 270s had required the systematic demolition of older buildings and
monuments in its path. From this stockpile of salvaged building mate-
rials the designers decided to highlight specific imperial predecessors.
In late antiquity these particular second-century emperors were still
highly regarded as successful rulers. Trajan was noted for his victories
in wars on the northern and eastern frontiers, and Hadrian for his love
of culture; for his virtue and his desire to imitate the gods, Marcus
Aurelius was ranked as the best emperor. Constantine was now put in
their place. On the recycled panels and roundels most of the emperors’
heads were recut as Constantine. This replacement was hence not a
condemnation of memories of bad emperors but a revival of memo-
ries of good emperors. As a result, enough background features had
to remain for viewers to know which emperors were being replaced
and renewed. By representing Constantine as the new Trajan, the new
Hadrian, and the new Marcus Aurelius, the designers of the arch were
also expecting him to behave like them.36
A second objective was to associate Constantine with Augustus, the
first emperor, and the ideals of an emperorship that respected the tra-
ditions of the old Republic. Augustus’ massive mausoleum was located
in the north end of the Campus Martius, in the narrows between the
Tiber and Wide Street (Via Lata), which was a continuation of the

36
See De Maria (1988) 303–5, discussing a now-lost arch of Marcus Aurelius that may have been
the source of the Aurelian panels, and Coates-Stephens (2001) 232–35, for the availability
of building materials recycled from old monuments as a consequence of the construc-
tion of the Aurelian Wall. Reputation of emperors: Julian, Caesares 311c–d, Trajan and
Hadrian, 312b, Marcus Aurelius, 317b, Trajan, 327a–328b, Trajan, 333c, Marcus Aurelius,
with Eutropius, Breviarium 10.16.3, for Julian’s own desire to imitate Marcus Aurelius. Evers
(1991) 793, stresses the limited recutting of the heads of Hadrian and Trajan: “le sculp-
teur du Bas-Empire n’a retouché les portraits impériaux du IIe siècle que de manière tres
partielle.”