134 remembering constantine at the milvian bridge

a provincial warlord but instead like a respectable civilian. A change of

clothes could transform a man of war from the frontiers into a man
of peace at the capital. The panels had hence inserted the battle at the
Milvian Bridge into a longer arc of the “conversion” of Constantine,
not a religious conversion, but a social and cultural makeover as the
emperor came to acknowledge the traditions and expectations of proper
imperial deportment at Rome.
Second, the narrative in the panels also quietly linked Constantine’s
military campaign with traditional deities. On the panel depicting
the departure of the troops one soldier was carrying a small statue of
winged Victory, which may well have been a replica of the statue of
Victory in the senate house. Another soldier was carrying a small statue
of Sol Invictus, “Unconquered Sun.” Already in Gaul, Constantine
had associated himself with Sol, sometimes in the guise of Apollo.
Dedications to and depictions of Sol were common on his coins, and
in 310 he had had a vision at a temple in Gaul in which he had seen
Apollo, or more likely himself as Apollo, accompanied by Victory,
who was offering him laurel wreaths. On the panel depicting the siege
Victory hovered over Constantine’s soldiers, offering a laurel wreath to
the emperor. On the panel depicting the river battle Constantine was
shown standing in the midst of deities. The goddess Roma appeared
on one side, wearing a helmet and outfitted in full battle gear, similar
to an Amazon; Victory stood on the other side, apparently extending
a garland to the emperor; and at the emperor’s feet was a river god.
These panels depicting the soldiers and the battles seemed to suggest
that Sol (or Apollo) had inspired and led Constantine’s campaign from
the beginning; that Victory had always assisted him during the battles;
and that Roma, the divine personification of the capital, had likewise
helped at the moment of his victory at the Milvian Bridge. Missing in
this narrative was any hint of the assistance of the Christian God. The
iconography instead discreetly associated Constantine and his military
success with the pagan gods of Rome.46

46
L’Orange and von Gerkan (1939) 55, statues of Victory (“eine Wiederholung der Victoria in
der Curia”) and Sol Invictus, 62, Victory and wreath, 66–67, Roma, Victory, river god. The