Arch of Constantine historical timeline

Last updated on October 5, 2026

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An arch for one battle, built out of the monuments of three earlier emperors, and then lived in as a fortress.

Chronology

Flavian age — the Meta Sudans, a monumental fountain, is built nearby. Its name comes from its conical shape, like the turning posts of a circus, and from the water that gushed from it. Structural impact: a landmark in the valley beside the future arch. What you see today: a circular footprint in the open ground.
80-81 — the Meta Sudans is reproduced on coins. Structural impact: none. What you see today: how the fountain's original form is known.
28 October 312 — Constantine defeats Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge. Structural impact: none yet. What you see today: the event the whole monument exists to record.
315 — the arch is erected, commissioned by the Roman Senate, reusing materials and architectural elements from imperial monuments of the ages of Trajan, Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius, and the faces of the earlier emperors are remodelled to resemble Constantine. Structural impact: a 21-to-25-metre arch assembled largely from older sculpture. What you see today: the monument, and the mismatch between its parts.
To the 5th century — the Meta Sudans stays in use until the fifth century, when the silting of the Colosseum valley begins to block its drainage channels. Structural impact: the ground level around the arch rises. What you see today: why the monument sits in a dip.
Mid-12th century — the arch is incorporated into the fortress of the Frangipane. Structural impact: a Roman monument becomes part of a medieval stronghold. What you see today: the reason it survived at all — it was useful.
Late 15th and 16th centuries — restorations begin and continue through the sixteenth century. Structural impact: repair of a structure disentangled from the fortress. What you see today: the arch as a monument rather than a wall.
1733 — a further restoration, in which extensive integrations of the missing parts are made. Structural impact: replacement stone across the losses. What you see today: some of what reads as ancient is eighteenth-century completion.
1930s — under Fascism the ruins of the Meta Sudans are demolished to create via dei Trionfi. Structural impact: a Flavian fountain removed for a road. What you see today: only the footprint beside the arch.

Verified against Turismo Roma, October 2026.

External resources

Sources & verification Covers the sourced claims on this page.

Checked against Turismo Roma — Turismo Roma records that the arch was erected in 315 to celebrate the victory of the emperor Constantine over Maxentius, won on 28 October 312 at the battle of the Milvian Bridge, and that it was made partly by reusing materials and architectural elements from older imperial monuments belonging to the ages of Trajan, Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius, Turismo Roma records that all the faces of the emperors present in the reliefs of the Arch of Constantine were remodelled to resemble Constantine, with the nimbus to denote imperial majesty, Turismo Roma records that the Arch of Constantine was included in the middle of the 12th century in the fortress of the Frangipane, that it underwent restorations from the end of the fifteenth century and throughout the sixteenth, and subsequently in 1733, when extensive integrations of the missing parts were carried out, Turismo Roma records that near the Arch of Constantine are visible the remains of the so-called Meta Sudans, a monumental fountain built in the Flavian age, whose name meta derives from the conical shape recalling the turning posts of the circus while sudans indicated the water that gushed from it; that it was reproduced on coins of 80 to 81 AD and remained in use until the 5th century AD, when the silting of the Colosseum valley began to obstruct the water drainage channels; and that in the 1930s, in the Fascist era, the ruins were demolished for the creation of via dei Trionfi (October 2026).
Checked against Wikipedia — Wikipedia states that the Arch of Constantine was commissioned by the Roman Senate to commemorate Constantine's victory over Maxentius at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in AD 312, that it spans the Via Triumphalis between the Colosseum and the Palatine Hill, that dedicated in 315 it is the largest Roman triumphal arch with overall dimensions of 21 metres high, 25.9 metres wide and 7.4 metres deep, that it has three bays with the central one 11.5 metres high and 6.5 metres wide and the laterals 7.4 by 3.4 metres each, and that the arch is constructed of brick-faced concrete covered in marble (October 2026).

Arch of Constantine historical timeline

Chronology

External resources

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