Stephen Dando-Collins - Constantine at the Bridge

PRAISE FOR CONSTANTINE AT THE BRIDGE

A marvelous book. Constantine at the Bridge is an engaging and beautifully written study of a pivotal moment in Roman and European history. M ARK F ELTON , author of Castle of the Eagles: Escape from Mussolinis Colditz

Dando-Collinss writing in this book follows the maxims of good journalism He is an experienced and dependable writer. W ASHINGTON I NDEPENDENT R EVIEW OF B OOKS

Dando-Collinss skillful descriptions enable us to see not only how much but how little the world has changed. P ORTLAND B OOK R EVIEW

Highly readable, while retaining academic accuracy and serious addressing of facts and events Dando-Collins has a true gift as an author. H ISTORY AND H EADLINES

(A) fascinating historical study, thoroughly accessible to lay readers and scholars alike. Highly recommended. M IDWEST B OOK R EVIEW

CONSTANTINE AT THE BRIDGE

CONSTANTINE AT THE BRIDGE

HOW THE BATTLE OF THE MILVIAN BRIDGE CREATED CHRISTIAN ROME

STEPHEN DANDO-COLLINS

TURNER PUBLISHING COMPANY

Nashville, Tennessee

www.turnerpublishing.com

Copyright 2021 by Stephen Dando-Collins. All rights reserved.

Constantine at the Bridge

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 750-4744. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to Turner Publishing Company, 4507 Charlotte Avenue, Suite 100, Nashville, Tennessee, (615) 255-2665, fax (615) 255-5081, e-mail: .

Cover design: Rebecca Lown

Book design: Erin Seaward-Hiatt

Maps design: Grace Cavalier

Library of Congress Control number: 2021021858

Names: Dando-Collins, Stephen, author. Title: Constantine at the bridge : how the Battle of the Milvian Bridge created Christian Rome / Stephen Dando-Collins. Other titles: How the Battle of the Milvian Bridge created Christian Rome Identifiers: LCCN 2021021858 (print) | LCCN 2021021859 (ebook) | ISBN 9781684426829 (paperback) | ISBN 9781684426836 (hardback) | ISBN 9781684426843 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Saxa Rubra, Battle of, Italy, 312. | Constantine I, Emperor of Rome, -337. | Maxentius, Marcus Aurelius Valerius, Emperor of Rome, -312. | Rome--History--Constantine I, the Great, 306-337. Classification: LCC DG315 .D36 2021 (print) | LCC DG315 (ebook) | DDC 937/.08--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021021858 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021021859

9781684426829paperback

9781684426836hardback

9781684426843ebook

Printed in the United States of America

With thanks to my longtime New York literary agent and good friend, Richard Curtis, my publisher, Todd Bottorff, and editors Stephanie Beard and Ezra Fitz for their support and encouragement. And special thanks to my wife, Louise, who has been crossing bridges with me, hand in hand, for forty years .

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Roman World, A.D. 312, showing domains of Constantine, Maxentius, Licinius, and Daia.

Bronze head of Constantine, discovered at Belgrade, believed to show him in later life. Bridgeman Images .

The young emperor Maxentius, Constantines brother-in-law and opponent at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, dressed in the regalia of the Pontifex Maximus. Bridgeman Images .

Surviving fragments from the Colossus of Constantine at Rome, including Constantines ten-foot-high head. Bridgeman Images .

Arch of Constantine, Rome Northern side. Bridgeman images .

Detail from Arch of Constantine, depicting Constantine being driven in a massive open carriage from Verona, Italy, after conquering the city. Bridgeman Images .

A.D. 327 coin of Constantine depicting, on reverse, the Labarum stabbed into a serpent, issued to celebrate defeat of Licinius.

I

THE EVE OF BATTLE

I N THE LAST WEEK OF OCTOBER IN THE YEAR A.D. 312, an army was marching on Rome from the north. On an autumn day, that army, of a little under 40,000 men, came down the Via Flaminia, the Flaminian Way, which linked Rome with the east coast Italian port city of Rimini and sliced through central Italy. Even though this was a Roman army, it was invading Italy, bent on conquering Rome.

Of the 8,000 cavalrymen in this force, not one was Italian. Some were Alemanni Germans, rough and ready Swabian mercenaries from east of the Rhine whose only allegiances were to profit and their tribal confederacy. Others were Romanized Germans, Gauls, Belgae, and Britons. Filling the infantry ranks were detachments from legions and auxiliary units, including archers normally stationed in Britain and at bases on the Upper and Lower Rhine. By this time, legionaries were recruited in the provinces where they were stationed, with the sons of retired legionaries the first choice when it came to recruits. Apart from some centurions, who transferred from legion to legion as they were promoted, none of these troops were Italian.

Here, in Italy, these invaders were foreigners in a foreign land, and as they tramped confidently along in marching order with helmets slung around their necks, baggage poles over their right shoulders, and wooden shields on their left, they chatted and bantered in Latin accented by their native dialects.

Look, Prima Porta! centurions of the advance guard would have called, as the arch of an elegant aqueduct running across the plain straddled the stone-paved highway in their path. That aqueduct served the old Villa of Livia, an imperial country house that sat on a hill beside the highway at Saxa Rubra, farther down the Via Flaminia. Centuries earlier, travelers had nicknamed this arch across the road Prima Porta, or First Door. For, to them, this was like the first door to Rome, which lay ten miles to the south.

Riding in a massive open carriage in the middle of the strung-out column of cavalrymen, foot soldiers, and a baggage train of thousands of heavily laden mules and carts was the armys thirty-five-year-old commander, Flavius Valerius Constantinus, a deputy emperor of Rome. We know him as Constantine. He was a tall, powerfully built man. Roman historian Zosimus, writing eighty years later, said that Constantines nickname was Bull Neck as a consequence of that build, and surviving busts show his thick neck and powerful shoulders. Zosimus also wrote that Constantine was only of average height, but all other sources, including several men who knew him, agreed that he was tall and often stood out in a crowd. Hook-nosed, with penetrating eyes and close-cropped but fussily tended hair, Constantine was clean-shaven, as was becoming the fashion among Roman men after beards had been de rigueur for two centuries. His prominent jaw was square and determined.

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