dedicated by the senate and people of Rome to commemorate the
victories of the first Christian emperor, to do which they took
reliefs from the Arch of Trajan, and built them into an attic which
they erected upon the top of the Arch of Isis, re-dedicating the
conglomeration as the Triumphal Arch of Constantine. The reliefs
which refer to Trajan can be easily distinguished from those of
Constantine (which are very bad) owing to their superior style and the
subjects represented.
[Illustration: ARCH OF CONSTANTINE.]
The designs commence, _on the left side_, with the triumphal entrance
of Trajan by the Porta Capena, after the first Dacian war; then,
secondly, commemorate his services in carrying the Appian Way through
the Pontine Marshes; thirdly, founding an asylum for orphan children;
fourthly, his relations with Parthamasiris, king of Armenia. _On the
opposite side_, dedication of the aqueduct built by Trajan (_seen on
the left_); secondly, audience with the Dacian king Decebalus, whose
hired assassins are brought before him; thirdly, with a representation
of the emperor haranguing his soldiers; and, fourthly, the emperor
offering the _suovetaurilia_ sacrifice of a boar, ram, and bull.
Corresponding with these reliefs, two medallions, representing the
private life of the emperor in simple and graceful compositions, are
introduced over each of the side arches. The first represents his
starting for the chase; the second, a sacrifice to Silvanus, the
patron of silvan sports; the third displays the emperor on horseback
at a bear-hunt; and the fourth a thank-offering to the goddess of
hunting. On the side facing the Colosseum, a bear-hunt, a sacrifice to
Apollo, a group contemplating a dead lion, and lastly a consultation
of an oracle. Most of these refer to Trajan; we think some refer to
Hadrian, because on one of them Antinoüs is represented. On the inside
of the arch is a battle-piece, assigned to Constantine by the
inscriptions, "To the founder of peace," "To the deliverer of the
city." They are older than his time. Over the side arches are some
narrow reliefs referring to Constantine, one of which is peculiarly
interesting, as it represents that emperor addressing the people from
the Rostra ad Palmam, with some of the principal monuments in the
Forum in the background.