Arch of Constantine

The Arch of Constantine stands beside the Colosseum in Rome, dedicated in AD 315 by the Roman Senate to commemorate the emperor Constantine's victory over Maxentius at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge three years earlier. At roughly 21 meters high, 25.9 meters wide and 7.4 meters deep, it is the largest of Rome's surviving triumphal arches. Much of its sculptural decoration was not carved for the arch itself but taken from earlier monuments honoring the emperors Trajan, Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius, a practice known as spolia, so that the arch visually links Constantine's reign to the empire's earlier golden age. Its triple-arched form, with a large central opening flanked by two smaller ones, became an influential model for later triumphal architecture.