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...the Arch of Constantine, long thought to have been erected to record that Emperor's defeat of Maxentius at Saxa Rubra, near the Ponte Milvio, in A.D. 312, when Constantine declared in favour of Christianity. But most of the reliefs on the Arch do not belong to the age of Constantine at all, having been brought from other buildings, and adapted to suit the story they were desired to tell. The only ones that were really contemporary are two on the farther side, representing the attack on a city and the battle of Saxa Rubra. The interior reliefs of the principal arch belong to the time of Trajan. The eight round medallions above the vaulted portion go back perhaps to the time of Hadrian. The eight large reliefs of the upper part belonged to the arch of M. Aurelius, long destroyed. Three others are preserved in the Palazzo dei Conservatori. Mr. A. L. Fronthingam, arguing from the inscription, "this arch famous for its triumphs", thinks it may have been adapted from time to time to suit particular triumphs as they occurred.
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