In the article Framing the Sun: The Arch of Constantine and The Roman Cityscape by Elizabeth Marlowe, she describes the Arch of Constantine as a relation to Sol, the sun god. She refers to multiple pieces of evidence of Sol being depicted in peices of art that Constantine had created in his reign as emporor. Marlowe's thesis is that the incription on the Arch of Constantine was meant to relate to Sol not to Christ. She first goes into describing the location of the arch and everything located around it. How the designers of the arch were able to be flexible with its positoning, which allowed a bronze staue of Sol to be seen. A traveler's view on the ground coming from the south, on the triumphal road, the arch and the bronze statue of Sol looked to be related. The Arch of Constantine was a frame to the viwer, it's inscripton panel between the Colossus of Sol and the trimphal quadriga, which was once on top of the arch. The panel is described as a description of all of Constantine's acheivements that would not have been accomlished without help from a god. She also tells that Sol appears several times in the Arch of Constantine. Another piece …show more content…
She tells that the portraits had Sol's rayed crown on Constintines head and his right hand raised. Along with the portraits, the coinage that was developed during 313 to 317 of his reign had a legend on them called Soli Invicto Comiti translated to "to invincible sun, companion(of the emporer)". This made it seem as though he worships the sun god, yet she explains that many only focus on the inscription on the arch. Which makes the viewers believe that Constantine was Christitan becuase of the words that translate to "the heavenly force that granted the emperor his victory". Marlowe explains that the fact that he was Christian did not matter because the arch actually meant that he has a new god he worships. This article relates to our class discussions about