Legions of Rome

by Stephen Dando-Collins

  Fifty hand-picked men from Constantine’s bodyguard formed the escort for that new standard, men “who were most distinguished for personal strength, valor and piety.” Their sole duty “was to surround and vigilantly defend the standard, which they carried each in turn on their shoulders.” [Eus., EH, 2, VIII] Constantine’s standard came to be called the Labaram. Richardson suggested this title may have had a Spanish origin, coming from the Basque word labarva, which means a standard. [Ibid., 1, XXXI, n. 3010] Constantine’s spiritual adviser, from perhaps as early as his years in Gaul, was a Spaniard, Bishop Hosius, and he may have given the standard its name.

  On the morning of October 26, Constantine and his army arrived at the village of Saxa Rubra, 9 miles (14.5 kilometers) north of Rome. Constantine would have planned to set up camp there at Saxa Rubra, within easy striking distance of the capital, but he was surprised to learn from his cavalry scouts that Maxentius and his army were marching out of Rome and forming up for battle north of the Tiber, near the Milvian Bridge. Constantine immediately called a conference of his officers and assigned the units their positions. “We are informed, and we may believe, that Constantine disposed his troops with consummate skill,” said Gibbon. [Gibb., XIV] And then Constantine ordered his new standard raised—the signal that today his army would be doing battle.

  It took a little over an hour for Constantine’s army to march down to where Maxentius’ army was deployed and waiting. Ahead of Constantine, several deep lines of infantry spread across the river plain, extending all the way to the river, which created a bulwark against retreat by Maxentius’ troops. Behind them, a bridge of boats stretched across the swift-flowing Tiber. The Praetorian Guard, whom Maxentius considered “the firmest defense of his throne,” probably occupied his prestigious right wing. [Gibb., XIV] Positioned on both outer wings, the thousands of heavy cavalry of the Imperial Singularian Horse, clad in fish-scale armor, and unarmored Moorish and Numidian light cavalry from North Africa, tried to settle their restless horses. [Ibid.]

  Maxentius himself was there between the lines, mounted on a charger and wearing heavy armor, surrounded by his bodyguards. Before he had ordered his troops to march from the city that morning, he had consulted the Roman priests who kept the Sibylline Books, which were supposed to foretell the future. When Maxentius asked whether he would be victorious if he were to fight Constantine, he was informed that the enemy of Rome would fall that day. [Ibid.] This prophecy, together with his secret scheme involving the bridge of boats, had given Maxentius the courage to proceed.

  Preceded by a cacophony of trumpet calls, both sides charged. Constantine had ignored the counsel of his officers to keep himself out of danger; placing himself on one wing, he led the charge of his cavalry, which slammed into the other side. After only brief fighting, the cavalry facing Constantine gave way and withdrew toward the bridge of boats. At the same time, Maxentius and his bodyguards also withdrew. Constantine and his cavalry gave chase.

  Constantine would only later learn that this withdrawal by Maxentius and his cavalry was part of a preconceived plan. The cunning Maxentius realized that, if he could do away with Constantine, his leaderless army would be much easier to destroy; it might even come over to him in the same way that Severus’ troops had done. So Maxentius had conceived a way of isolating and killing Constantine. The center of the bridge of boats had been rigged to give way at Maxentius’ signal, and dump whoever was on the bridge at the time into the Tiber. The scheme required Constantine to be lured on to the bridge. And the early withdrawal of Maxentius and his cavalry after Constantine’s initial charge had this as its objective—Maxentius’ troopers were under orders to deliberately retreat and lure Constantine on to the bridge. [Eus., EH, 1, XXXVIII; Zos., 2, 15]

  But Maxentius’ ploy, while it began as planned, quickly went awry, and spectacularly so. It was when Maxentius and the troopers of his Singularian Horse were on the middle of the bridge of boats that it gave way. Perhaps it had been poorly constructed. Perhaps the signal to pull the pins holding the bridge together was given too early. Or perhaps a Constantine sympathizer among Maxentius’ troops was responsible. Whatever the cause, the bridge broke under Maxentius, sending the emperor and men of his bodyguard tumbling into the river, horses and all.

  A marble panel on the Arch of Constantine, later erected beside the Colosseum to commemorate Constantine’s victory, shows Maxentius and his men in fish-scale armor struggling to swim in the swift-flowing river, while Constantine’s cavalrymen line the bank and throw javelins at them. There is even a distinctive eastern archer among the men on the riverbank, in long robe and angular helmet, firing arrows into the men in the water. Maxentius attempted to clamber up the southern bank of the river, but it was too steep and too crowded by other fugitives also intent on saving themselves. Carried away by the swirling waters and weighed down by his armor, Maxentius, Roman emperor of the west for six years, disappeared beneath the surface.

  With their commander-in-chief gone, the cavalry on both wings of Maxentius’ army gave way, and fled. The infantry was left to fend for itself, and the less experienced troops were also soon fleeing. Only the Praetorian Guard stood its ground. Conscious of the fact that they had made Maxentius their emperor, the Praetorians shared his fate. The Praetorians were surrounded, and javelins and arrows poured into their ranks. Gibbon was to say, “it was observed that their bodies covered the same ground which had been occupied by their ranks”; none had attempted to run. [Gibb., XIV] In an eerie repeat of history, 1,503 years later, Napoleon’s Imperial Guard would make a similarly brave but fatal last stand after their emperor had been defeated, at Waterloo.

  After just a few hours, the battle was over. Thousands of Maxentius’ troops had died; thousands more surrendered. Constantine rode into Rome as the victor, and was greeted as a hero by the members of the Senate and crowds of Roman people. Maxentius’ fate soon became known. “The following day his body was recovered from the Tiber, and the head was cut off and taken to Rome.” [Vale., 4, 12] Even as Maxentius’ head was being paraded around Rome on the point of a spear, the former emperor’s closest advisers were being arrested and executed by Constantine’s troops. [Zos., 2, 17]

  Constantine remained in Rome for nearly three months. In that time he made sweeping changes to Rome and to the Roman military. On his orders, the Praetorian Guard, the force that had put Maxentius on his throne, was abolished, along with its supporting troops. [Zos., 2, 17] The Praetorians’ massive fortress, the Castra Praetoria, built in the northeast of the city by the notorious Praetorian prefect Sejanus early in the reign of Tiberius, was razed to the ground.

  Under the same directive, the household cavalry, the Imperial Singularian Horse, was abolished. Its bases below Rome’s Caelian Hill, the Old Fort and the New Fort, were demolished. Constantine even donated the Singularians’ graveyard to the Christian Church, which built the Basilica Constantiniana, the later San Giovanni in Laterano, over it; 609 Singularian gravestones would be discovered beneath the building by modern archaeologists. Other Singularian gravestones were used as building material. In that part of the graveyard not built over, troopers’ gravestones were deliberately smashed to pieces. [Speid., 10]

  Constantine did not abolish Maxentius’ 2nd Parthica Legion. Instead, its survivors were transferred from their comfortable base at Alba Longa south of Rome to the dry wastes of Mesopotamia in the East, to face the Persians. The 2nd Parthica’s base at Alba Longa, and the civilian vicus, or township, outside its walls, where the families of the soldiers had lived, were given by Constantine to the Christian Church.

  At the same time, Constantine reduced the power of the Senate of Rome to that of a town council, and taxed the senators for the privilege of sitting in the Senate. No longer would the promotional path of senior Roman military officers be via the Senate of Rome. Now, the emperor appointed men of Equestrian rank to the command of his legions and auxiliary units. They would come from throughout the empire, and from beyond, with an increasing
number of foreigners rising to command Roman armies in the coming decades.

  Legion commanders would now be prefects, not praetors of Rome, and tribunes would command auxiliaries. A pair of tribunes would now be second-in-command and third-in-command of the legions. The old officer cadet system involving junior tribunes was replaced by the Candidatii Militares, two cohorts of officer cadets attached to the emperor’s bodyguard from which suitable candidates were promoted by the emperor to the rank of tribune and given commands of their own. And, like the 2nd Parthica, legions that supported Constantine’s rivals would be relegated to frontier postings, while new so-called Palatine legions formed the mobile field army with which Constantine dealt with enemies foreign and domestic.

  Yet, Constantine was not yet ruler of the entire Roman world. Galerius had appointed a new Caesar, Licinius, to replace the executed Severus. In May AD 311, on the death of Galerius in Illyricum, his deputy Licinius had become emperor of the Eastern Empire. Licinius swiftly removed his fellow Caesar for the East, Maximinus Daia, from the scene. For now, Constantine was prepared to work with Licinius. In early AD 313, Constantine and Licinius met at Mediolanum and discussed joint policy for the administration of the Roman Empire, issuing joint decrees as a result. To cement their alliance, Licinius married Constantine’s sister Constantia, there at Mediolanum.

  Within seven years, the eight-man leadership group established by Diocletian and Maximian on their abdication in AD 305 had been whittled down to two by sword and sickness. But neither of these two surviving emperors was content to share power for long. Soon, Constantine and Licinius would pit their legions against each other to decide the ultimate ruler of the Roman Empire.

  AD 316–321

  LXVIII. CONSTANTINE AGAINST LICINIUS

  The final struggle

  With Valerius Licinius ruling the Roman East from Illyricum, Constantine appointed Bassianus as his Caesar, or deputy, giving him as his bride Constantine’s sister Anastasia. Leaving Bassianus in charge in Italy, Constantine returned to Gaul in AD 313, where, over subsequent years, he would make several cities including Augusta Treverorum in the Moselle his capital. But when Constantine learned that Bassianus was secretly dealing with Licinius, he executed Bassianus and in AD 316 marched an army into Illyricum to do battle with its ruler.

  Licinius had been born in New Dacia, or Dacia Ripensis, the province carved from the old Moesia south of the River Danube following Rome’s forced surrender of the province of Dacia north of the Danube to barbarian invaders in AD 274. Licinius was, according to one source, “of somewhat common origin.” [Vale., 5, 13] He was a heavy drinker, but a fearless soldier. Licinius, at his capital of Sirmium in Illyricum (today’s Sremska Mitrovica in Bosnia), seems to have been taken by surprise by Constantine’s march into his domain, for he and his army only met Constantine 50 miles (80 kilometers) from Sirmium, at Cibalae (modern Vinkovci in Croatia), on the Sava river. [Gibb., XIV]

  Licinius’ army consisted of 35,000 infantry and cavalry. Constantine had 20,000 foot plus cavalry. [Vale., 5, 16] Constantine, forewarned of Licinius’ approach, spread his compact battle lines across a defile half a mile (0.8 kilometer) wide, with a steep hill on one flank and a deep morass on the other. This meant that Constantine could not be outflanked, and his opponent was committed to a narrow frontal attack. Licinius and his army came up shortly after dawn. Once they had formed their battle lines, both sides exchanged missiles before Licinius’ troops charged, with Constantine’s outnumbered men holding their ground. Toe to toe, the men of the two Roman armies fought it out there in the defile through much of the day, with neither side giving way. Late in the day, Constantine himself led a cavalry charge from his right wing which finally broke the deadlock. “After an indecisive contest in which 20,000 of Licinius’ foot and part of his mail-clad cavalry were slain, he himself made his escape with most of his other cavalry under cover of night to Sirmium.” [Ibid.]

  Collecting his wife, Constantine’s sister Constantia, and his children, from Sirmium, Licinius hurried north to New Dacia, and gave his deputy Valens the task of collecting more troops to continue the war against Constantine. Constantine had proceeded after Licinius, and when he reached Philippi in Macedonia he received envoys from his opponent seeking peace terms. Constantine ignored the peace overture, and, hearing that Valens had assembled a large force at Adrianople in Thrace, marched toward it. At Mardia, in Thrace, Constantine confronted Licinius’ deputy. Once again, the missiles flew from both sides, and two Roman armies became locked in battle.

  Constantine’s glittering new standard was now prominent between the lines. Eusebius was to relate a story, which he said had come to him direct from Constantine’s own lips, about Constantine’s new standard. In one battle, the standard-bearer carrying the Labaram lost his courage as the battle heated up, and, handing the emperor’s standard to a colleague of the escort, the standard-bearer ran for his life. The fleeing soldier did not get far, according the Eusebius, as “he was struck in the belly with a dart, which took his life.” The man to whom he had passed the standard, meanwhile, survived the battle unscathed. [Eus., EH, IX]

  Both sides fought shield-to-shield for indecisive hours. At one point Constantine detached 5,000 men and led them via high ground to attack the other side’s rear, but the two battle lines of Licinius’ army continued to stand firm until nightfall, and then withdrew. [Gibb., XIV] Licinius and Valens linked up, and, suspecting that Constantine would pursue them, pretended to withdraw toward Byzantium but turned aside toward the Thracian town of Beroea. Sure enough, Constantine marched right by them. [Vale., 5, 18] Surprised to learn that his opponents were behind him, Constantine swung about. [Ibid.]

  But Licinius had lost his best troops, and sent one of his generals to Constantine again suing for peace. This time, Constantine, whose own troops were “worn out from fighting and marching,” agreed. [Ibid.] Under the peace terms, Licinius’ able deputy Valens was removed from office, and Licinius’ power was defined as the eastern provinces plus Asia, Thrace, Moesia and Lesser Scythia. Constantine would control the remainder of the empire, with the aid of his sons Crispus and Constantius, whom he appointed his Caesars and heirs.

  There was now a brief, uneasy peace, with Constantine provocatively basing himself at Thessalonica in Macedonia. This was one of his provinces, but it was right on the border of the two emperors’ realms. Licinius, having twice been unable to defeat Constantine in battle, did not trust him and concentrated his troops around himself in Illyricum, seeking allies from among barbarian tribes. Encouraged by Licinius, “the Goths broke through the neglected frontiers, devastated Thrace and Moesia, and began to drive off booty.” [Ibid., 21] From Thessalonica, Constantine reacted quickly. Marching his army against the invaders, he marched into Licinius’ territory, surprised the Goths and forced them to return their Roman civilian captives and booty. [Ibid.] Licinius was enraged, complaining that Constantine had breached their peace agreement by using force of arms in Licinius’ provinces.

  To mollify Licinius, Constantine, in rebuilding the Moesian city of Tropaeum Trajani, which rose beside Trajan’s famous monument to the Dacian Wars and was destroyed by the Goths in AD 170, placed an ironic inscription over the restored city’s eastern gate. That inscription, which survives today in the museum at Adamclisi, describes Constantine and Licinius as “our leaders” and “defenders of Roman security and liberty,” saying that “through whose virtue and wisdom foreign peoples have been subjected in order to assure a lasting border.” Just as that border would not last—the Goths and then the Huns would before long mock the inscription and the legions of Rome by overrunning the city—neither would the shaky partnership between Constantine and Licinius.

  In AD 324, Constantine launched a new campaign against his fellow emperor. Sending his son Crispus with a fleet to occupy Asia and seal off Licinius’ back door, Constantine himself led his army into Thrace. Licinius and his army occupied a mountain near Adrianople, and Constantine’s troops slowly ma
de their way up the mountain slopes. A series of small battles took place all over the mountain, as Licinius’ “confused and disorganized” army was defeated piecemeal. Constantine himself was wounded in the thigh in this fighting, although not seriously. [Ibid., 24] Licinius escaped to Byzantium.

  Off Callipolis (today’s Gallipoli), Constantine’s fleet, commanded by his son Crispus, did battle with Licinius’ fleet, commanded by his admiral Amandus, with the result that “part of Licinius’ fleet was destroyed, part captured.” [Ibid., 26] On hearing this, Licinius fled to Chalcedon in Asia, and Constantine entered Byzantium. In Asia, Licinius put together another sizeable army including Goths led by the Gothic prince Alica. The persistent Constantine crossed to Asia with his army, and opposite Byzantium at Chrysopolis (modern Scutari in northwestern Turkey), the two rivals came together for yet another battle.

  By this time, the Labaram, Constantine’s new standard, had come to be perceived as a lucky charm by Constantine’s superstitious soldiers, and when troops in a particular part of the battle were hard pressed, Constantine would send his standard there, lifting the spirits of his men and turning the tide. [Eus., EH, VII] Eusebius wrote that Licinius instructed his soldiers not to direct their attack where Constantine’s standard was known to be, and not even to look at it, while his own troops “advanced to the attack preceded by certain images of the dead and lifeless statues”—the traditional form of Roman military standard. [Ibid., EH, XVI]

  After he was reinforced by his son, the Battle of Chrysopolis was a total victory for Constantine. “When they saw Constantine’s legions coming in Libernium galleys [with Crispus] the survivors threw down their arms and surrendered.” [Ibid., 28] Licinius himself and his leading supporters were taken prisoner. The following day, Licinius’ wife, Constantine’s sister Constantia, went to Constantine and begged for her husband’s life. Constantine granted Licinius his life on condition that he give up all claim to the throne. Licinius agreed.