![]() Once Severus arrived in Italy, however, his army defected to Maxentius. Galerius ordered his co-Augustus, Severus, to put Maxentius down in early 307. Galerius, however, recognized Constantine as holding only the lesser imperial rank of Caesar. But whereas Constantine's claim was recognized by Galerius, ruler of the Eastern provinces and the senior emperor in the Empire, Maxentius was treated as a usurper. In Rome, the favorite was Maxentius, the son of Constantius' imperial colleague Maximian, who seized the title of emperor on 28 October 306. When Constantius died on 25 July 306, his father's troops proclaimed Constantine as Augustus in Eboracum ( York). Although Constantine was the son of the Western Emperor Constantius, the Tetrarchic ideology did not necessarily provide for hereditary succession. After Diocletian stepped down on 1 May 305, his successors began to struggle for control of the Roman Empire almost immediately. The underlying causes of the battle were the rivalries inherent in Diocletian's Tetrarchy. The Arch of Constantine, erected in celebration of the victory, certainly attributes Constantine's success to divine intervention however, the monument does not display any overtly Christian symbolism. This was interpreted as a promise of victory if the sign of the Chi Rho, the first two letters of Christ's name in Greek, was painted on the soldiers' shields. Eusebius of Caesarea recounts that Constantine and his soldiers had a vision sent by the Christian God. Īccording to Christian chroniclers Eusebius of Caesarea and Lactantius, the battle marked the beginning of Constantine's conversion to Christianity. Maxentius drowned in the Tiber during the battle his body was later taken from the river and decapitated, and his head was paraded through the streets of Rome on the day following the battle before being taken to Africa. Constantine won the battle and started on the path that led him to end the Tetrarchy and become the sole ruler of the Roman Empire. ![]() It takes its name from the Milvian Bridge, an important route over the Tiber. The Battle of the Milvian Bridge took place between the Roman Emperors Constantine I and Maxentius on 28 October 312. ![]()
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