Statue of Constantine is discovered among Roman ruins

ROME —  A sewer might be no place for an emperor, but it is precisely from an ancient drainage system that archeologists have dug up a large marble sculpture of Constantine, one of Rome’s greatest leaders.

Archeologists found the 24-inch-tall head last week while clearing a sewer in the Roman Forum, the center of public life in the ancient city, said Eugenio La Rocca, superintendent for Rome’s monuments.

“We can’t be sure of why it was put there,” La Rocca said at a Thursday news conference during which authorities showed the bust.

One possibility is that the sculpture of the man who reunited the Roman Empire in the early 4th century and ended years of persecution against Christians was unceremoniously used later to clear a blocked sewer, he said.

La Rocca called the statue a rare find, saying that its insertion in the sewer probably saved it from the plundering the Forum suffered after the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century.

“Many portraits have been found in Rome, but these days it’s not easy to find one, especially of this size and so well preserved,” he said.

Experts confirmed that the sculpture portrays Constantine by comparing it to coins and two other giant heads of the emperor that are kept in Rome’s Capitoline Museums, La Rocca said. The Carrara marble head probably belonged to a statue of the emperor in full armor and was erected in the part of the Forum built by the emperor Trajan after Constantine conquered Rome from a rival in AD 312.

The style and stern features used in all of Constantine’s portraits also recall the traits of Trajan, who expanded the empire to its maximum size in the early 2nd century.

“Trajan was the greatest emperor and Constantine considered him a model,” La Rocca said

During his reign, which lasted from 306 to 337, Constantine tried to stop the fracturing of the empire and sought to restore it to its ancient glory.

Although not a Christian himself, he ended the frequent waves of anti-Christian persecutions by proclaiming religious freedom throughout his lands. He also moved the empire’s capital to Constantinople -- today’s Istanbul -- closer to the eastern borders threatened by the barbarian invasions.

La Rocca said that restorers would now take charge of the work, which will probably be put on display next year in a museum being built in the Roman Forum.