previous next
[12] Meanwhile Constantine, after defeating the tyrant's 1 generals at Verona, went on to Rome. When he had reached the city, Maxentius came out and chose a plain 2 above the Tiber as the place to do battle. There the usurper was defeated, and when [p. 517] all his men were put to flight, he was prevented from escaping by the crowd of fugitives, thrown from his horse into the river, and drowned. On the following day his body was recovered from the Tiber, and the head was cut off and taken to Rome. When his mother was questioned about his parentage, she admitted that he was the son of a Syrian. He ruled for six years. 3

1 Maxentius, called “tyrant” because his sovereignty was not officially recognised.

2 Saxa Rubra, near the Mulvian Bridge.

3 The number is lacking in the text, but is known from the Panegyrics of Constantine and other sources. It was from 306–312.

Ammianus Marcellinus. With An English Translation. John C. Rolfe, Ph.D., Litt.D. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1935-1940.

The Annenberg CPB/Project provided support for entering this text.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

load focus Introduction (John C. Rolfe, Ph.D., Litt.D., 1940)
load focus Introduction (John C. Rolfe, Ph.D., Litt.D., 1939)
load focus Introduction (John C. Rolfe, Ph.D., Litt.D., 1935)
load focus Latin (John C. Rolfe, Ph.D., Litt.D., 1935)
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: