Contaminaciones paganas en la imagen de los primeros emperadores cristianos en la Nueva Roma: el caso de Constantino = Pagan Influences in the Image of the First Christian Emperors in the New Rome: the Case of Constantine

Abstract

The emperor Constantine designed a new model of the imperial image based upon the incorporation of Christian symbolism and the reusal of traditional Roman and Hellenistic models. This sort of ideological syncretism so characteristic of Late Antiquity —we understand here ‘ideology’ following G. Dumezil— is adopted by the emperor for his own image, as we can see especially in some buildings and monuments of his new capital, Constantinople. In this contribution we aim to review some literary and iconographic sources on this issue, in the particular case of Constantine.