Discovery of Imperial insignia

In December 2006 archeologists under direttore Clementina Panella, archeologist at the University of La Sapienza in Rome, made the find of their life.

During excavations on the North-eastern slope of the Palatine Hill they discovered in an underground storage space the remains of an antique wooden chest.

In it they found among other things: Imperial Roman standards (signa imperii), three sceptres; the most important find was a scepter of a flower holding a blue-green globe, which is believed to have belonged to the Emperor Maxentius himself because of its intricate worksmanship, metal javelin heads (pilum), two perfectly round spheres of gold and green coloured glass and one sphere made of azure-blue chalcedon.

These objects are on unkown grounds ascribed to Maxentius’ reign (306-312), and are supposed to have been hastily hidden there on the eve of the battle of Milvian Bridge on October 28th 312 in which Constantine (the Great) defeated Maxentius.

These extraordinary finds are now on display in the Museo Nazionale Romano at the Palazzo Massimo in Rome.