Anyway, for huge relief of the residents
of the Eternal City, Constantine
did not trigger any repression against them, stating in his
appearance before the Senate on
the same day of its entry into Rome,
its intention both to be lenient with
those who supported Maxentius as to respect the
authority of such a prestigious and
ancient camera. Indeed, far from wanting to repeat the massacre of senators led
by Septimius Severus, his
predecessor in the list of
Roman emperors who conquered the city in the context of a civil war, Constantine wanted to shore
up his power in the western half
of the Empire (still in question because to
the eastern August Galerius eyes, Constantine was still only Caesar)
turning the hostile city of Rome in an ally. The
best procedure for it was to continue, somehow, the work of Maxentius
with the difference of permuting the prominence of him by Constantine own.
This implied the need not only to
show clemency but also needed both neutralize the power could subtract the losing side
as yet beyond,
suppress from awareness of the Romans the idea of
Maxentius as benefactor and replace it for an image of tyrant.