ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the aristocratic fashion of Constantinian rule and the relationship between senatorial and equestrian sculpted representations in the visual language of the toga costume. It investigates shifts and shifters within three canonical garments in imperial statue representation under Constantine while revisiting innovations during the late tetrarchy. The chapter compares aristocratic and imperial images of the period. The curious reverse in Constantinian visual politics marking the reappearance of the lorica costume in imperial sculptural representation is explained by the fact that the traditional statue type in armour was not reserved for the emperor. The distinctive garment, the Roman lorica made a decisive return to the imperial vestimentary code. Constantine's visual politics show a striking parallel with the programme of Augustan classicising iconography, assuming the relation between Augustus and Constantine as equal to the relation between a prototype and its historical fulfilment. The two imperial garments, toga and chlamys, were seemingly incompatible from the senatorial point of view.
