A SEWER might be no place for an emperor, but that is where archaeologists have discovered a marble statue of the head of Constantine, one of Rome’s greatest leaders.

Eugenio La Rocca, the superintendent for Rome’s monuments, said that archaeologists found the 61cm (2ft) head while clearing an ancient drainage system in the Roman Forum, the centre of public life in the ancient city.

Signor La Rocca said yesterday that officials were unsure why the statue was in the sewer. One possibility is that the statue of the man who reunited the Roman Empire in the early 4th century and ended years of persecution against Christians was unceremoniously used to clear a blocked sewer.

He said that the statue depicts Constantine at the height of his power, after his defeat of Maxentius in 312 AD and his conversion to Christianity. The head bears a striking resemblance to the gigantic marble head of Constantine that once formed part of a 14m-high seated statue of the emperor in the new basilica in the Forum. The head, with a hand and foot from the statue, is preserved at the Capitoline Museums.

Walter Veltroni, the Mayor of Rome, said that it was a “small miracle” that the statue had survived 2,000 years that saw the fall of Rome in the 5th century. “It is a sign of hope in these troubled times, a reminder of the great Roman civilisation of which we are all the heirs,” he said.

Gianni Borgna, the head of culture for Rome city council, said that a number of jewels had come to light since excavations resumed in the Forum just over a decade ago. They included a Roman prison, mosaics from a Roman baths and the headless statue of a Dacian prisoner from the time of Trajan.

Andrea Carandini, Professor of Archaeology at Rome University, said that it was often wrongly assumed that the Forum had been thoroughly excavated. This year he said that he had found traces of a royal palace in the Forum dating to the founding of Rome in the 8th century BC.

His team unearthed a vast palace, which had a central courtyard, a monumental entrance, elaborate furnishings and ceramics, and walls of wood and clay.

“It could not be anything other than the royal palace,” he said.

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