The relief from Nicomedia (Izmit) and the “Tetrarchs” from Venice. Dignitatis aequalitas and dynastic embraces (Pan. Lat. V, 8, 3.1)

In this paper, I intend to insist on the approach, defended by very few authors, that the “Tetrarchs” of Venice are not the members of the first tetrarchy, but represent the sons of Constantine that adorned two columns of the Philadelpheion, in Constantinople, from where they were taken as spolia to Venice by the crusaders in 1204. This reflection and this study arise from the discovery of the Nicomedia relief (Izmit) and a comparison is made between both groups. Many researchers have doubted the identification of the group of Venice with the tetrarchs and they propose different solutions. Cagiano de Azevedo identified them with Valentinian and Valens, but there are few who are decidedly inclined to think that they are the sons of Constantine, as in fact the inhabitants of Constantinople believed.