A fragment of Empire at Robecco sul Naviglio: the milestone column of Constantine the Great
Abbiategrasso, 10 October 2026
Along the Naviglio Grande, ancient history resurfaces in the most unexpected places. In 1944, at Robecco sul Naviglio, at the start of the road to Abbiategrasso, in the courtyard of a farmhouse (owned by the Casazza family of Abbiategrasso), a Roman milestone column dedicated to Emperor Constantine the Great was found.
What is a milestone column?
In ancient Rome, milestones stood along public roads at every Roman mile, about 1,480 metres. Their inscriptions were both practical, giving distances, and political, honouring the reigning emperor, his titles and his road-building works.
The Robecco column belonged to the Roman road that ran from Porta Vercellina in Milan towards the Ticino and Transalpine Gaul.
The stone and its inscription
The column is 1.50 m high with a diameter of 0.80 m. Damaged in several places, especially at the bottom, its seven surviving lines are clearly legible and can be completed with standard Constantinian formulas.
The inscription, with restorations
D(omino) N(ostro) IMP(eratori) CAES(ari) / (Co)NSTANTINO / MAXIMO P(io) F(elici) VIC(tori) / AUG(usto) PONTIF(ici) MAX(imo) / TRIB(unicia) POT(estate) XXIII IMP(eratori) / XXII CONS(uli) VII / P(atri) P(atriae) PROCONS(uli) …
Translation: “To our Lord, Emperor Caesar Constantine the Great, Pious, Fortunate, Victorious, Augustus, Pontifex Maximus, holding tribunician power for the 23rd time, hailed imperator 22 times, consul seven times, Father of the Fatherland, proconsul…”. These titles date the column to between AD 326 and 329, when Constantine, sole ruler of the Empire, was founding Constantinople.
Where you can see it today
Today the column stands inside the castle of Abbiategrasso, in front of the library entrance: anyone walking in can see it at close hand and read the inscription carved almost seventeen centuries ago.
Remember to value
A piece of Roman road on our way home: our history began almost seventeen centuries ago, along the roads linking Milan to the Ticino.
The source
The photographs and information in this article come from «Habiate», the review published three times a year by the Società Storica Abbiatense (the Historical Society of Abbiategrasso), issues from 1976-1977.
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