The equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius in Rome owes its preservation on the Campidoglio to the popular mis-identification of Marcus Aurelius, the philosopher-emperor, with Constantine the Great, the Christian emperor; indeed, more than 20 other bronze equestrian statues of various emperors and generals had been melted down since the end of the Imperial Roman era. It has been speculated that its misidentification stems from the prior existence of an equestrian statue of Constantine which had stood beside the Arch of Septimius Severus, and which had been most likely taken on the orders of the emperor Constans II during his visit to Rome in 663. With its removal, the people eventually mistakenly identified Marcus Aurelius's statue for Constantine's. In the medieval era it was one of the few Roman statues to remain on public view. In the 8th century it stood in the Campus Lateranensis, to the east of the Lateran Palace in Rome, sitting on a pedestal that was later provided by Sixtus IV. Its placement next to the Lateran Palace was due the fact that this site used to contain the house of Marcus Aurelius's grandfather Marcus Annius Verus, which was where the Emperor's birth and early education took place. From here it was relocated in 1538, by order of Pope Paul III to remove it from the main traffic of the square. It was moved to the Piazza del Campidoglio (Capitoline Hill) during Michelangelo's redesign of the Hill. Though he disagreed with its central positioning, he designed a special pedestal for it. The original is on display in the Palazzo dei Conservatori of the Musei Capitolini, while a replica has replaced it in the square. On the night of November 29, 1849, at the inception of the revolutionary Roman Republic, a mass procession set up the Red-White-Green tricolore (now Flag of Italy, then a new and highly "subversive" flag) in the hands of the mounted Marcus Aurelius. In 1979, a bomb attack in the nearby Palazzo Senatorio damaged the statue's marble base. Cultural significance The statue is featured on the reverse of the aureus of Marcus Aurelius, struck in 174 AD. The statue is depicted on the reverse of the contemporary Italian €0.50 coin, designed by . The statue was formerly clad in gold. An old local myth says that the statue will turn gold again on the Judgement Day. Influence A number of later sculptural works have