A PRICELESS bust of one of history’s most influential figures has returned to the city where it was first found.

The marble head of Constantine is back at the Yorkshire Museum in York – the city where he was originally crowned - following a year on loan to Italy.

The artefact took pride of place in a high-profile exhibition at the Colosseum in Rome as well as in Milan marking the 1,700th anniversary of the Edict of Milan.

The Yorkshire Museum’s curator of archaeology, Natalie McCaul, said: “For it to be included in such a prestigious exhibition has been fantastic and it will have hopefully have raised the profile of York as a Roman city to thousands of people from all over the world.”

The Edict of Milan saw Contantine I, the emperor controlling the western side of the Roman Empire, and Licinius, who was controlling the Balkans, meet to agree not to punish those who followed the Christian faith.

The marble sculpture of Constantine’s head was found in York and may be the earliest portrait of him, perhaps carved shortly after he was proclaimed emperor. Roughly twice life size, it is from a statue which probably stood in a prominent position in the then-Roman fortress.

It was in York - Roman Eboracum - in AD 306, that Constantine was proclaimed emperor while on a military campaign to defeat the Picts.

He ruled for more than 30 years, during which time he reunited the divided Roman Empire, reorganised the army, restored the civil powers of government and the Senate, and created Constantinople as the “New Rome” on the site of the Greek city of Byzantium, now Istanbul.