The preservation of the inscription is a matter of very great importance, for it furnishes valuable and interesting information as to the circumstances under which the Porta Aurea was erected. From the fact that the entrance is found in the Theodosian Walls it is natural to infer that the Porta Aurea was a contemporaneous building, and that the emperor extolled in the inscription is Theodosius II. But that inference is precluded by the statement that the arch was set up after the suppression of a usurper, _post fata tyranni_. For Theodosius II. was not called to suppress the usurpation of his imperial authority at any time during his reign, much less in 413, when the Wall of Anthemius, in which the Porta Aurea stands, was built. On the other hand, Theodosius the Great crushed two serious attempts to dispute his rule, first in 388, when he defeated Maximus, and again in 395, when he put down the rebellion of Eugenius. Hence, as Du Cange first pointed out, the Porta Aurea is a monument erected in the reign of Theodosius the Great, in honour of his victory over one of the rebels above mentioned. It could not, however, have been designed to commemorate the defeat of Eugenius, seeing that Theodosius never returned to Constantinople after that event, and died four months later in the city of Milan. It must, therefore, have been reared in honour of the victory over Maximus, a success which the conqueror regarded with feelings of peculiar satisfaction and pride, celebrating it by one triumphal entry into Rome, in the spring of 389, and by another into Constantinople, when he returned to the eastern capital in 391.[219] Accordingly, the Porta Aurea was originally an Arch of Triumph, erected some time between 388 and 391, to welcome Theodosius the Great upon his return from his successful expedition against the formidable rebellion of Maximus in the West. It united with the Column of Theodosius in the Forum of Taurus, and the Column of Arcadius in the Forum on the Xerolophus, and the Obelisk in the Hippodrome,[220] in perpetuating the memory of the great emperor’s warlike achievements. In corroboration of the date thus assigned to the monument, it may be added that the only Imperial statue placed over the Porta Aurea was that of Theodosius the Great, while the group of elephants which formed one of the ornaments of the gate was supposed to represent the elephants attached to the car of that emperor on the occasion of his triumphal entry into the city.[221]