While the Serpent Column is quite unimpressive today, its significance lies in a larger context. As the only surviving bronze monument in the Hippodrome it provides a glimpse of the great collection of antiquities once was on the spina, which was gathered in part to rival the old capital of Rome. For Constantinople to be seen as the successor to Rome, there was a need to project its Romanitas (or “Romanness”). This was accomplished in part by imperial public building works that included a hippodrome and other public spaces that were extensively decorated with honorific monuments and sculpture. Emulating Rome, its public works and its ceremonies also played a significant role in legitimizing Constantinople and the emperors residing there, which in turn also boosted the civic pride of its citizens. 
Constantine enlarged and completed the hippodrome, which supposedly was initiated by Septimus Severus around a century early. Starting with Constantine, the Hippodrome and other public spaces were extensive decorated with a large number of antiquities brought from outside of the city. As St. Jerome wrote, Constantinople was enriched through the stripping bare of almost every other city founded before Byzantium. The use of spolia had long been associated with Roman imperial might and domination, and this association was particularly emphasized in the circus. By moving an Egyptian obelisk to the spina of the Circus Maximus, Augustus emphasized his defeat of Anthony and Cleopatra as well as his conquest of Egypt. The sculptural program in the Hippodrome also emphasized its connection to the Circus Maximus, thus the city’s Romanitas and the might of its emperors. 
Images of victory were by far the most common type of antiquity in the Hippodrome. This could include monuments commemorating military triumphs as well as Hippodrome competitors. Some monuments embodied the general concept of victory – which was the case of a group of bronze tripods from the sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi. Traditionally these tripods were used as awards and votive dedications in athletic and dramatic competitions. Even though they originally had specific associations, these were probably lost and thus were transfigured into generic images of victory once they were removed to Constantinople. There were also monuments associated with specific military conquests, as seen in the Ass and Keeper, a statue commemorating Augustus’ victory over Mark Anthony in the Battle of Actium.
The Serpent Column is also linked with a specific military victory. While it lost its golden tripod centuries earlier, the remaining column continued to be associated with the victory over the Persians. It is unclear how much of its original meaning was remembered once it was moved to Constantinople. It seems that Constantine claimed to be the heir of the civilization that defeated the Persians when he moved it to the spina. However it is also possible that its connection to the sun god Apollo (who defeated the serpent Python, banishing chaos and inaugurating an age of peace and fertility) was not forgotten.  Even after his conversion to Christianity, Constantine continued to use imagery of the sun god, thus this linked his own victory over his defeated enemies (Maxentius and Licinius) with Apollo’s victory over Python. It is more plausible that Constantine saw it as a trophy after closing the oracle at Delphi, due to its role in convincing Diocletian to persecute Christians starting in 303. 
As Delphi had been regarded as the center of the world, it is possible that Constantine was claiming this status for his new capital when he moved the Serpent Column and other Delphic tripods to the Hippodrome. This conception, taken together with its association of order over chaos, might have been underscored by the cosmological order that the circus represented, which had, at the center, the emperor himself.  Over time, though, these conceptions of the Serpent Column were lost and instead its apotropaic powers were emphasized. It has also been argued that it was associated with the Brazen Serpent lifted up by Moses in the wilderness, which itself was foreshadowed Christ’s resurrection. By the end of the Byzantine era, it was held to contain snake venom and could cure anyone bitten by a snake. The Ottomans also regarded it as one of the many talismans of Istanbul when it still had its heads. Evliya Çelebi described the Serpent Column as protecting the city from snakes, scorpions and other vermin.