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Constantine and the Origins of the Christian Basilica

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2013

J. B. Ward Perkins
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Few archaeological problems have been longer and less conclusively debated than that of the origins of the Christian basilica. Ever since the great Renaissance architect, Alberti, noted the similarity of name and of architectural form between the Early Christian basilicas and the forum basilicas of Imperial Roman practice, students of classical architecture have been trying to establish the derivation of the Christian basilica from this, that, or the other type of pagan monument. The measure of their failure to secure general agreement is the very large and still increasing literature that has grown up around the problem. There have, of course, been certain clear advances. Some of the older theories, such as that which derived the basilica from the Pompeian type of Roman house, need no longer be taken seriously; and there is a vastly greater body of reliable evidence available now than there was even a quarter of a century ago. Despite these advances, however, we are still very far from being able to give an agreed answer to the fundamental question, why it was that the fourth-century Church adopted the apsed basilical hall as the standard form of building for the celebration of the Eucharist, and so established an architectural and liturgical pattern that is still effective to the present day. The primary purpose of this article is to review the problem in the light of recent discoveries and of recent research, and to try to define, rather more precisely than is often done, the terms within which it can usefully be discussed.

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Research Article
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Papers of the British School at Rome , Volume 22 , November 1954 , pp. 69 - 90
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Copyright © British School at Rome 1954

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References

1 For this literature, see the excellent and in many respects complementary summaries by Langlotz, E. and Deichmann, F. in Reallexikon für Antike und Christentum, ed. Klauser, Th., vol. i, 1950, 1225–59Google Scholar (the article was written in 1943), and Lemerle, P. in Acad. R. de Belgique, Bull. de la Classe des Lettres et des Sciences Morales et Politiques, 5, xxxiv, 1948, pp. 306–28Google Scholar. Stange, A., Das frühchristliche Kirchengebäude als Bild des Himmels, Cologne, 1950Google Scholar (on which, see Kollwitz, J., Byz. Zeitschr. xlvii, 1954, pp. 169–71Google Scholar). For a summary of the papers on this subject read at a meeting of the Koldewey-Gesell-schaft in 1953, see Kunstchronik vi, 1953, pp. 237 fGoogle Scholar. (in particular, the remarks by Th. Kempf, pp. 241–2).

2 The writer's thanks are due to Professor Axel Boethius and to Mr. Hugh Last for many helpful suggestions made during the preparation of this article, and to Mr. G. U. S. Corbett for preparing the plans with which it is illustrated.

3 art. cit., 1225–6. See also Downey, G., AJA xli, 1937, pp. 194–211CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 The new fashion is ridiculed by Aristophanes, Eq. 1378–81.

5 Welin, E., Studien zur Topographie des Forum Romanum (Acta Inst. Rom. Regni Sueciae, ser. 8°, vi), 1953, pp. 111 fGoogle Scholar.

6 ‘Der architektonische Ursprung der christlichen Basilika,’ Festschrift für Hans Jantzen, Berlin (Mann), 1951, pp. 30–6Google Scholar.

7 AJA xxii, 1918, p. 75Google Scholar.

8 H. Kohl and C. Watzinger, Antike Synagogen in Galilaea, 1916, p. 180.

9 A. Maiuri, ‘Oecus Aegyptius’, in Studies Presented to David Moore Robinson, pp. 423–9, pls 25–6; and in Palladio, n.s. ii, 1952, p. 5Google Scholar, figs. 9–11.

10 The ‘Hypostyle Hall’ in Delos is commonly cited in this connection (G. Leroux, Délos, fasc. iia: La Salle Hypostyle, Paris, 1909Google Scholar; Les origines de l'édifice hypostyle, Paris, 1913Google Scholar); but, as Langlotz remarks, the architectural type has closer affinities with the oriental apadana.

11 The discussion turns on the reference in Plautus, Curculio, 472: ‘dites damnosos maritos sub basilica quaerito’. Plautus was already dead when the Basilica Porcia was begun, and this line is either a later insertion or must refer to some earlier basilica. The adjective basilicas appears commonly in Plautus in the figurative sense of ‘grand, costly’.

12 Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome xx, 1951, pp. 71–3Google Scholar, fig. 66 (before excavation). For permission to reproduce the summary plan of this building since excavation, I am indebted to the American Academy and to its successive field-directors, Professor F. E. Brown and Mr. L. Richardson.

13 First half of the first century B.C.; there is no trace of a separate tribunal. Wikén, Erik, Bollettino dell'Associazione Internazionale degli Studi Mediterranei V, 1934, pp. 7–21Google Scholar.

14 Late Republican; there is no trace of a separate tribunal, unless this stood within the south aisle, above the tabernae that are incorporated in the podium near the middle of the rear wall; Mertens, J., Memorie della Accademia Nazionale del Lincei, s. 8, v, pp. 171–94, fig. 23Google Scholar.

15 Cf. also the Basilica Julia (fig. 1, 3) and the early Imperial basilica at Sabratha (fig. 1, 6). The possible distinction between a primitive, completely centralised type (as at Ardea, and still substantially surviving in the Basilica Julia) and a more complex type, with a clearly established shorter axis (Cosa, Vitruvius's basilica at Fano) need not be further discussed in the present context.

16 SHA, , vit. Gord. 32. 3Google Scholar; Sidonius, , Epist. ii. 2. 8Google Scholar.

17 Pliny, , Epist. x. 39Google Scholar; CIL xi, 5820 (Augustan).

18 CIL xii, 4342 (mid-second century).

19 Libellus de regionibus urbis Romae, ed. Nordh (Acta Inst. Rom. Regni Sueciae, ser. III, 8°), Lund, 1949, pp. 84, 100; cf. CIL xi, 9209.

20 Bull. Arch. 1913, pp. 159–60; CIL viii, 20156 (A.D. 364–7).

21 CIL ix, 3162 (undated).

22 Vegetius (ed. Lang, 1885) ii, 23; CIL vii, 965 (Netherby, A.D. 222) and 445 (Lanchester, temp. Gordian, cf. 287); CIL iii, 6025 (Syene, c. A.D. 140); CIL xiii, 6672 (Mainz, A.D. 196).

23 CIL viii, 12006 (A.D. 212); xiii 950–4 (early Imperial).

24 CIL vi, 30973. See Bull. Comm. 1890, p. 20 and Not. d. Scavi 1869, pp. 348–9; unfortunately only the antechamber was excavated. To judge from the associated sculpture, it may have been as early as the late second century.

25 Veleia: Aurigemma, S., Velleia (Rome, 1940), p. 34Google Scholar; Schultze, R., Basilika (Berlin, 1928), p. 49, fig. 36Google Scholar. Timgad: Schultze, op. cit. pl. VII. Doclea: ibid. fig. 33.

26 Lugli, G., Roma Antica: il centro monumentale, Roma, 1946, p. 251Google Scholar.

27 See above, p. 74, n. 20.

28 Monumenti antichi dei Lincei xxxi, 1926, cols. 601–860Google Scholar.

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30 Schultze, op. cit. pp. 61–3, fig. 44.

31 Giovannoni, G. in Saggi sull' Architettura Etrusca e Romana, Roma, 1940, pp. 85–94Google Scholar (the concrete vault is disputed); Winnefeld, H., Die Villa ties Hadrian, Berlin, 1895, fig. 24Google Scholar.

32 Niemann, G., Der Palast Diokletians in Spalato, Vienna, 1910, Abb. 129Google Scholar; only the vaulted substructures are preserved, but it is clear that these reflect the plan of the hall that once stood upon them. It is to be distinguished from the vestibule and plain rectangular hall opening off the ‘Peristyle’ or ceremonial atrium (the function of which is discussed by Dyggve, E., Ravennatum Palatium Sacrum, Copenhagen, 1941Google Scholar).

33 Destroyed in 532. For a reconstructed plan, based on the contemporary sources, see E. Dyggve, op. cit., p. 54, fig. 45; he suggests that Theodoric's throne room at Ravenna followed the same model.

34 Massow, W. v., Die Basilika in Trier, Simmern (Hunsrück), 1948Google Scholar.

35 See Müller, V., AJA xli, 1937, pp. 250–2CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

36 Corinth, i, 1932, pp. 193–211Google Scholar; Fasti Archaeologici iv (1949), 4021, fig. 88Google Scholar.

37 The examples cited by Downey (art. cit. (n. 3) pp. 194–211) suggest the possible survival throughout die classical period of a class of buildings that were known as basilikai, but were partly open to the sky. Such buildings would presumably have been derived from late Hellenistic models.

38 JRS xxxviii, 1948, p. 62, fig. 7Google Scholar. This building, which was restored by Hadrian after the Jewish Revolt, awaits detailed study; in its present state it represents a curious compromise between ‘broad’ and ‘long’ planning. The same features characterise the second-century basilica recently excavated at Smyrna (Izmir).

39 Lanckoronski, K., Städte Pamphyliens und Pisidiens, ii, Vienna, 1892, pp. 164–5Google Scholar; for a better plan see Langlotz, art. cit. (n. 1), fig. 28, 10.

40 Lanckoronski, , op. cit. ii, pp. 21 fGoogle Scholar.

41 Other accessibly published examples of judiciary-basilicas from the Eastern provinces are those at Aspendos in Pamphylia (Lanckoronsky, , op. cit. i, pp. 96–8Google Scholar, fig. 76), at Apamea in Syria (Butler, H. C., American Archaeological Expedition to Syria, 1899–1900, iiGoogle Scholar: Architecture and other Arts, New York, 1905, p. 55, fig. 22Google Scholar) and, probably, at Palmyra (C. R. Acad. des Inscr. 1940, pp. 237–49; the interior is not yet excavated, but it can hardly be other than a basilica, and the three doors indicate a ‘long’ plan. I owe this reference to Mr. R. G. Goodchild.)

42 Cecchelli, C. in La Basilica di Aquileia, Bologna, 1933, pp. 109–253Google Scholar; Verzone, P., L'Architettura religiosa dell'alto Medioevo nell'Italia settentrionale, Torino, 1942, pp. 31–4Google Scholar, with previous bibliography. Molajoli, B., La Basilica Eufrasiana di Parenzo, Padova, 1943, p. 25, fig. 28Google Scholar (the mid-fifth-century ‘pre-Eufrasian’ basilica); its fourth-century predecessor, one of a pair of plain rectangular halls with neither apse nor internal colonnades, is referred to as basilica in the dedicatory inscription of its mosaic pavement (ibid., p. 16, fig. 10).

43 Gsell, St., Monuments Antiques de l'Algerie, ii, pp. 236–41Google Scholar.

44 H. C. Butler, op. cit., pp. 406 f.; Lassus, J., Sanctuaires chrétiens de Syrie, Paris, 1947, pp. 47 fGoogle Scholar.

45 CIL xi, 1, 288 = ILCV 1795.

46 Peregrinatio Aetheriae, ed. Geyer, P. (Corpus Script. Eccl. Lat. xxxix), 48, 1 (p. 100)Google Scholar, et al. For the interpretation of the early texts relating to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, see Wistrand, E., Konstantins Kirche am heiligen Grab in Jerusalem nach den dltesten literarischen Zeugnissen (Acta Universitatis Gotoburgiensis, 1952–1, Göteborg, 1952 (see further below, p. 8)Google Scholar.

47 vit. Const. iii, 29–32; e.g. (32) . Both here and in Constantine's letter about the church at Mamre (ibid. iii, 53), βασιλική (rare elsewhere in Eusebius) probably represents ‘basilica’ in the original Latin draft of the letter (Voekl, L., Riv. Arch. Crist. xxix, 1953, pp. 58–60Google Scholar). The letter is important as indicating the Emperor's personal interest in, and control of, the detailed progress of the work.

48 Itinerarium Burdigalense, ed. Geyer, P. (Corpus Script. Eccl. Lat. xxxix), p. 23Google Scholar.

49 Acts i, 13; ix, 37–9; xx, 6–9.

50 The Excavations at Dura Europos, v, 1934, pp. 238–88Google Scholar.

51 J. Lassus, art. ‘Syrie’ in Cabrol-Leclercq-Marrou, Dictionnaire d'archéologie chrétienne, 1951, col. 1855 ff. (reassuming and revising his own Sanctuaires chrétiens de Syrie, Paris, 1947)Google Scholar.

52 J. Lassus, art. ‘Syrie’ in Cabrol-Leclercq-Marrou, Dictionnaire d'archéologie chrétienne, 1951, figs. 11001 and 11020.

53 Vielliard, R., Les origines du litre de Saint-Martin aux Monts à Rome, Rome, 1931Google Scholar.

54 ibid., p. 26, fig. 4, and plan I.

55 Krautheimer, R., Corpus Basilicarum Christianarum Romae, i, 1937, pp. 117–36Google Scholar. Cf. Junyent, E., ‘La primitiva basilica di S. Clemente,’ Riv. Arch. Crist. v, 1928, pp. 231–78Google Scholar.

56 Pseudo-Clement, , Recognitiones x, 71Google Scholar (Migne, , PG iGoogle Scholar, in the version of Rufinus): ‘ita ut… Theophilus, qui erat cunctis potentibus in civitate sublimior, domus suae ingentem basilicam ecclesiae nomine consecraret.’

57 de mortibus persecutorum (ed. Brandt, and Laubmann, , Corpus Script. Eccl. Lat. xxvii, 1893) 12, 5Google Scholar.

58 Richmond, E. T., Q. Dep. Ant. Pal. v, 1936, pp. 75–81Google Scholar; Harvey, W. H. and Harvey, J. H., Archaeotogia lxxxvii, 1938, pp. 7–17CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

59 See n. 46.

60 Bericht d. VI int. Kongr. für Archäologie, 1939, Berlin, 1940, pp. 385 f.Google Scholar; Gravkirken i Jerusalem, Copenhagen, 1941Google Scholar (résumé in French); Actes du VIe Congr. int. d'itudes byz., 1948, ii, 1951, pp. 111–23Google Scholar.

61 Itinera Hierosolymitana (ed. Geyer, P., Corpus Script. Eccl. Lat. xxxix, 1898), p. 209Google Scholar. For the varient readings and for a criticism of the use of the term ‘basilica discoperta’, see Schneider, A. M., Antiquity xxiv, 1950, pp. 135–7Google Scholar.

62 The fundamental study is that of Grabar, A., Martyrium, Paris, 1946Google Scholar. In early fourth-century usage the term could be applied either to the sacred relic (the ‘witness’ of the sacred truth) or to the building or group of buildings that housed it (Wistrand, op. cit., p. 12, citing Eusebius).

63 Krautheimer, R., ‘The Carolingian Revival of Early Christian Architecture’, Art Bulletin xxiv, 1942, pp. 1–38CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

64 Ghetti, B. M. Apollonj, Ferrua, A., Josi, E., Kirschbaum, E., Esplorazioni sotto la Confessione di San Pietro in Vaticano, 1951, i, pp. 161–72Google Scholar; Perkins, J. B. Ward, Journal of Roman Studies xlii, 1952, pp. 21–4CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

65 Italy: see Roberti, M. Mirabella, Riv. Arch. Crist. xxvi, 1950, pp. 181–94Google Scholar. N. Africa: Perkins, J. B. Ward and Goodchild, R. G., Archaeologia xcv, 1953, pp. 1–82CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and specially pp. 64–6. Later (certainly by the time of Gregory of Tours, and probably already in the fifth century) the altar of St. Peter's stood in the transept.

66 In the West the rapid assimilation of the specialised martyrium-building to the ordinary basilical church (see Grabar, op. cit.) was an important factor in eliminating the distinction between churches such as St. Peter's and St. John Lateran (see below).

67 The excavations were conducted by Professor Josi; the results are summarised by A. M. Colini in Storia e Topografia del Celio nell‘Antichità (Atti Pont. Ace. Rom. Arch. 3: Memorie VII), pp. 344–59. The writer is indebted to Professor Josi for allowing him to examine the unpublished material and to test the point at issue; and to Mr. G. U. S. Corbett, who first suggested the significance ofthe new finds.

68 See Krautheimer, art. cit. The most probable occasion would be the major restoration undertaken by Pope Sergius III (904–11).

69 The date of its foundation is not recorded, but it is significant that its endowments were all in Italy, whereas those of the Lateran Baptistery included the Balkan districts (won by Constantine in 319), and those of St. Peter's the Eastern provinces (won in 324); see A. Piganiol, L'Empéreur Constantin, 1932, p. 113; Schoenebeck, H. v., Klio, Beih. xliii, 1939, pp. 88 ffGoogle Scholar.

70 So Langlotz, art. cit. (n. 4), pp. 34–6.

71 See, recently, de Villard, U. Monneret in Archaeologia xcv, 1953, pp. 102–3Google Scholar, discussing the canopy within the shrine of the Imperial cult (temp. Diocletian) in the legionary fortress at Luxor; cf. the Constantinian canopy over the central shrine in St. Peter's. For the relationship between the ceremonial of Church and Court, see Grabar, A., L'Empéreur dans l'art byzantin, Paris, 1936, passimGoogle Scholar; also Alföldi, A., Röm. Mitt. xlix, 1934, 1–118Google Scholar; 1, 1935, 1–171.

72 Eusebius, , vit. Const. (ed. Heikel, , 1902) iii. 10Google Scholar.

73 Optatus (ed. Ziwsa, , Corpus Script. Eccl. Lat. xxvi) i, 23Google Scholar: ‘convenerunt in domum Faustae in Laterano.’ A Basilica Julii ‘in lateranis’ is mentioned in the appendix to the letters of Gregory the Great as the scene of the proclamation of the Emperor Phocas to the senate and clergy of Rome (ed. Migne, , Patr. Lat. lxxvii, 1302Google Scholar), probably the same Basilica Julii as that in which the supporters of Boniface II (530–2) met to elect him in opposition to the party of Dioscorus, which met in Lateran, St. John (Lib. Pont. i, p. 281Google Scholar).

74 See p. 75, n. 29.

75 Perkins, J. B. Ward, ‘The Italian Element in Late Roman and Early Medieval Architecture’, Proc. Brit. Acad. xxxiii, 1947, pp. 163–94Google Scholar.