Constantine and Rome

208 Pages·2004·3.71 MB·English

by  Professor R. Ross Holloway

  

Constantine
&
Rome
.  
Yale University Press New Haven and London
Copyright © 2004 by Yale University.All rights reserved.This book may not be reproduced,in whole or in part,
including illustrations,in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 ofthe U.S.Copyright
Law and except by reviewers for the public press),without written permission from the publishers.
Designed by Rebecca Gibb.Set in Adobe Minion by Duke & Company,Devon,Pennsylvania.Printed in the
United States ofAmerica by Sheridan Books,Ann Arbor,Michigan.
Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Holloway,R.Ross,1934–
Constantine and Rome / R.Ross Holloway.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-300-10043-4 (alk.paper)
1.Architecture,Early Christian—Italy—Rome. 2.Architecture—Italy—Rome. 3.Constantine I,Emperor of
Rome,d.337—Art patronage. 4.Christianity and art—Italy—Rome. 5.Rome (Italy)—Buildings,structures,
etc. I.Title.
NA5620.A1H65 2004
722′.7—dc22
2003018712
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability ofthe Committee on Production
Guidelines for Book Longevity ofthe Council on Library Resources.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
 
  
      
 

Contents
 ix
   xiii
I Constantine and the Christians 1
II The Arches 19
III Basilicas,Baptistry,and Burial 57
IV The Tomb of St.Peter 120
 157
 177
 179
 187

Preface
  had its beginnings many years ago in the excavations below St.Peter’s.Standing
beside one ofthe Roman tomb buildings that had been filled in and then covered over by the
floor ofConstantine’s basilica,I could look up through a modern ventilator into the nave of
the vast Renaissance St.Peter’s that replaced Constantine’s shrine for the apostle.Pagan an-
tiquity and medieval Christianity were around me just as much as was their Renaissance suc-
cessor.Constantine the Great set these changes in motion,but the Constantinian moment in
Rome was brief,hardly more than thirteen years between 312 and 326.In fact it was even shorter
because in 326 Constantine returned to a capital that he had not seen for a decade.And his
sights were already set on Constantinople,the new Rome on the straits between Europe and
Asia where he was about to establish his new capital.Yet the cityscape ofRome of326 was not
that ofRome of312.It was significantly Christian,but it was also overwhelmingly pagan.And
in this way it mirrored,I have come to believe,the personality ofits ruler.Constantine was a
Roman emperor and continued to carry out the civic and religious duties of the pagan em-
peror.He was the patron ofthe Christians but exercised his patronship from an exalted posi-
tion in respect to the ministers ofthe church,a position which,as a divinized ruler,he main-
tained even in respect to the Christian God.Yet Constantine had prepared for death in a tomb
of imperial dignity on the Via Labicana in the company of two Christian martyrs and with
provision for a following of the faithful beneath the roof of the apse-ended hall attached to
the imperial mausoleum.This complex and the group of other apse-ended basilicas which
were built in the cemeteries along the roads leading south and east from the city are the most
ix