The Christianisation of Rome

8/7/2019 The Christianisation of Rome

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Catacombs

The ancient Christians did not usethe term "catacomb". This is aword of Greek origin, meaning

"near the hollow". The Romans applied it to a localityon the Appian Way, where therewere caves for the removal of tuffblocks.

Nearby were dug the catacombs ofSaint Sebastian. In the ninthcentury the term was extended to

all cemeteries, with the specificsense of underground cemetery.


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Catacombs

From the middle of the second century anincrease in Christian converts is confirmed bythe large no. of catacombs or undergroundburial chambers they created.

These became venues for meetings.


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What was the reason forcatacombs

Christian belief in theresurrection of the bodyprohibited cremation

Could not use theColumbaria or cemeteriesof lower class Romans whocremated their dead andplaced the remains in urnswhich were then put inniches in walls many tiers

high. Also a belief in segregation

from other burial customswhich were pagan.

Could and did purchaseland out of which they dug

catacombs according toplans. Often tookadvantage of local quarriesas starting points.

Niches carve outsometimes 4-5 layers deepwith chapels for funeral

feasts.


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Earliest known Christian figurative art found in catacombs. Usually in the small chapels carved out for the feasts, Modest craft-men working by lamplight in cramped and odoriferous

conditions. Earliest e.g. Catacomb of St Priscilla from Antonine Emperors from 2nd

century.


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Old burial caskets along the Appian way burial for wealthy Romans


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Roman burial ground

Les Alyscamps

These Catacombs, the largest knownRoman burial site in Egypt, werediscovered accidentally 1900 when adonkey cart fell through a part of theroof.


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Following this Grecian trend, theearly Romans probably embracedcremation some time around 600B.C. and it apparently became soprevalent that an official decreehad to be issued in the mid 5th

Century against the cremation ofbodies within the city. By the time of the Roman Empire -

- 27 B.C. to 395 A.D. -- it waswidely practiced, and crematedremains were generally storedin elaborate urns, often within

columbarium*-like buildings. Prevalent though the practice was

among the Romans, cremationwas rare with the early Christianswho considered it pagan and inthe Jewish culture wheretraditional sepulchre entombmentwas preferred

*A vault with niches for urns containing ashes of thedead.


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In the first half of the secondcentury, as a result of variousgrants and donations, theChristians started burying theirdead underground. That is how

the catacombs were founded. Many of them began anddeveloped around familytombs, whose owners, newlyconverted Christians, did notreserve them to the members ofthe family, but opened them totheir brethren in the faith.

With the passage of time, theseburial areas grew larger by giftsor by the purchase of newproperties, sometimes on theinitiative of the Church itself.

Typical is the case of SaintCallixtus: the Church took updirectly the organization and

administration of the cemetery,assuming a communitycharacter.


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With the edict of Milan,promulgated by theemperors Constantine andLicinius in February 313, theChristians were no longer

persecuted. They were free to profess

their faith, to have places ofworship and to buildchurches both inside andoutside the city, and to buyplots of land, without fear ofconfiscation.

Nevertheless, the catacombscontinued to function asregular cemeteries until thebeginning of the fifthcentury, when the Churchreturned to bury exclusivelyabove ground or in thebasilicas dedicated to

important martyrs.


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When the barbarians (Goths and Longobards) invaded Italy and came down toRome,they systematically destroyed a lot of monuments and sacked many places,including the catacombs.

Powerless in the face of such repeated pillages, towards the end of the eighth century

and the beginning of the ninth, the Popes ordered to remove the relics of the martyrsand of the saints to the city churches, for security reasons.

When the transfer of the relics was completed, the catacombs were no longer visited; onthe contrary, they were totally abandoned, with the exception of Saint Sebastian, SaintLawrence and of Saint Pancratius.

In the course of time, landslides and vegetation obstructed and hid the entrances to theother catacombs, so that the very traces of their existence were lost.

During the late Middle Ages they didn't even know where they were.


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Several different types of shows all took place in the arenaof an Amphitheater. The word arena comes from the Latin for "sand," which was placed on the

Amphitheatre floor to soak up spilled blood.

Amphitheatres were most commonly used for gladiatorial matches which hadbeen adapted from Etruscan funeral rites (munera).

Gladiatorial combat was originally part of a religious ceremony that wasintended to insure that the dead would be accompanied to the "next world" byarmed attendants and that the spirits of the dead would be appeased with thisoffering of blood.

By the last 1stcentury BC, however, the games had lost their ritualisticsignificance.

Amphitheatres


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Arena from Pompeii

The earliest permanent Roman amphitheatre known was built at Pompeii aftera colonia of Roman veteran soldiers was established there in 80 B.C.

Before this, gladiatorial contests would take place in the forum of Rome andother cities

In the Roman Empire, amphitheatres were nearly round, or oval in shapeAmphi - Latin, from Greek - on both sides, around


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Profile of the Coliseum


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Gladiators

Gladiators were generally condemned criminals, prisoners of war or slaves bought forthis purpose.

Some free men entered this profession in hopes of popularity and patronage by wealthycitizens.

The free men were often social outcasts, freed slaves or discharged soldiers. Theyvolunteered to be gladiators and by the end of the Republic made up half the number ofcombatants. Gladiators were trained in combat at special, imperial schools.


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The gladiators fought in various styles, depending on their background andtraining.

Originally, as captured soldiers, they were made to fight with their ownweapons and in their own style of combat.

Because these soldiers were from other lands, their appearance was exoticand weapons distinct from those of the Romans.


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Pollice Verso, 1872 - Jean-Leon Gerome


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Pollice versoor verso pollice Latin phrase, meaning "with a

turned thumb", that is used inthe context of gladiatorialcombat.

It refers to the hand gestureused by Ancient Roman crowdsto pass judgment on a defeatedgladiator.

The type of gesture describedby the phrase pollice verso is

unclear. From the historical and literaryrecord it is uncertain whetherthe thumb was turned up,turned down, held horizontally,or concealed inside the hand toindicate positive or negative

opinions. Popularly, it is assumed that

"thumbs down" was the signalthat a defeated gladiator shouldbe condemned to death;"thumbs up", that he should bespared.


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Most famous stadium ColiseumOccupying a site just east of the Roman Forum, its construction startedbetween 70 and 72 AD under the emperor Vespasian and was completed in 80

AD under Titus,


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The Coliseum

Slaughter immense; 5000 animals would die in a single day.

To supply the arenas hunters would have to go through the provinces rounding

up lions tigers elephants Hippos Rhinoceroses.


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Rounding up of wild animals for the Roman Circus - spectacles in their own right.

Christianity and


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Christianity andpersecution in theRoman Empire.

For the Romans, religion wasfirst and foremost a socialactivity that promoted unity and

loyalty to the state - a religiousattitude the Romanscalled pietas, or piety.

Cicero wrote that if piety in theRoman sense were to disappear,social unity and justice wouldperish along with it.

Pliny the Younger, a Romangovernor writing circa 110 AD,called Christianity a "superstitiontaken to extravagant lengths."

Similarly, the Romanhistorian Tacitus called it "adeadly superstition,"

and thehistorian Suetonius calledChristians "a class of personsgiven to a new and mischievoussuperstition.


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The first documented case of imperially-supervised persecution of theChristians in the Roman Empire begins with Nero (3768).

In 64 A.D., a great fire broke out in Rome, destroying portions of the city andeconomically devastating the Roman population.

Nero was rumoured at the time of having intentionally started the fire himself.

In hisAnnals, Tacitus states that "to get rid of the report, Nero fastened theguilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for theirabominations, called Christians by the populace"

The Annals (Latin: Annales) is a history book by Tacitus covering the reign ofthe four Roman Emperors succeeding to Caesar Augustus.

The parts of the work that survived from antiquity cover (most of) the reigns ofTiberius and Nero.


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By implicating theChristians for thismassive act of arson,Nero successfullycapitalized on the already-

existing public suspicionof this religious sect. Forms of execution used

by the Romans includedburning in the tunicamolestasystematicmurder, crucifixion, and

the feeding of Christiansto lions and other wildbeasts.

Tacitus' Annals XV.44record: "... in their deathsthey were made thesubjects of sport; for theywere wrapped in the hidesof wild beasts and torn topieces by dogs, or nailedto crosses, or set on fire,and when day declined,were burned to serve fornocturnal lights."

Henryk Siemiradzki (1843-1902) Nero's torches,1877


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Favorite martyrs and relic worship.As the burial sites of favorite martyrs drew large crowds to certain catacombs formemorial services vents had to be provided for light and air. People vied for theprivilege of being buried near a martyrs tomb.

By the 9th C most of the martyrs remains had been removed to Churches in

Rome.The catacombs became forgotten until rediscovered in the 16th C

Konstantin Flavitsky -Christian Martyrs inColiseum. 1862


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Pliny the younger

The imperial governor (legatusAugusti) of Bithynia-Pontus province 110 AD

Roman Empire expands into a multi-cultural religious society

The adherence had to recognize the supremacy of the State and honourtraditional Roman deities

Two troublesome exceptions Jews and Christians.


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Ignatius

Bishop of Antioch 35 110 AD

Martyred during the

reign of Trajan


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Polycarp (70?-156 AD), Bishop of Smyrna in Asia Minor,

155 martyred by burning publicly at age 86


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Summer of 117 sudden outbreak of persecution in LyonFrance

Slaves of Christians were tortured until they confessed

that Christians were cannibals and practiced incest

Martyrs ofLyons, by JLGerome


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St. Pothinus 90 year old Bishop Pothinus beaten up so severely he died two days

later Others confined to dank airless dungeons succumbed to inhuman

conditions or were strangled to death, Others were whipped repeatedly and roasted on red hot iron chair

before being torn apart by wild beasts


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Blandina most poignant example of a Christian martyr

She was a Slave and with several others, she was set upon by a pagan mob,arrested, tried and convicted of Christianity, along with a number of nonsensecharges like cannibalism, during the persecutions of Emperor Marcus Aurelius.

Enmeshed in a net and given to a wild bull in 177 at Lyon; body burned and theashes thrown in the river; what could be recovered is in the church of Saint-

Leu, Amiens, France


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Seeing it as a disruptive force, early in 250 Decius issued the edict for thesuppression of Christianity. Exploiting popular hostility as a means of

unifying the Empire, the "Decian persecution" famous to Christians began.


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Paul of Thebes and St Anthony

Grunewald and Durer


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The Temptation of StAnthony

Hieronymus Bosch


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MaxErnst


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Salvador Dali

February 23, 303 started the greatest persecution of the Christian faith under


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Emperor Diocletian.

When Diocletian first started his rule, Christianity, was encouraged because it was rumoredthat the emperors wife and daughter were believers.

Weather that was true or not, Christians, for the most part lived in a state of peace and

prosperity for the first nineteen years of his reign.

After those nineteen years the way of life for all Christians changed drastically


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After those nineteen years, the way of life for all Christians changed drastically. Emperor Diocletian decided that religious unity would strengthen his empire. It was said that Diocletian and Galerius (his son in law) sought advice from an oracle

that said the just on earth hindered Apollo to give advice.

So after hearing this; Diocletian, Galerius, and the members of the court concluded thatthe just must be the Christians of his empire. With this new way of thinking and

encouragement from his wicked council, he published three edicts in attempts tosecure the Roman religion as the only religion.

"A Christian Martyr Drowned in the Tiber During the Reign of Diocletian", Eugne Delacroix (1855)


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On February 23, 303 the first edictstated:

All copies of scriptures to be burned,all churches destroyed, property

confiscated, and Christian worship tobe forbidden.

The second and third edicts werepretty much the beginning of theenslavement, imprisonments, andexecutions of those that resistedsacrificing to the Roman gods.

It was said that the jails were filled withChristians and that the real criminalswere removed to create space.

It was declared that everyone in theRoman Empire must sacrifice to theRoman gods.

This lasted all the way up till 313 untilConstantine declared an edict oftoleration


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The rise of desert monasteries

During the Decian persecution many Christians fled into the desert.

Some Stayed there and began a tradition of self denial and withdrawal thatdeveloped into the monastic movements


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In hoc signo


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In hoc signovinces

Detail from TheVision of the Crossby assistants ofRaphael, depictingthe vision of thecross and the Greekwriting "

" in the sky,

before the Battle of

the Milvian Bridge.


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Raphael-Constantine at Milvian Bridge


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In hoc signo vinces


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The Church building did not exist in ancient Rome and believers met in homesof the leaders as we read in Acts 20. Where the Christians met (interestingly

enough on the first day of the week i.e. Sunday) to break bread. The facilities for worship and meeting. Small communities meet usually in houses.The dining area had a triclinium (3

part couch extending around 3 sides of a table) Often located on the upper floor, (the upper room) Seen as a poorer persons religion and meetings took place in the insulae of

Rome and Ostia.


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Early Church design on Basilica Model note: cruciform shape not in use yet


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Earliest Christian structures. By the 3rd century structure of the mass becomes clear presided over by episkopoi

(bishops or literally overseers) a clear distinction is made between the liturgy of the Catuchemens and (reading epistles

, Gospels and prayers) and hymns and, the Liturgy of the Faithful which was the actualEucharist or (bread and wine Mass) only baptised Christians were admitted.

A special house is dedicated to the event of Eucharist a domus Ecclesiae (house of thechurch from which the Latin word duomo and the German word dom from the word isderived for Catheral)

Earliest known church building which is an ordinary Greek peristyle house. It had certain modifications such as a dais for a bishops chair (Cathedra) 2nd type of structure a martyrium erected over a martyrs grave or employed as a

cenotyph to cpommemorate a martye whose body was interred elsewhere.Constantine's Basilica, Trier, first decade of Fourth century AD


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The Roman basilica, the building in which judicial, commercial, and governmentalactivities took place, became the primary architectural model for Christian

churches in the early Middle Ages. Medieval Italian churches generally imitated itsbasic design. San Apollinare in Classe, near Ravenna


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The Newly official religion encouraged as an effective arm of the administration.No longer aim at the small intimate congregations.

Enclosed roofed enclosures needed in great numbers.

Constantine donates the Lateran Palace to the bishop of Rome 313 AD

Same year construction of Cathedral of Rome San Giovanni in Laterano.

Scores of Churches rise up throughout the empire including the Holy Land.

A model for these new buildings had to be


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invented. The Basilica an obvious choice as all

Roman pagan structures regarded withabhorrence. The meeting hall exists in all

inhabited roman centers. Basilica Ulpia not standard but a super

basilica unmatched anywhere. Most basilicas were simple halls with no

side aisles entered on one side with apses

on the other end. Apse becomes convenient for the

installation of the Clergy and enthronementof the bishop. Portable communion tablereplaced with a fixed altar had to be visiblefrom a distance and accessible to all

worshippers at Communion.

Columns create a dramatic approach andalso a curtain employed to separate thecatechumens from baptised believers not to

be seen taking the sacrament. The grandest of the new churches was St

Peters.


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Basilica Ulpia built by Trajan


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Triumphal Arches Septimius Severus A.D. 203

Constantine A.D. 313

Titus A.D. 81

St Peters Combined basilica and martyrium the Apse enshrined the tomb of St


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Combined basilica and martyrium, the Apse enshrined the tomb of StPeter under a marble canopy supported by 4 spiral columns.

A large Hall called a Transept erected between the Apse and the Nave. Columns Corinthian or composite many different materials including

green marble yellow marble red granite and grey granite.

Had double side aisles. Santa Sabina more typical of an early basilica The apse used mainly for the Clergy and contained a throne for the

Bishop. Arches replace the straight entablatures. None of the Basilicas remain in their original state. Plan Of Old St Peters plus the canopy on new St Peters tomb

B h iddl f h f h


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Junius Bassus died 359.As recorded in an inscription on the sarcophagusnow in the Vatican collection, Junius Bassus hadbecome a convert to Christianity shortly beforehis death.

1. By the middle of the fourth century,Christianity under imperial patronage hadbecome a part of the establishment.

2. The elite of Roman society were becomingnew converts.

3. Such an individual was Junius Bassus. Hewas a member of a senatorial family. Hisfather had held the position of Praetorianprefect, which involved administration ofthe Western Empire.

4. Junius Bassus held the position

of praefectus urbifor Rome. The office ofurban prefect was established in the earlyperiod of Rome under the kings.

5. It was a position held by members of themost elite families of Rome.

6. In his role as prefect, Junius Bassus wasresponsible for the administration of the

city of Rome.7. When Junius Bassus died at the age of 42

in the year 359, this sarcophagus* wasmade for him.

8. Christ Enthroned with Sts. Peter and Paul, centralpiece from the sarcophagus

9. *A sarcophagus is a funeral receptacle for a corpse,

most commonly carved or cut from stone.


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The Junius Bassus Sarcophagus 359,Vatican, Grottoes of St. Peter.

Christ's Entry into Jerusalem, Erotes harvesting grapes

Early Greek mosaics (5th4th cent. B.C.) uncovered at Olynthus were worked in smallnatural pebbles.


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natural pebbles. The use of cut cubes or tesserae was introduced from the East after the Alexandrian

conquest. Roman floor mosaics were probably based upon Greek examples, and glass mosaics

applied to columns, niches, and fountains can be seen at Pompeii.

In Italy and the Roman colonies the floor patterns were produced both by large slabs ofmarble in contrasting colors (opus sectile) and by small marble tesserae (opustessellatum).

The tessera designs varied from simple geometrical patterns in black and white to hugepictorial arrangements of figures and animals; examples were found in Rome, Pompeii,Antioch and Zeugma (S Turkey), and N Africa.


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Mosaics Frescoes have long since perished with few fragmentary exceptions Christians used

mosaics

Romans had used colored stones in their mosaics made for resistant floor coveringwhere there was water as in the baths, sever limitations in the available colors

Christians began using glass opens up a whole new world of glowing colors. Exploited gold lavishly for light and illuminated surfaces splendid effect. Entire

backgrounds made of gold a tradition persisting up into the renaissance. Cubes of glass known as Tesserae pressed into soft plaster, laid a section at a time of

minutely planned preparatory drawings on the wall surfaces. Tessarae were not perfectlylevel only to produce a shimmering effect observer could constantly changing sparkle.

1. The turning point for mosaic, as an artform, is the use of it by Christians to


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form, is the use of it by Christians todecorate the walls of churches ratherthan the floor.

2. Two of the earliest examples are in Rome.Santa Costanza, built in about AD 350 as

the tomb for a daughter of Constantine,has lively mosaics on pagan themesdecorating its vault.

3. More significant, as a foretaste of thingsto come, is the mosaic in the apse ofSanta Pudenziana.


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Santa Maria Maggiore. It is built in about 435 by pope Sixtus III, who commissionsmosaics to decorate spaces on its walls.


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p These spaces are small and far from the ground (for this is essentially a Roman basilica,

with two great rows of columns providing the main feature), but the content andtreatment of the mosaics prefigures much in later Christian art.


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Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica

Illuminated manuscript. The illumination of manuscripts only form of book in Europe.


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p y p Egyptian manuscripts were written on long rolls of Papyrus,

called rotuli these were wound between 2 spindles where 2-3vertical columns of text were visible at any one moment.

Greek and roman rotuli were only illustrated when necessity

demanded as in scientific diagrams. Thin outlines coloured withthin washes if at all. The Hebrew Torah written on rotuli. Christians were the people of the book and it became a matter of

necessity to have access to information and for the developmentof increasingly complex liturgy.

Individual rotulus could be unwound to about 30 ft.

Books had to be divided into several rotuli and obviously the Bibleneeded scores of them. In antiquity a practice arose of copyingkey passages onto thin wooden tablets hinged at the back. Theancestors of codex practical reality only with the advent ofparchment.

Corruption of Pergamum where it was invented. in 2nd C BC.

Carefully scraped, washed dried and stretched skins of the younganimals, lambs calves and kids. Could be dried to extremebrightness and was durable enough to stand up to constant use.

The change to Parchment began in 1st century BC by 4th Ccomplete.


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The Romanesque cathedral at Vezelay(1100 AD)This is where Bernard of Clairvauxpreached the second crusade

The Sumptuousness of Solomon's

temple was a justification for theexpense and lavishness of Cathedralbuilders.


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The main development in the Cathedral building came after the advent ofbuilding a new Chartres after a destructive fire


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ChartresCathedral


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Ch C h d l d G l

Documents

The Christianisation of Rome