Read Online The Early Centuries - Byzantium 01 by John Julius Norwich - Free Book Online
Authors: John Julius Norwich
Ads: Link
back in their midst. They received him with all due ceremony, but left him in little doubt of their true feelings; as for his own, he scarcely troubled to conceal them. He appeared dutifully at the vicennalia celebrations; as on his previous visit, however, he categorically refused to part icipate in the traditional Capi toline procession to the Temple of Jupiter - waiting, we are told, until the parade was already drawn up before announcing his decision. By any standards, this was dangerous behaviour, giving as it did quite unnecessary offence both to the Romans and to his own soldiers, the large majority of whom were still pagan. It says much for their loyalty, and for Constantine's own self-confidence, that he should have felt himself able to ride roughshod over their susceptibilities in this way; had, perhaps, his recent domestic tragedy left him slightly unbalanced? It is hard otherwise to account for what was certainly, even for him, an unusually truculent and overbearing mood.
But if the Emperor showed himself less tactful and diplomatic towards his Roman subjects than on his previous visit after the battle of the Milvian Bridge, he proved if anything still more assiduous in his determination to make Rome a Christian city. He endowed another great basilica, dedicated this time to St Paul, at the site of his tomb - and near that of his martyrdom - on the road to Ostia; 1 and another in honour of the Holy Apostles, on the Appian Way - personally carrying, we are told, the first twelve basketfuls of earth from the site, one for each of them. 2 His most important creation of all, however, was the basilica that
Th e present church of S. Paolo fuori le Mura is, alas, a reconstruction, replacing the ancie nt basilica built by Constantine 's successors which was virtually destroyed by fire in 1823 . The much-restored mosaics on the triumphal arch - the gift of Galla Placidia - arc still worth careful study, and the romanesque cloister is the finest in Rome; but of Constantine's own day nothing survives.
Now known as S. Sebastiano, the present church is baroque through and through - though the catacombs beneath both it and its neighbour S. Callisto pre-date Constantine and are full of mystery and magic.
he commanded to be built above the traditional resting-place of St Peter on the Vatican Hill, close to Nero's Circus. This, so far as we can tell, must have been begun a year or two earlier, since it was consecrated on 18 November 326, within a few months of the Emperor's arrival. 1
Constantine's frenetic building activity in Rome proves beyond all doubt that he saw the city as the chief shrine of the Christian faith, excepting only Jerusalem itself; and he was determined to do all he could to ensure that it would be architecturally and financially worthy of its dignity. Personally, on the other hand, he never liked it, or felt at home in it, or stayed in it a moment longer than he could help. His heart was in the East, and it was there that the body of his work was to be done. Soon after the consecration of his Vatican basilica he left the old imperial capital for the last time. There was another city, eight hundred and more miles away, where he was awaited with impatience by whole regiments of architects, builders and engineers.
He had business in Byzantium.
1 It is consequently difficult to accept th e old tradition that Constantine marked out the ground plan of the basilica with his own hands, just as he had delineated the walls of Constantinople. As everybody knows, old St Peter's was demolished by Pope Julius II at the beginning of the sixteenth century; the present building was consecrated 1,300 years to the day after its predecessor, on 18 November 1626. Between 1940 and 1949, excavations in the grotti Vaticane revealed the remains of a monument that may actually mark the tomb of St Peter.
3
Constantinople
[326-37]
Constantinople dedicated: almost every other city stripped naked.
St Jerome
When Constantine
But if the Emperor showed himself less tactful and diplomatic towards his Roman subjects than on his previous visit after the battle of the Milvian Bridge, he proved if anything still more assiduous in his determination to make Rome a Christian city. He endowed another great basilica, dedicated this time to St Paul, at the site of his tomb - and near that of his martyrdom - on the road to Ostia; 1 and another in honour of the Holy Apostles, on the Appian Way - personally carrying, we are told, the first twelve basketfuls of earth from the site, one for each of them. 2 His most important creation of all, however, was the basilica that
Th e present church of S. Paolo fuori le Mura is, alas, a reconstruction, replacing the ancie nt basilica built by Constantine 's successors which was virtually destroyed by fire in 1823 . The much-restored mosaics on the triumphal arch - the gift of Galla Placidia - arc still worth careful study, and the romanesque cloister is the finest in Rome; but of Constantine's own day nothing survives.
Now known as S. Sebastiano, the present church is baroque through and through - though the catacombs beneath both it and its neighbour S. Callisto pre-date Constantine and are full of mystery and magic.
he commanded to be built above the traditional resting-place of St Peter on the Vatican Hill, close to Nero's Circus. This, so far as we can tell, must have been begun a year or two earlier, since it was consecrated on 18 November 326, within a few months of the Emperor's arrival. 1
Constantine's frenetic building activity in Rome proves beyond all doubt that he saw the city as the chief shrine of the Christian faith, excepting only Jerusalem itself; and he was determined to do all he could to ensure that it would be architecturally and financially worthy of its dignity. Personally, on the other hand, he never liked it, or felt at home in it, or stayed in it a moment longer than he could help. His heart was in the East, and it was there that the body of his work was to be done. Soon after the consecration of his Vatican basilica he left the old imperial capital for the last time. There was another city, eight hundred and more miles away, where he was awaited with impatience by whole regiments of architects, builders and engineers.
He had business in Byzantium.
1 It is consequently difficult to accept th e old tradition that Constantine marked out the ground plan of the basilica with his own hands, just as he had delineated the walls of Constantinople. As everybody knows, old St Peter's was demolished by Pope Julius II at the beginning of the sixteenth century; the present building was consecrated 1,300 years to the day after its predecessor, on 18 November 1626. Between 1940 and 1949, excavations in the grotti Vaticane revealed the remains of a monument that may actually mark the tomb of St Peter.
3
Constantinople
[326-37]
Constantinople dedicated: almost every other city stripped naked.
St Jerome
When Constantine
Similar Books
