This basilica was begun by the Emperor Maxentius, whom the Emperor Constantine defeated in 312 at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, outside Rome. It was completed by Constantine, and it probably stood until an earthquake struck Rome in 847. It stands today beside the road called the Via dei Fori Imperiali, which the mid-twentieth-century fascist dictator Mussolini built. In the Roman period, it stood beside the Via Sacra (holy way) which led along the side of the Roman Forum, the chief focus of the political ceremonies of Rome. It was to the Colosseum, and to the Palatine Hill, on which stood the principal imperial palace of Rome.
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In this view, we are looking from the Roman Forum towards the basilica, with the Via Sacra in the foreground. The basilica was a rectangular building with a central nave and aisles alongside it. The part which stands to its full height consists of the three bays of the north aisle, which you can see at the back, and the north wall of the nave against which they rest, together with part of its east wall. You can see the floor of the nave, which is the light-coloured space just in front of it. The great stubs of brickwork on its south side (that is the side closest to us) are the remains of the bays of the south aisle.
The nave and the aisles were vaulted in concrete as the north aisle still is, as you can see in this photograph.
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What remains of the vault of the nave are the great brackets at the top of the nave wall, which were supported by arches (a sort of flying buttresses) which you can see behind them in this detail. The bracket on the left is largely broken away, but you can still see the scar left by it.
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The basilica originally had a rounded ending (or apse) at its west end (on the left of the first photograph) in which was placed an enormous statue of Constantine, of which fragments, including the head (see image), survive.
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The enormous sculpture of Constantine in the apse, which would have been the focus of ceremonies and trials in the basilica, is strong evidence of the self-assertiveness of this emperor, and of the attention being devoted to presenting him as a great and powerful ruler.
A spectacular Roman villa discovered in 1963, near the little town of Piazza Armerina in Sicily. Nothing is known about the construction of the villa from historical sources, but it is dated on archaeological grounds to the early fourth century, possibly 315–25. It is argued to be a villa of the retired emperor (or Augustus) called Maximian because of the appearance in one of its mosaics of a figure identified by scholars as that of this emperor, on the grounds of the ivy-leaf badge which appears on the shoulder of the attendant to the left of him.
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The villa is located in a fairly remote part of the central uplands of Sicily, and was probably a centre for hunting in the surrounding territory. That this was the case is further suggested by the prominence of hunting scenes in the mosaics that decorate its floors. The villa is an enormous stone-built complex, comprising an entrance with triumphal arch, leading to a large courtyard (or peristyle). On one side of this is a large Roman baths, and on another a long corridor or gallery. The image below shows that gallery as it has been re-roofed to protect the mosaics. The peristyle is to the left.
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Off this corridor lead two apartments rooms magnificently decorated with mosaics, with between them a large basilica with its walls and floor clad in differently-coloured marbles. The entrance to the basilica is on the right of the image above, where you can see the large column in the gap in the wall, and its interior with the apse in the background can be seen in the image below.
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Beyond the peristyle is an equally magnificent dining-room (or triclinium) with its own courtyard, shown in the following image.
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The level of wealth expended on this complex in a relatively remote situation, as an indication of the wealth and confidence of the emperors, or perhaps of the elite of the Roman Empire. This is evident both in the scale of the buildings and in the lavishness and innovativeness of the mosaic decoration. For example, the mosaics in the triclinium (dining-hall), which show the labours of the classical hero, Hercules, which included killing five giants with feet of snakes. One of them appears, attempting in vain to extract Hercules’s arrow from his body, in the following image. Notice the astonishingly powerful handling of this scene.
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The mosaics on the floor of the long gallery or corridor along one side of the peristyle show animals being collected from all over the Roman Empire to be brought back to Rome for displays and hunting enactments in the Colosseum and the Circus. The following image shows an elephant being led away to a ship for transport to Rome. The theme of these mosaics is clearly the scale of Roman power.
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http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/832/ (or search ‘Villa Romana del Casale UNESCO’)
Wilson, Roger John Anthony, 1983. Piazza Armerina. London: Granada.
Having developed as an important Roman naval base on the Adriatic Sea, Ravenna was chosen in 402 to be the principal imperial residence south of the Alps. From 425, it was ruled by Galla Placidia, mother of the emperor Valentinian who was a child, until her death in 450. After the fall of the Roman Empire in the West, it eventually became the principal city of the ruler of Italy and king of the Ostrogoths, Theoderic (493–526). When the Byzantine emperor Justinian I (527–65) reconquered Italy, the city became the centre of the power of the exarch, that is the Byzantine governor in Italy. In 751, it was captured by the Lombards, whose kingdom was in turn conquered by the Franks under their ruler Charlemagne (768–814).
The city is therefore very important for understanding the transition from the later Roman Empire to the barbarian kingdoms.
Further information: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/788 (or search ‘Ravenna UNESC’); and Deborah Mauskopf Deliyannis, Ravenna in Late Antiquity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009).
The so-called mausoleum is a small chapel in the shape of a cross, decorated with magnificent mosaics, and built by the regent, Galla Placidia (died 450). This chapel, which may or may not be a mausoleum, is all that is left of a large church complex which she built, including the principal church of the Holy Cross, which is known only from excavations.
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The interior walls and the vaults are decorated with contemporary mosaics. Apart from the entrance, the arms of the cross contain large fifth-century stone coffins (or sarcophagi), but it is not certain that these were originally intended for this location, so it is not certain that the chapel was a mausoleum, as it has often been called by modern scholars. The sarcophagi appear in the following image.
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The wealth of the Roman imperial family in the last decades of the Roman Empire in the west. The following image of a detail of the mosaics of this little chapel gives an indication of this.
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The following image, which is characteristic of the mosaics, shows St Lawrence about to be martyred on a grid-iron with the flames blazing through it. In a cupboard on the left are the books of the four evangelists of the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
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This is a building constructed just outside the walls of the Roman city of Ravenna for the burial of the barbarian ruler of Italy and king of the Ostrogoths, Theoderic (493–526).
A circle of pillars surrounding the mausoleum and a balustrade protecting the balcony around it has disappeared, as has the original staircase leading to it. But in other respects it is much as Theoderic had it built (see image below).
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There are two interior spaces, one at ground-floor level, one at first-floor level. The latter contains an enormous bath-tub made of the purple marble, porphyry, and often thought to have been used as Theoderic’s coffin.
This mausoleum is constructed in really fine limestone (you can see the blocks on the image) whereas most Roman buildings in Ravenna were more cheaply built in brick. Moreover, the dome is amazingly of an enormous, single piece of stone. How this was raised into position is still debated.
Note:
The church of San Vitale in Ravenna, on the Adriatic coast in Italy, was built in the second quarter of the sixth century, and consecrated in 547 or 548. This was the period when the Byzantine emperor Justinian I was conquering Italy from the Ostrogoths, and the church, which was commissioned and patronised by the bishop and then archbishop of Ravenna, seems to have been an expression of Justinian’s power.
At the centre of the building is a nave, which is octagonal on the outside and round inside. On the following image, you can see it rising above the rest of the building. Around it at ground floor level runs an aisle or ambulatory, the windows of which you can see in the centre of the image. Above that is a gallery, to which belong the middle set of windows on the image.
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This gallery consists of a series of bays, as you can see in the next image.
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On the east side, which is in the centre of this image, there is a short chancel (that is the east end with the high altar at the end of it). You can in this image glimpse the sixth-century mosaics which still decorate this part of the church. Most important amongst these mosaics are two in the apse (that is the rounded east end of the chancel itself). The one on the left as you face east shows the emperor Justinian and his court, including the archbishop of Ravenna, Maximian, who is named. The emperor is the figure dressed in purple and wearing a crown. He holds in his hand a basket containing the consecrated bread for the rite of the mass. The mosaic on the right as you face east shows his queen, the empress Theodora, with her court. She holds a chalice containing the consecrated wine for the mass. For images, see: http://www.ravennamosaici.it/musei/san-vitale/?lang=en