![]() ![]() The various academic terms applied to them by architectural historians underscore their complex nature: ambulatory basilica, exedra-basilica, cemeterial basilica, U-shaped basilica, covered cemetery, and, controversially, circus basilica. Scholars have long been mystified by both the design and the potential uses of these mysterious U-shaped structures with their oblique entrance walls. Their location on the funerary greenbelt outside the Aurelian walls links them to commemorative feasting with ancestors and martyrs and situates them along ancient processional routes, where triumphant armies returned to the Forum after bloody victories abroad. Their uniformity of design-an oblong building with a semicircular end and an angled facade-intimates a carefully thought-out plan related to a precise ritual practice. 3 Their scale, ranging from 65 to 98 meters long with a capacity to shelter 2,300–3,500 people and countless tombs, hints at the epic activities they once housed as well as their liturgical possibilities. The architectural plan of these six basilicas-their signature U-shape-suggests movement, perhaps processions around sacred space during festival occasions. after 127, courtesy of the Pontificio Istituto di Archeologia Cristiana) (b) basilica with a conventional apse and perpendicular facade (episcopal church in Ostia) (from Franz Alto Bauer and Michael Heinzelmann, “The Constantinian Episcopal Basilica in Ostia: A Preliminary Report of the Excavation,” Sacred Architecture 3, no. Figure 2.Ĭomparative fourth-century basilica plans drawn to scale: (a) U-shaped or circus basilica with a continuous ambulatory and facade canted at 4.5° (San Sebastiano) (from Richard Krautheimer and Spencer Corbett, Corpus Basilicarum Christianarum Romae, vol. ![]() See the electronic edition of Gesta for color versions of many images. Serena Ensoli and Eugenio La Rocca, fig. Buildings are drawn to approximate scale (from Eugenio La Rocca, “Le basiliche cristiane ‘a deambulatorio’ e la sopravvivenza del culto eroico,” in Roma Aurea: dalla città pagana alla città cristiana, ed. Plan of Rome and its suburbia in the fourth century CE, showing the locations of six known circus basilicas, four imperial circuses, Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, the sepulchral basilicas of Peter and Paul, and the Lateran Basilica. In contrast, the more famous churches of late antique Italy typically possessed conventional semicircular apses and facades perpendicular to the side walls rather than canted ( Fig. In addition, the six buildings sported angled facades. 1 These edifices were unusual among their peers of the same period because each of the six terminated in a mammoth, continuous apse forming a distinctive U-shape. The six structures communicated with spaces housing the Roman dead-catacombs, cemeteries, and mausolea-by being situated either atop or strategically adjacent to them. This article brings together a wealth of sources-architectural, archaeological, artistic, and literary-combined with interdisciplinary methodologies to demonstrate how the Roman votaries of Jesus harnessed the cultural prestige and cosmological systems of the circus to promulgate the faith and exercise cultural dominion over the empire.ĭuring the fourth century, Christian communities in Rome constructed six basilicas outside the Aurelian walls on the major routes leading to the ancient capital ( Fig. This subject is not new, but typically scholars have located the circus basilica within the context of Classical hero cults rather than the cult of Christian martyrs. Here, the martyr keeps company with the charioteer the pagan dissolves seamlessly into the Christian the godhead metamorphoses into the ultimate spectator at the games and the athletic spaces of the later Roman Empire transmute into a racetrack to salvation. ![]() Rather, the architectural features of circus basilicas bear witness to an ancient Christianity practiced outside the city walls in the fourth century only to be eclipsed by newer styles of worship in subsequent epochs. The similarities in design between circus and basilica were not mere accidents of history bearing only “pseudo-resemblances” to pagan monuments. These six “circus basilicas” mimicked the most iconic features of Roman racetracks, whether designed for sturdy horses or swift humans. This relationship grew out of the shared cultural traditions of Classical athleticism and the cult of Christian martyrs materialized in the built environment and serving mixed religious audiences. Six basilicas constructed by Christians in fourth-century Rome relate purposefully to ancient athletic structures, namely the circus and the stadium. ![]()
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