DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.32867#0118
CHAPTER IV
ARCHITECTURE OF THE FOURTH CENTURY
PAGAN AND CHRISTIAN
rj^HE fourth century furnishes a large number of dated monuments in Northern
T Central Syria. A small number of these may be pagan, but the majority are
of Christian origin. Tombs are the structures most commonly dated, as might be
expected, though a number of private residences have dated inscriptions upon their
portals. None of the earlier churches, unfortunately, is provided with a definite date,
and any attempt to assign religious structures to this century must be made by a
comparative analysis of their details in the light of details which are known to belong
to this period, and in connection with those of buildings which belong certainly to
the next century.
The advent of Christianity into the field of art in Syria seems not only to have
speedily liberated the architects from the conventions of classic style, but to have
brought with it entirely new motives, which appear at once in the ornament of build-
ings of all kinds. The architecture of the early empire throughout the Roman world
was the creation of Greek architects, and this continued to be the case after the seat
of empire had been transferred to the East. Greek architects were undoubtedly
employed throughout the Christian empire. The inscriptions upon buildings of all
kinds and at all periods in this region are in Greek, except in a few notable cases
where the Syriac language occurs. But with the opening of the fourth century
new elements appear in the architecture of Northern Central Syria, which are neither
Greek nor Roman, judged according to the standard which obtained at the political
centers of the East and West — elements strange and striking, which suggest no
decline, but rather inaugurate a fresh and vigorous development that for three cen-
turies flourished like a new-born style, to be checked at last by untoward causes at
the height of its career. These strange elements are probably the expression of Ori-
ental influence, the influence represented also in epigraphy by the Syriac inscriptions,
which are found here among the Greek; for there can be no doubt that the popula-
86
ARCHITECTURE OF THE FOURTH CENTURY
PAGAN AND CHRISTIAN
rj^HE fourth century furnishes a large number of dated monuments in Northern
T Central Syria. A small number of these may be pagan, but the majority are
of Christian origin. Tombs are the structures most commonly dated, as might be
expected, though a number of private residences have dated inscriptions upon their
portals. None of the earlier churches, unfortunately, is provided with a definite date,
and any attempt to assign religious structures to this century must be made by a
comparative analysis of their details in the light of details which are known to belong
to this period, and in connection with those of buildings which belong certainly to
the next century.
The advent of Christianity into the field of art in Syria seems not only to have
speedily liberated the architects from the conventions of classic style, but to have
brought with it entirely new motives, which appear at once in the ornament of build-
ings of all kinds. The architecture of the early empire throughout the Roman world
was the creation of Greek architects, and this continued to be the case after the seat
of empire had been transferred to the East. Greek architects were undoubtedly
employed throughout the Christian empire. The inscriptions upon buildings of all
kinds and at all periods in this region are in Greek, except in a few notable cases
where the Syriac language occurs. But with the opening of the fourth century
new elements appear in the architecture of Northern Central Syria, which are neither
Greek nor Roman, judged according to the standard which obtained at the political
centers of the East and West — elements strange and striking, which suggest no
decline, but rather inaugurate a fresh and vigorous development that for three cen-
turies flourished like a new-born style, to be checked at last by untoward causes at
the height of its career. These strange elements are probably the expression of Ori-
ental influence, the influence represented also in epigraphy by the Syriac inscriptions,
which are found here among the Greek; for there can be no doubt that the popula-
86