DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.24719#0024
8
INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE.
a spear covered with plates of gold, with a transverse branch which makes the cross. There
is at the top of the spear a crown encircled with gold and precious stones. The name of
the Saviour is marked on this crown by the two first letters of it, the second of which is
a little shortened. There is a purple banner attached to the transverse rod. This banner is
square in form, and covered with pearls. The spear is very long. On the lower part of the
banner are half-length portraits of the emperor and of his children, in gold.” We find from
this description that the labarum differed but little from other Roman standards which are
represented upon so many monuments.
The emperor, moreover, placed in front of bis palace a picture surmounted by the sign
of the cross. lie was represented in it with his children; and beneath their feet there was a
dragon pierced with arrows, falling into the sea. This picture was painted in wax, or encaustic.
In the year 315 1 2 Constantine abandoned paganism; still he tolerated it until the end of
his reign, taking measures, moreover, which tended to annihilate its influence by degrees,
lie for a time allowed the temples of Byzantium to exist. This toleration did not last long;
but he ended by causing them to be shut up, depriving them of their revenues, and forbidding
the erection of new ones.3
Erom this period the zeal of Constantine for the Christian religion was openly manifested.
In the year 316 he abolished the punishment of crucifixion; lie also then authorized the
Church to receive legacies; a kiw of the 7th March, A.H. 321, ordained that Sunday should be
made a day of rest, — a law observed for more than fifteen centuries by all Christian people.
Magic, oracles, and divinations had become the plague of the pagan world. The emperor
interdicted all those who practised these superstitious customs to enter private houses, and
lie ordered the prefects not to make offerings in their name.3 Lastly, he put an end to a cruel
usage which had descended from the Etruscans to the Homans, and which had become the
dominant passion of the people, by interdicting the combats of gladiators, feeling that he would
be supported in this measure by the Graeco-Roman population of Asia, amongst whom it
is evident this passion never 'extended, from the fact that we only find three specimens of
amphitheatres existing throughout the whole of Asia. The criminals who formerly had been
condemned to be thrown to wild beasts were sent to the quarries.4
Tbe amphitheatres were unoccupied; and those arenas, which so many Christians had
moistened with their blood, became places of pilgrimage. Oratories were established, near
which the deacons preached to the unconverted. But if the combats of the arena were abolished
without exciting discontent, it was not the case with the theatres, which, in spite of their
pagan origin, and in spite of the religious character that scenic representations had in ancient
times, resisted all the efforts which the new Church made to destroy them. Literary tastes
had spread too widely amongst the Greek and Roman people to allow them to renounce easily
so great a pleasure as that to be derived from theatrical performances. These edifices
themselves were erected in an imperishable manner. The public were not put to any expense
to maintain them, and in ordinary times they were made useful for popular assemblies. These
are the principal reasons why the theatres, which we see in almost every Greek town, were
preserved. But no others were erected. Of all the theatres existing in the present day, we
cannot cite a single one that was erected at a later date than tbe reign of Constantine.
The games of the circus shared with the theatres the public favour. Thus all tastes were
gratified, — those of the educated, and those of the illiterate.
Constantine took care to foster a passion so favourable for developing physical strength:
thus, one of the first works which he executed in his new capital was the completion ol the
circus commenced by Severus.5 That prince, after having taken and almost destroyed ancient
Byzantium, had commenced to rebuild it; he had caused the plan ot a vast hippodrome to
be traced on a site parallel to the Propontis, which had a very steep descent on the side
towards the sea; he had furnished this with steps, as far as the circular part which the Greeks
call Sphendon;8 he rebuilt the Bath of Apollo — the Horse Tamer — called the Bath of
1 Chronicon Pascale, lib. i. p. 5G1. 3 Eusebius, book ii. ch. 44.
2 Paul Orosius, book vii. fo. C, edit. 1517. Turn deinde 4 Theod. Code, xv. 12, 1.
primus Constantinus justo online et pio vicem vertit edicto : 6 Chronicon Pasccde, lib. v. pp. 494 et 495.
Si quidem statuit citra ullam homirmm csedem paganorum ® Codinus, de Orig. C. P. 10. Also, Dion Cassius, book vii.
templa claudi. And again, ch. 19 : Hie Constantinus M. jubet p. 298.
templa claudi.
INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE.
a spear covered with plates of gold, with a transverse branch which makes the cross. There
is at the top of the spear a crown encircled with gold and precious stones. The name of
the Saviour is marked on this crown by the two first letters of it, the second of which is
a little shortened. There is a purple banner attached to the transverse rod. This banner is
square in form, and covered with pearls. The spear is very long. On the lower part of the
banner are half-length portraits of the emperor and of his children, in gold.” We find from
this description that the labarum differed but little from other Roman standards which are
represented upon so many monuments.
The emperor, moreover, placed in front of bis palace a picture surmounted by the sign
of the cross. lie was represented in it with his children; and beneath their feet there was a
dragon pierced with arrows, falling into the sea. This picture was painted in wax, or encaustic.
In the year 315 1 2 Constantine abandoned paganism; still he tolerated it until the end of
his reign, taking measures, moreover, which tended to annihilate its influence by degrees,
lie for a time allowed the temples of Byzantium to exist. This toleration did not last long;
but he ended by causing them to be shut up, depriving them of their revenues, and forbidding
the erection of new ones.3
Erom this period the zeal of Constantine for the Christian religion was openly manifested.
In the year 316 he abolished the punishment of crucifixion; lie also then authorized the
Church to receive legacies; a kiw of the 7th March, A.H. 321, ordained that Sunday should be
made a day of rest, — a law observed for more than fifteen centuries by all Christian people.
Magic, oracles, and divinations had become the plague of the pagan world. The emperor
interdicted all those who practised these superstitious customs to enter private houses, and
lie ordered the prefects not to make offerings in their name.3 Lastly, he put an end to a cruel
usage which had descended from the Etruscans to the Homans, and which had become the
dominant passion of the people, by interdicting the combats of gladiators, feeling that he would
be supported in this measure by the Graeco-Roman population of Asia, amongst whom it
is evident this passion never 'extended, from the fact that we only find three specimens of
amphitheatres existing throughout the whole of Asia. The criminals who formerly had been
condemned to be thrown to wild beasts were sent to the quarries.4
Tbe amphitheatres were unoccupied; and those arenas, which so many Christians had
moistened with their blood, became places of pilgrimage. Oratories were established, near
which the deacons preached to the unconverted. But if the combats of the arena were abolished
without exciting discontent, it was not the case with the theatres, which, in spite of their
pagan origin, and in spite of the religious character that scenic representations had in ancient
times, resisted all the efforts which the new Church made to destroy them. Literary tastes
had spread too widely amongst the Greek and Roman people to allow them to renounce easily
so great a pleasure as that to be derived from theatrical performances. These edifices
themselves were erected in an imperishable manner. The public were not put to any expense
to maintain them, and in ordinary times they were made useful for popular assemblies. These
are the principal reasons why the theatres, which we see in almost every Greek town, were
preserved. But no others were erected. Of all the theatres existing in the present day, we
cannot cite a single one that was erected at a later date than tbe reign of Constantine.
The games of the circus shared with the theatres the public favour. Thus all tastes were
gratified, — those of the educated, and those of the illiterate.
Constantine took care to foster a passion so favourable for developing physical strength:
thus, one of the first works which he executed in his new capital was the completion ol the
circus commenced by Severus.5 That prince, after having taken and almost destroyed ancient
Byzantium, had commenced to rebuild it; he had caused the plan ot a vast hippodrome to
be traced on a site parallel to the Propontis, which had a very steep descent on the side
towards the sea; he had furnished this with steps, as far as the circular part which the Greeks
call Sphendon;8 he rebuilt the Bath of Apollo — the Horse Tamer — called the Bath of
1 Chronicon Pascale, lib. i. p. 5G1. 3 Eusebius, book ii. ch. 44.
2 Paul Orosius, book vii. fo. C, edit. 1517. Turn deinde 4 Theod. Code, xv. 12, 1.
primus Constantinus justo online et pio vicem vertit edicto : 6 Chronicon Pasccde, lib. v. pp. 494 et 495.
Si quidem statuit citra ullam homirmm csedem paganorum ® Codinus, de Orig. C. P. 10. Also, Dion Cassius, book vii.
templa claudi. And again, ch. 19 : Hie Constantinus M. jubet p. 298.
templa claudi.