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In modern scholarly literature the identification of the columns as spolia has been accepted widely, based on the fact that there were no uniform rows of columns of the same material in the basilica. Instead, they were a vari-coloured group of column shafts. This labelling of the columns as spolia is very interesting because it seems to imply that the ideal for such a colonnade in Late Antiquity would have been rows of columns of the same material. Constantine was the emperor honoured in the arch which was raised for him, but in the same period it might be problematic to call him the patron of the two churches, as distinct from acting as the benefactor of these two large Christian basilicas. On the other hand, the Basilica Salvatoris was originally known as the Basilica Constantiniana.
The building of the imperial mausoleum at Saint Peter's marks a new and closer association of the western emperors with Rome. This process was characterized on the one hand by the emperors' increasing involvement with Saint Peter's and on the other by the popes' rise to a greater prominence in imperial affairs. The provision of episcopia was included to the right and left of the entrance to the atrium of Saint Peter's, presumably residences for the clergy of Symmachus's household. The question of the staffing of the great papal basilicas is an important one, but the state of the evidence is such that the issue can probably never be resolved. Saint Peter's is especially problematic, because of its dual role as a great public monument, founded and endowed by an emperor, and as a major theatre for papal ceremonial.
This chapter proposes a reconstruction of one of the medieval chapels in Old Saint Peter's, the oratory of Pope John VII. The oratory was partly dismantled when the Holy Door of the Jubilee was installed; and finally, in September 1609, it was completely demolished, along with the last remaining vestiges of the Constantinian basilica. Although the oratory no longer exists, it has been possible to obtain an idea of what it looked like from the surviving fragments of mosaic decoration and sculpture, based on Giacomo Grimaldi's accurate, illustrated descriptions, and the painter Domenico Tasselli's visual documentation. This documentation is a starting-point for understanding the oratory's iconographic programme, and how this was displayed on the walls of the chapel before it was destroyed to make way for the new basilica. Grimaldi's images of the oratory mainly show depictions of the east and north walls, with close-up views of the mosaics.
An imperial mausoleum was, after all, a marked statement of enduring and constant care of the imperial house for a particular site, particularly when that mausoleum was intended not merely for an individual but for a dynasty, as the mausoleum of Honorius appears to have been. Not only were fifth-century emperors spending far more time in Rome than had their fourth-century predecessors, in addition, a major transformation was taking place in the nature and perception of the imperial office across this period, and this transformation also had its part to play in the foundation of the mausoleum of Honorius. The construction of the mausoleum of Honorius at Rome was a striking statement of the renewal of imperial commitment to the city in the fifth century. An imperial mausoleum was a powerful statement of commitment to a city and of dynastic continuity.
Many late antique and medieval sources show that the Early Christian basilica of Saint Peter's had a baptistery, but it has left no physical traces. Early descriptions of the location of this inscription are particularly interesting. Until the fifteenth century, the inscription was not inside the basilica but outside, fixed on the external wall near the hillside. The idea that the baptistery of Saint Peter's was monumental and independent was developed some time ago by Gillian Mackie. Many observations seem to indicate that the baptistery of Saint Peter's was a monumental one. It remains certain that the place of the Vatican baptistery must be associated with the north transept where it was described from the sixth-century Gesta Liberii to Alfarano a thousand years later, but the exact place indicated on Alfarano's plan was probably only the vestibule of an external independent and monumental baptistery.
The first section of the Liber Pontificalis was completed in c. 535. It presents a history of the popes from Saint Peter to Pope Silverius in the form of serial biography. The original conception and structure of the Liber Pontificalis then determined the form of the subsequent extension added between 625 and 638 in the pontificate of Honorius. Saint Peter's status as a shrine is greatly enhanced by the Liber Pontificalis's records of the gifts and visits from foreign kings and envoys. Yet both Saint Peter's and the pope himself acquire an interesting role in diplomacy. Liber Pontificalis only records the orchestration of papal burials. Saint Peter's basilica and its various functions as one key focus of the stational liturgy, venue for councils, pilgrimage site, art treasure and holy place, are all deployed by the Liber Pontificalis authors to enhance and promote papal authority.
A thoroughly revisionist account of the historical origins of the basilica was published by Glen Bowersock, who proposed that the foundation and construction of the basilica should be attributed not to Constantine, but probably to Constans. This chapter takes the doubts they have raised as an opportunity to reconsider both the chronology of the fourth-century basilica, and also the evidence for possible changes in its design during construction. An inscription, referring unambiguously to Constantine as the founder of Saint Peter's, was located on the triumphal arch of the basilica and was executed in letters of gold, forming part of a mosaic scene. Whatever the precise chronology of the preceding stages of development, the remodelling or rebuilding of the apse in its definitive form seems to have followed on only after the accession in 337 of Constans, whose probable stamp occurred on bricks used in its construction.
Saint Peter's had acquired its own acheiropoieta, a piece of cloth with an image of Christ produced miraculously when he wiped the sweat from his face on the way to the Crucifixion. It has various names in the sources, Sudarium, Vultus Christi, Veronica. The last of these in reference to the woman who offered the cloth to Christ, cherished the image produced on it, and accompanied it to Rome during the reign of Tiberius, whereupon the sight of it miraculously cured the diseased emperor. An old image of Christ's face on cloth that carried miraculous associations on account of its survival plausibly might begin to be associated with the story of Veronica and her cloth image. This chapter focuses on a possible scenario for how the Veronica might conceivably have come into being.
Saint Peter's appears from its foundation to function as a centre of assistance for the poor. The zone of the basilica of Saint Peter attracted throngs of the poor right from the start, even though they are better attested in later periods. Gregory the Great recorded the alms that the shoemaker Deusdedit gave every Saturday to the poor of Saint Peter's. Through the imperial connection and through the authority of the apostle, the basilica of Saint Peter was also the place in which delicate political and religious questions could be raised that interested both the emperor and the Roman bishop. It is clearly an exaggeration to say that Saint Peter's incorporated the city of Rome, but certainly the basilica succeeded in acting as a strong force field for the city, and one that is manifest in the physical and functional structures of the urban fabric.