A central theme in of the history of the Lateran complex is the architectural definition of its eastern façade, to be inserted in the modern era in a defined and extra-urban context, and suitable to the prestige of the basilica itself.

The Archbasilica of St John Lateran has been known by many names through its long history, the Basilica Aurea, the Basilica Constantiniana, the Archibasilica Sanctissimi Salvatoris et Sanctorum Iohannes Baptista et Evangelista in Laterano.This chapter outlines the vital role the world's first cathedral has played throughout history.From its earliest days the Basilica was central to the development of the Church.A summary history would note the synod of 313, convened at the so-called Domus Faustae to condemn Donatism even before the Basilicaߣs completion; synods of 649 against Monothelitism and 769 against Iconoclasm, and five ecumenical councils, each of profound importance, between 1123 and 1512.Intertwined with authoritative statements on Church governance from the palace and Patriarchum next to it, came a steady stream of teachings on proper form and liturgical practice as articulated within its walls.The chapter ends with the Holy Year of 1600.A visitor to the Lateran prior to the building projects that culminated then would have still been able to see many traces of Constantineߣs Basilica; key elements of the spolia that characterised its variegated interior still occupied the positions where their fourth-century builders had placed them.

A long-standing objective for the Lateran Project has been to draw on structural evidence from the Lateran scavi to model the Constantinian Basilica.Lex Bosman has similarly sought to model the structure, initially from observation of the fabric of the standing Archbasilica. This chapter presents the happy outcome of collaboration between these two approaches.Using state-of-the-art visualisation techniques, the authors have brought together the evidence for the interior and exterior appearance of the Constantinian Basilica. The chapter argues that while based on exhaustive research, these 3D models should nevertheless be best understood as ߢprovocationsߣ.Production of these ߢprovocationsߣ is itself an important vehicle for analysis, because it exposes gaps in understanding as each new model drives and is driven by evolving debates about structure, decoration and illumination.

This chapter brings together the arguments for the identification of a water feature within the Lateran scavi as the Nymphaeum of Pope Hilarus.The feature has been extensively surveyed and laser scanned as part of the Lateran Project in an attempt to underestand how the different elements might have functioned together. The long-term association of the area, formerly part of bath complex built in the Severan period, with elaborate water features is considered;the latest structural elements recovered post-date the nymphaeum and come from a fountain constructed sometime in the 12th/13th century.

This paper concentrates on the representation of the Constantinian Basilica in the Liber pontificalis and determines its role in the text and in the representation of the pope.The sections considered range from the foundation of the Basilica in Life 34 (Pope Silvester I) to the significance of the Basilica for Pope Stephen V in Life 112.One oddity about the Liber pontificalis is that it never refers to the Constantinian basilica as dedicated to St John. That information is supplied in liturgical books such as the Sacramentaries and Lectionaries extant in Frankish manuscripts. This prompts a reflection on the Constantinian Basilicaߣs liturgical role within Rome that casts further light on the possible implications and peculiarities of the Basilicaߣs representation in the Liber ponificalis itself.

In the collective memory of Western Christendom it is the basilica of St Peterߣs that is the mother church of Latin Christianity. However, this rank officially appertains to the Basilia of St John Lateran built by Constantine as the Cathedral of Rome. The fact that today the Lateran is no longer perceived as the Cathedral of Rome might go back to the 14th century, when the Popes returned from Avignon and re-established their Roman residence near the basilica of St Peter. But already as early as the sixth century Pope Symmachus (498-514) erected episcopia on both sides of the atrium of St. Peterߣs and copied the display of the Lateran baptistery with its three oratories in the baptistery of St. Peter. This was a highly symbolic act, directed against his opponent Laurentius, who was elected antipope in the very same year as Symmachus. In later centuries it was mostly in periods of conflict that the two basilicas – St John Lateran and St Peterߣs – assumed imporant roles as places of display of rival interests. This chapter investigates the visual strategies of these rival claims through its study of architecture, tombs, relics and images.

When in 1592 the newly elected ponti? Clement VIII paid a visitation to Romeߣs principal church of San Giovanni in Laterano, he renovated the Basilicaߣs transept and installed at its southern end a separate altar where the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist would be preserved. Through this architectural intervention, which transferred the Canonߣs Sacristy outside the church interior, it was clear that the navata clementina would need a ?tting iconographic programme to embellish the new architecture. This chapter argues that these developments must be seen in the context of contemporary debates about the reform of the Roman rite.It also identifies the newly elected Cardinal and Oratorian from Sora, Cesare Baronio, the man who composed the ?rst ocial Catholic historiography of the Roman Church, the Annales Ecclesiastici, as playing a hitherto unidentified but crucial role in the design of the new architecture and its iconographic programme, a programme encompassing eight large scenes taken from the life of Constantine the Great.

Research of the Pontificio Istituto di Archeologia Cristiana on the Lateran Baptistery during the last two decades has resolved some of the many questions left open by the excavations inside the Baptistery in the 1920s and around it in the 1960s. This research has been coordinated by the author and Federico Guidobaldi and has involved the PIAC, the Swedish Institute of Classical Studies in Rome, the Vatican Museums and the Swedish National Heritage board. As a result it has been possible to determine the octagonal plan of the first (Constantinian) phase of the Baptistery, identify the foundations of the Oratory of Santa Croce, ascertain the height to which walls of the Constantinian phase are preserved, and deduce that the reconstructions attributed to the fifth-century Popes Sixtus III and Hilarus must be part of the same project.Laser scanned models and 3D documentation has been created as an instrument for research and for reconstructions. There remain, however, important, unresolved questions and these are also explored int his chapter.How was the building covered?Did it have an inner colonnade?What was the place of the first phase of this structure in the development of Late Antique architecture?

In 1998 the author published a fragment of the lost frescoes by Gentile da Fabriano, a frieze with foliated scrolls, surviving at the top of the right wall of the Lateran Basilica, at the end of the nave towards the main altar. In that paper he reconsidered all the documentary sources for the mural paintings undertaken by Gentile and Pisanello in the Basilica and argued the idea that the cycle was projected for both walls, devoted to the life of St John Baptist and St John the Divine, but uncompleted by Pisanello himself. The Veronese painter worked probably until the eighth story (eleventh, according to other scholars) of the St. John Baptist cycle. This chapter considers three other erratic fragments, relatable to the lost mural cycle: the so-called head of David of the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, the remains of a colossal head in the south-east corner of the Lateran Closter, considered by Bramante according a fanciful tradition, and the female head in the Museo Nazionale di palazzo Venezia, by Pisanello. The latter piece is examined as a new iconographic context in the St John the Baptist cycle.

This chapter details the use of Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) in the Lateran area.It offers an introduction to radar methodology before discussing results from targeted surveys inside the Archbasilica and to the north, west and south of the building. An important argument of the paper is that advanced interpretation of GPR results is best undertaken in conjunction with material derived from a range of other sources and specialist fields. The potential significance of project survey results for the interpretation of Roman topography, the construction of Constantineߣs Basilica and the development of the Patriarchium is considered.The possibility that the celebrated Triclinium of Leo III might have lain further south than previously believed is discussed in the light of findings to the north-east of the Archbasilica.

The reconstruction of the Constantinian Basilica at the Lateran by Krautheimer and others leaves several important questions unresolved. A combination of evidence corroborates the reconstruction by Krautheimer of the two rows of nave columns of red granite. Two yellow marble columns which since the end of the sixteenth century support the organ tribune however are never mentioned in relation to the reconstruction of the fourth-century church-basilica. In fact they can be traced back to their medieval presence in the portico on the east side of the building. Their similarities with the equally yellow marble columns on the Arch of Constantine support the notion that they belong to the original, early fourth-century structure of the Basilica Constantiniana. The obvious question where they may have been positioned in the Early Christian basilica can be answered by using the archaeological evidence under the basilica. Part of a foundation running west-east underneath the south transept offers a very likely foundation for a colonnade of two yellow columns on both the north and the south side as a continuation of the rows of green marble columns between the inner and the outer aisles.

This paper explores the impact of acknowledged skill in mousikē (the ancient term which refers to the whole art of poetry, music and drama) on the income, identity and social status of poets, actors and musicians in the classical period. It is argued that the social status of these professionals depended on public recognition of the usefulness of their individual skills and the personal reputations of performers, rather than their economic class or legal order.

The introduction offers a definition of skilled labour and professionalism and considers the importance of these concepts for our study of ancient society and its economy.

Contrary to orthodox views, Sparta’s full citizens, the Spartiates, were not professional or specialized full-time soldiers and, apart from practice in elementary drill, their training focused mainly on physical fitness. In so far as Sparta’s armies excelled in technical proficiency, it was through their tight-knit organization and hierarchical command structures and their methodical, if often inflexible, implementation of set manoeuvres.

This chapter aims to establish a lower limit to the possible extent of horizontal specialization in the economy of classical Athens; in other words, the minimum plausible number of specialized jobs to do with production, exchange, and services. This exercise shows that even with a mindset sceptical to the idea of specialization, there cannot realistically have been fewer than 162 specialized full-time occupations in classical Attica. This demonstrates the complexity and dynamism of the classical Athenian economy.

This chapter challenges the default use of the language of professionalization with reference to the Roman army of the imperial period and argues that while certain usages of the term ‘professional’ may be valid, there are so many other unhelpful modernising connotations arising from such terminology that it is better avoided.