Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-sxzjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-16T14:53:29.864Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Saint Peter's, Leo the Great and the leprosy of Constantine*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 June 2011

Paolo Liverani
Affiliation:
Università degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Antichità, Piazza Brunelleschi 3–4, 50121 Florence, Italy. paolo.liverani@unifi.it
Get access

Abstract

Image of the first page of this content. For PDF version, please use the ‘Save PDF’ preceeding this image.'
Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © British School at Rome 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Krautheimer, R., ‘S. Peter’, in Krautheimer, R., Corbett, S., Frazer, A.K. and Franki, W., Corpus Basilicarum Christianarum Romae V (Vatican City, 1977), 165279Google Scholar ; Arbeiter, A., Alt St. Peter in Geschichte und Wissenschaft. Abfolge der Bauten. Rekonstruktion. Architekturprogramm (Berlin, 1988)Google Scholar ; de Blaauw, S., Cultus, et Decor II (Vatican City, 1994)Google Scholar As will be clear from what follows, I cannot agree with Bowersock, G.B., ‘Peter and Constantine’, in Carrié, J.-M. and Lizzi Testa, R. (eds), ‘Humana Sapit’. Etudes d'antiquité tardive offertes à Lellia Gracco Ruggini (Bibliothèque de l'antiquité tardive 3) (Turnhout, 2002), 209–17Google Scholar , now reprinted in Tronzo, W. (ed.), St. Peter's in the Vatican (Cambridge, 2005), 515Google Scholar.

2 D. Giacobacci, De Concilio Tractatus (Rome, 1537), 783 : ‘cum adhuc temporibus nostris fuerit in ecclesia sancti petri in frontispitio maioris arcus ante altare mains Constantinus imperator in musaico depictus, literis aureis ostendens salvatori & beato petro apostolo ecclesiam ipsaiii a se aedificatam videlicet ecclesiam sancti petri’. Cf. Frothingham, A.L., ‘Une mosaΐque constantinienne inconnue à Saint-Pierre de Rome’, Revue Archéologiques. 3 (1) (1883), 6872Google Scholar.

3 ICUR II, 4092. For a more detailed discussion, see Krautheimer, R., ‘The building inscriptions and the dates of construction of Old St. Peter's. A reconsideration’, Römisches Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte 25 (1989), 79Google Scholar ; Liverani, P., ‘L'architettura costantiniana, tra committenza imperiale e contributo delle elites locali’, in Demandi, A. and Engemann, J. (eds), Konstantin der Groβe. Geschichte — Archäologie — Rezeption. Internationales Kolloquium, 10.-15. Oktober 2005, Trier (Mainz, 2007), 235–44Google Scholar , esp. pp. 238–41; Liverani, P., ‘Costantino offre il modello della basilica sull'arco trionfale’, in Andaloro, M. (ed.), L'orizzonte tardoantico e le nuove immagini, 312–468 (La pittura medievale a Roma 312–1451. Corpus I) (Milan, 2006), 90–1 n. 2bGoogle Scholar.

4 ICUR V, 13872: Aspice et hic tumulus retinet caelestia membra

sanctorum subito rapuit quos regia cadi

hi(c) cruces invictae comites pariterq(ue) ministri

rectoris sancti meritumque fidemq(ue) secuti

aetherias petiere domos regnaq(ue) piorum

unica in his gaudet Romanae gloria plehis

quod duce tune Xysto Chr(ist)i meruere triumphos

Felicissimo et Agapeto sanctis marhrib(us) Damasus epis(copus) [fecit].

5 Ferrua, A., Epigrammata Damasiana (Vatican City, 1942), 212Google Scholar , no. 58: ‘Haec Damasus tibi, Christe deus, nova teeta dicavi / Laiirenti saeptus martyris auxilio’.

6 CIL Xl, pp. 698–9, LXXIX Spoletium 2 = Inscriptions Christianae Itahae VI, 45.

Autistes C(h)r(ist)i d(omi)ni devotus Achilles

culmina magna pii struxit honore Petri

nemo putet vacuum venerandi nominis aulam

sistere quod non sit corporis ista domus

magna quidem servar venerabile Roma sepulchrum

in quo pro C(h)r(ist)i nomine passus ohi(i)t

sed non et meritum monumenta includere possunt

nec quae corpus habent saxa tenent animam

victor enim mundi superata morte triumphans

sp(iritu)s ad summum pergit in astra d(eu)m

cumque sit in C(h)r(ist)o vita durante repostus

ad C(h)r(istu)m totus martyr ubique venit

Ule suos s(an)c(t)os cunctis credentibus offert

per quos supplicihus prestat orem famulis.

See De Rossi, G.B., ‘Spicilegio d'archeologia cristiana nell'Umbria. § III. Dell'età in che sedeva Spes vescovo di Spoleto e dei carmi epigrafici del vescovo Achille’, Ballettino di Archeologia Cristiana 2 (1871), 112–20Google Scholar ; Frutaz, A.P., ‘Spes e Achilleo vescovi di Spoleto’, in Ricerche sull'Umbria tardoantica e preromanica. Atti II convegno di studi umbri, Gubbio 24–28.5.1964 (Gubbio, 1965), 351–77Google Scholar ; Maccarone, M., ‘Il vescovo Achilleo c le iscrizioni metriche di S. Pietro a Spoleto’, in Miscellanea Amato Pietro Frutaz (Rome, 1978), 249–84Google Scholar.

7 Prudentius, Contra Symmachum 2.758–9: ‘Regnator mundi Christo sociabere in aevum, / quod duc-tore m c um trahis ad caelestia regnimi’. Ses Wilpert, J., Die Römische Alosaiken und Malereien der Kirchlichen Rauten vom IV.–XIII. Jahrhundert (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1924), I, 359Google Scholar ; Grisar, H., Roma alla fine del mondo antico (third edition) (Rome, 1943), I, 36Google Scholar ; Ruvsschaert, J., ‘L'inscription absidale primitive de St.-Pierre. Texte et contextes’, Rendiconti della Pontificia Accademia Romana di Archeologia 40 (19671968), 178Google Scholar.

8 Besides our example, mundus is attested only on coins of the Kmperor Carausins and in CIL VI 1163 = 31249: Mastino, A., ‘Orbis, κὀσμος, οἰκουμἐνη: aspetti spaziali dell'idea di impero universale da Augusto a Teodosio’, in Popoli e spazio romano tra diritto e profezia. Atti III seminario internazionale di studi storici ‘Da Roma alla terza Roma’, Roma, 21–23 aprile 1983 (Naples, 1986), 63162Google Scholar.

9 On carmina — poems in which certain letters or words are contained within patterns or compositions to form independent phrases or verses within regular lines of continuous text — sec the recent edition with Italian translation by Polara, G. (ed.), Carmi di Publilio Optaziano Porfirio (Turin, 2004)Google Scholar.

10 After 440: Mather, F.J., ‘An unidentified mosaic head from old St. Peter's’, in Studien zur Kunst des Ostens. Festschrift Strzygowski (Vienna/Hellerau, 1923), 1718Google Scholar ; Buddensieg, T., ‘Le coffret en ivoire de Pola, Saint-Pierre et le Latran’, Cahiers Archéologiques 10 (1959), 191Google Scholar. Carolingian: Krautheimer, R., ‘The Constantinian Basilica’, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 21 (1967), 120–1 n. 11CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; Belting, H., ‘Die beiden Palastaulen Leos III. im Lateran und die Entstehung einer päpstlichen Programmkunst’, Frühmittelalterliche Studien 12 (1978), 77CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; de Blaauw, Cultus et Decor (above, n. 1), 461–2; Curran, J., Pagan City and Christian Capital. Rome in the Fourth Century (Oxford, 2000), 112Google Scholar ; Kessler, H.L., Old St. Peter's and Church Decoration in Medieval Italy (Spoleto, 2002), 7Google Scholar ; Bauer, F.A., Das Bild der Stadt Rom in Frühmittelalter (Wiesbaden, 2004), 113, 116, 118Google Scholar. Constantinian: Wilpert, Die Römische Mosaiken (above, n. 7), 359–61; Jongkees, J.H., Studies on Old St. Peter's (Groningen, 1966), 14Google Scholar n. 4, 31 n. 3; Bannister, C.T., ‘The Constantinian Basilica of Saint Peter at Rome’, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 27 (1968), 28CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; Bovini, G., Edifici cristiani di culto d'età costantiniana a Roma (Bologna, 1968), 371–2Google Scholar ; Brandenburg, H., Le prime chiese di Roma, IV–VII seco/o. L'inizio dell'architettura ecclesiastica occidentale (Milan, 2004), 98–9Google Scholar.

11 Jäggi, C., ‘Donator oder Fundator? Zur Genese des monumentalen Stifterbildes’, Ceorges-Bloch-Jahrbuch des Kunsthistorischen Instituts der Universität Zürich 9-10 (20022003), 2745Google Scholar.

12 Benndorf, O., ‘Antike Baumodelle’, Österreichische Jahreshefte 5 (1902), 175–95Google Scholar ; Pick, B., ‘Die tempeltragenden Gottheiten und die Darstellung der Neokorie auf den Münzen’, Osterreichische jahreshefte 7 (1904), 141Google Scholar . Cf. also in the courtyard of the temple of Hera at Hierapolis the bronze statue of Semiramis ἐν δεξιῆ τὁν νηὁν ἐπιδεικνύουσα ‘showing the temple in the right hand' (Lucian, De Syria Dea 39).

13 For example, Bowersock, ‘Peter and Constantine’ (above, n. 1), 213—14.

14 Stanley, D.J., ‘The apse mosaics at Santa Costanza. Observations on restorations and antique mosaics’, Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen instituts. Römische Abteilung 94 (1987), 2942Google Scholar ; Bisconti, F., ‘Le absidiole del mausoleo di S. Costanza a Roma. Storia dei restauri e nuove riflessioni iconografiche’, in Morlier, H. (ed.), La mosaïque gréco-romaine IX.1 (Rome, 2005), 6778Google Scholar ; Raseh, J.J. and Arbeiter, A., Das Mausoleum der Constantina in Rom (Mainz, 2007), 109–52, 299–303Google Scholar.

15 Buddensicg, T., ‘Le coffret en ivoire de Pola, Saint-Pierre et le Latran’, Cahiers Archéologiques 10 (1959), 157200Google Scholar ; Schumacher, W.N., ‘Dominus legem dat’, Römische Quartalschrift 54 (1959), 139Google Scholar ; Ruvsschaert, ‘L'inscription absidale primitive de St.-Pierre’ (above, n. 7), 171–91; Ravagnan, G.L., ‘Capsella di Samaghcr’, in Restituzioni 1999. Capolavori restaurati (Vicenza, 1999), 2230Google Scholar ; Longin, D., La capsella eburnea di Samagher: iconografia e committenza (Ravenna, 2006), 3643Google Scholar ; F.R. Moretti, ‘La traditio legis nell'abside’, in Andaloro (ed.), L'orizzonte tardoantico e le nuove immagini (above, n. 3), 87–90.

16 ICURII, 4095.

17 Krautheimer, ‘The building inscriptions’ (above, n. 3), 9–15.

18 ICUR II, 4094. For a more detailed discussion, see F.R. Moretti, ‘La traditio legis nell'abside’, in Andaloro (ed.), L'orizzonte tardoantico e le nuove immagini (above, n. 3), 87–90 n. 2a; Liverani, L'architettura costantiniana (above, n. 3), 241–2.

19 Prudentius, Contra Symmachum 2.249–55:

Templum mentis amo, non mormorisi aurea in ilio

fundamenta manent fidei, structura nivali

consurgit pietate nitens, tegit ardua culmen

iustitia, interim spargit sola picta rubenti

flore pudicitiae pudor almus et atria servat.

Haec domus apta mihi est, haec me pucherrima sedes

accipit, aeterno caelestisque hospite digna.

20 Krauthcimer, R., ‘A note on the inscription in the apse of Old St. Peter's’, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 41 (1987), 317–20CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

21 Regarding the reliability of this part of the Liber Pontificalis, see the proceedings of the conference II Liber Pontificalis e la storia materiale, Roma 21–22.2.2002 = Mededelingen van het Nederlands Instituut te Rome. Antiquity 60–1 (Assen, 2003), and H. Gcertman, Hie Fecit Basilicam. Studi sul Liber Pontificalis e gli edifici ecclesiastici di Roma da Silvestro a Silverio (Leuven/Paris/Dudley (MA), 2004).

22 Ruvsschaert, ‘L'inscription absidale primitive de St.-Pierre’ (above, n. 7).

23 Pietri, C., Roma Christiana (Rome, 1972), I, 56–7Google Scholar.

24 Pietri, Roma Christiana (above, n. 23), n. 39.

25 Grünewald, T., Constantinus Maximus Augustus. Herrschaftspropaganda in der Zeitgenössischen Überlieferung (Historia. Einzelschriften 64) (Stuttgart, 1990), 272–3 (index IV. 1)Google Scholar.

26 Eusebius, Vita Constantini 2.49.1; see also 1.13–18.

27 ICUR II, 4102 = CIL VI 41397a:

Marinianus vir inl(ustris) ex p(rae)f(ecto) [praet(orio)] et cons(ul) ord(inarius)

cum Anastasia inl(ustri) fe[m(ina) eius] debita vota

beatissimo Petro apostolo persolvit, quae precibus papae Leonis † in ei †

[pro]vocata sunt atque perfecta.

At the end of line 4 there is a crux interpretum: the codex relates Leonis in ei I vocata, which De Rossi, G.B., lnscriptiones Christianae Urbis Romae Septimo Saeculo Antiquiores II (Rome, 1888), 55Google Scholar , corrected as Leonis mei I [prolvocata. All subsequent editors accepted this version, but the solution is unhappy because in this case the initial impersonal form with the third person (Marinianus … persolvit) turns into a first person (leonis mei), which is very difficult to justify.

28 Cod. Vat. Pal. 591: ‘in fronte foras in ecclesia sancti Petri ubi IIII animalia circa Christum sunt picta’.

29 Liber Pontificalis 86.11: ‘Hie musibum, quod ex parte in fronte atrii eiusdem basilicae fuerat dirutum, innovavit’.

30 Duchesne, L., Le Liber Pontificalis II (Pans, 1892), 84 n. 14Google Scholar.

31 Grisar, H., Analecta Romana I (Rome, 1899), 481Google Scholar.

32 Krautheimer, ‘S. Peter’ (above, n. 1), 182.

33 de Blaauw, Cultus et Decor (above, n. 1), 527.

34 Bauer, Das Bild der Stadt Rom (above, n. 10), 166–70.

35 More radical restorations were to follow under Gregory IX (1227–41): Liber Censuum 14 — Fabre, P. and Duchesne, L., Le Liber Censuum de L'église romaine II (Paris, 1952), 23Google Scholar.

36 Windsor, Eton College, Codex Farfensis 124, fol. 122r; Grisat, Analecta (above, n. 31), 4; 1–83, pl. X; Krautheimer, ‘S. Peter’(above, n. 1), 222, fig. 199; Nilgen, U., ‘III.5: Rom, Alt-St. Peter, Fassade (Zeichnung im Codex Farfensis)’, in Bernward ron Hildesheim und das Zeitalter der Ottonen II (Mainz, 1993), 118–20Google Scholar ; Nilgen, U., ‘IX.3: Fassadenmosaik von Alt-Sankt Peter in Rom’, in Stiegemann, C. and Wernhoff, M., 799. Kunst und Kultur der Karolingerzeit. Karl der Groβe und Papst Leo III. in Paderborn (Mainz, 1999), 611–13Google Scholar ; Bauer, Das Bild der Stadt Rom (above, n. 10), 163–70, fig, 81; G. Bordi, ‘L'Agnus Dei, i quattro simboli degli evangelisti e i ventiquattro seniores nel mosaico della facciata di San Pietro in Vaticano’, in Andaloro (ed.), L'orizzonte tardoanti-co e le nuore immagini (above, n. 3), 416–18, n. 46.

37 Bauer, Das Bild der Stadt Rom (above, n. 10), 163–70; Bordi, ‘L'Agnus Dei’ (above, n. 36).

38 ICUR II, 4123.

39 ‘In fronte ecclesiae beati Petri’ (cod. Vat. Pal. 833, c. 27); ‘In fronte super porticus ipsius sancti Pctri’ (cod. Vat. Pal. 591, c. 139); ‘Romae in imagine Constantini’ (cod. Valentinianus 393, c. 88); ‘Romae in imagine Constantini imperatoris’ (cod. Montispessulanus 280, c. 34 and Sirmondus, cod. Paris. Lat. 11478, c. 92) — see apparatus in ICUR.

40 Wilpert, Die Römische Mosaiken (above, n. 7), 370–1; Bauer, Das Bild der Stadt Rom (above, n. 10), 117.

41 ICUR II, 4124. In the codex Paris. 8071, c. 61v, the inscription follows the epitaph ICUR II, 4151 of Pope Hormisdas (a. 523), but De Rossi, Inscriptiones Christianae II (above, n. 27), 57, 20 rightly recognized the two as different. We can agree with Silvagni, who wrote in the apparatus of ICUR: ‘Ex cpigrammate ipso … fronti et atrio hiiius basilicac inscriptum fuisse percipitur; fortasse fuit picturae cuidam subiectum pariter ac n. 4123’.

42 For a German translation, see Wilpert, Die Römische Mosaiken (above, n. 7), 370; for an Italian version, Grisar, Roma alia fine del mondo antico (above, n. 7), 1, 267. English translation by Robert Goates-Stephens.

43 Dölger, F.J., ‘Die Taufe Konstantins und ihre Probleme’, in Dölger, F.J. (ed.), Konstantin der Groβe und seine Zeit. Festgabe zum Konstantins-Jubiläum 1913 und zum Goldenen Priesterjubiläum von Mgr. Dr. Anton de Waal (Römische Quartalschrift Suppl. 19) (Freiburg, 1913), 415–16Google Scholar ; Lewison, W., ‘Konstantinische Schenkung und Silvesterlegende’, in Miscellanea Francesco Ehrle II (Rome, 1924), 159246Google Scholar ; Ehrhardt, A., ‘Constantine, Rome and the rabbis’, Bulletin of the John Rvlands Libran Manchester 42 (19591960), 290–1Google Scholar.

44 Pohlkamp, W., ‘Tradition und Topographie. Papst Silvester I. (314–335) und der Drache vom Forum Romanum’, Römische Quartalschrift 78 (1983), 31–3, 40–1Google Scholar ; Pohlkamp, W., ‘Kaiser Konstantin, der heidnische und der Christliche Kult in den Actus Silvestri’, Frühmittelalterliche Studien 18 (1984), 358–9, 367, 373, 380, 391Google Scholar ; Pohlkamp, W., ‘Privilegium Ecclesiae Romanae Pontifici Contulit. Zur Vorgeschichte der Konstantinisehen Schenkung’, in Fälschungen in Mittelalter. Internationaler Kongress der Monumenta Germaniae Historica. München 16–19 September 1986 II (Hannover, 1988), 446, 464–6, 477Google Scholar ; Pohlkamp, W., ‘Textfassungen, literarische Formen und geschichtliche Funktionen der Römischen Silvester-Akten’, Francia. Forschungen zur Westeuropäischen Geschichte 19 (1) (1992), 149–50Google Scholar and n. 160. Cf. also Ainerise, M., U battesimo di Costantino il Grande. Storia di una scomoda verità (Stuttgart, 2005), 93119, esp. p. 119Google Scholar.

45 Canella, T., Gli Actus Silvestri. Genesi di una leggenda su Costantino imperatore (Spoleto, 2006)Google Scholar. The first version of this study, in the form of a thesis for a Dottorato di Ricerca (Rome, 2005), is available on-line at http://padis.uniromal.it/getfile.pv?recid=299.

46 Similar expressions for the term of a pregnancy can be found in Ovid, Fasti 2.175–6 (‘luna novum decies implerat cornibus orbem: / quae fuerat virgo eredita, mater eraf’), and in Statatius, Thebais 1.575–7 (‘Namque ut passa detim Nemeaei ad fluminis undam, / bis quinos plena cum fronte resumeret orbes / Cvnthia, sidereum Latonae feta nepotem / edidit’).

47 ICUR II, 4102 = CIL VI 41397a (above, n. 27).

48 Monibritius, B. (ed.), Sanctuarium seu Vitae Sanctorum (second edition) (Paris, 1910), I, 513Google Scholar.

49 Augustinus, Cum pagani ingrederentur 26 (ed. Dolbeau): ‘Venit imperator. Videamus quo curavit, ubi genua figere voluit: in templo imperatoris, an in memoria piscatoris? Posito diademate, pectiis tundit ubi est pis-catoris corpus’. Cf. also John Chrysostom, In Epistulam II ad Corinthios, Homilia 26.5: PC LXI, col. 582; John Chrysostom, Quod Christus Sit Deus I, p. 570 (not later than AD 393); John Chrysostom, Contra Judaeos et Gentiles, 9, PG 48.825 (AD 386); Passio SS. Johannis et Pauli II: Acta Sanctorum, lun. VII, p. 140 (fifth or early sixth century). See Liverani, P., ‘Victors and pilgrims in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages’, Fragmenta 1 (2007), 82102CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

50 CSEL 35, Epistula 1.6 (c. 368).

51 Basilica Luterani: Hieronymus, Epistulae 77.4; ecclesia lateranensis: CSEL 35, Epistula 14.4, 17.2, 31.6; basilica lateranensis: CSEL 35, Epistula 29.6, 32.3, 32.5. See Liverani, P., ‘Dalle Aedes Luterani al Patriarchio laterancnse’, Rivista di Archeologia Cristiana 75 (1999), 524, 542Google Scholar.

52 Ecclesia lateranensis: Liber Pontificalis 115 (Duchesne, Le Liber Pontificalis (above, n. 30), II, 229) (Pope Stephen VI, 896–7); Liber Pontificalis 122 (Duchesne II, 236) (Pope Anastasius III, 911–13); basilica lateranensis: Liber Pontificalis 158 (Duchesne II, 289) (Pope Gregory VII, 1073–85). See Liverani, ‘Dalle Aedes Laterani’ (above, n. 51), 547.

53 See, for example, the pagan tradition on Constantine, seen as guiltv of the death of Fausta and Crispus, whose sin was remitted by Christian bishops. This tradition was known already to Sozomen, Historia Ecclesiastica 1.5.1–5 and — ultimately — goes back to Julian, Caesares 38.336 A-B.

54 Frothingham, A.L., ‘L'Omelia di Giacomo di Sanûg sul battesimo di Costantino imperatore’, Monumenti Antichi 8 (1883), 197216Google Scholar.

55 Decretalis de Recipiendis et de Non Recipiendis Libris, CSEL XLII.4, 460 = PL, LIX, cc. 173–4.

56 Comtitutum Silvestri, in Wirbelauer, E., Zwei Päpste in Rom: der Konflikt zwischen Laurentius und Symmachus (498–514); Studien und Texte (Munich, 1993), 228Google Scholar ; Gesta Liberii, in Wirbelauer (above), 248–60.

57 Liber Pontificalis 34.2.

58 ICUR II, 4102 = CIL VI 41397a (above, n. 27).

59 Martindale, J.R. (ed.), Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire II (Cambridge, 1980), 723–4Google Scholar s.v. Marinianus no. 3.

60 Cf. Martindale (ed.), Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire (above, n. 59), 76 s.v. Anastasia no. 1. See also Silvagni, A., ‘Intorno a un gruppo di iscrizioni del IV e V secolo appartenenti alla Basilica Vaticana’, Bullettino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale di Roma 57 (1929), 135–47Google Scholar ; F. Chausson, ‘Une sœur de Constantin: Anastasia’, in Carrié and Lizzi Testa (eds), ‘Humana sapit’ (above, n. 1 ), 1 31–55.

61 ICUR II, 4097; ICUR II, 4122 = CIL VI 41336a; Silvagni, ‘Intorno a un gruppo’ (above, n. 60); Chausson, ‘Une sœur de Constantin’ (above, n. 60), with the reconstruction of the stemma of the Constantinian family here re-proposed in a simplified version.

62 It should be remembered that apocalyptic iconography in mosaic cvcles was introduced in this very period, and that this same pope inspired the choice of an analogous subject for the triumphal arch of San Paolo fuori le mura, cf. G. Bordi, ‘Il mosaico dell'arco trionfale’, in Andaloro (ed), L'orizzonte tardoantico e le nuore immagini (above, n. 3), 395–402, n. 44c.

63 Moinbritius, Sanctuarium (above, n. 48), I, lines 476–9: ‘Quinta die in quocunque loco fucrit fabricate ecclesia consecrationis suae liane virtutem obtineat, ut quicunque reus ad cani confugerit a iudieis pendilo qui in praesenti fuerit defensetur’. Cf. Canella, Gli Actus Silvestri (above, n. 45), 97–102.

64 Codex Theodosianus 9.45.4, 5 = Codex Justinianum 1.12.3, 4.

65 Mansi, J.D., Sacromm Conciliorum Nova, et Amplissima Collectio (Florence/Venice, 1759-89), VI, cc. 437–8Google Scholar.

66 Monibritius, Sanctuarium (above, n. 48), I, lines 473–5: ‘Quarta die privilegium ecclesiae romanae poiitificique contulit ut in toto orbe romano sacerdotes ita hune caput habeant, sicut omnes indices regem’. Cf. Canella, Gli Actus Silvestri (above, n. 45), 97–102.

67 PL LIV, cc. 636C–640A.

68 See Liverani, ‘Costantino offre il modello’ (above n. 3), 34. I hope to develop this topic more fully in another article.