Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

SCALE
0
25 50m
from roman to post-roman 725
Tetraconch
Church
Library of Hadrian
Fig. 26 Library of Hadrian. (After Frantz (1988))
growth in power and visibility of Christianity, and it is possible to infer from
inscriptions that there was a gradual but significant conversion in the century
350–450. The philosophers remained solidly pagan, but they may not have
determined the religious affiliations of their fellow citizens: Proclus had
briefly to retire from Athens to Lydia in the late 440s, and a plausible speculation
is that he was evading Christian pressure; there is no firm evidence for
the religious views of ordinary Athenians, but Proclus’ devotion in attending
the rural shrines of Attica on their feast days was probably abnormal. A
church of a striking tetraconch design was built in the courtyard of the
Library of Hadrian in the early fifth century (see Fig. 26), and it may be right
to connect this with Eudocia, who was an intellectual in her own right but
also a convert to Christianity with a record of church building and other benefactions;
two basilicas were constructed in the south-eastern part of the city
by the Ilissos stream. A significant blow to pagan morale would have been
struck when the cult statues were removed from the Parthenon and
Asclepieion and access to the temples prohibited, a development which
probably occurred towards the end of Proclus’ life. 74
At Athens, continuity of occupation makes it impossible to identify all
the new Christian buildings that were erected, but from elsewhere in
74 Frantz (1988) 72–3; Fowden 499–501; Trombley, Hellenic Religion ch. iv.
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