Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

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supplemented by inscriptions and by laws regulating construction (the height
of dwellings, the spaces between them, their access to a water supply, etc.). 2
Two building trends are apparent in the empire of the fifth and sixth
century – a decrease in the west and an increase in the east. At Rome (Fig.
39), a building ‘boom’ occurs between 380 and 480, precipitated in part by
the Gothic and Vandal sackings in 410 and 455, and including the large new
churches of Sta Sabina (422/32), Sta Maria Maggiore (432/40) and S.
Stefano Rotundo (468/83). At Milan, unsurprisingly, most of the large
churches had been built in the fourth century while the city served as a
major imperial capital (S. Ambrogio, S. Lorenzo) and, although two bishops
continued this work in the fifth and sixth, the two churches known to be
erected after 550 are comparatively small in scale. At Ravenna, after a major
period of building while the city served as an imperial capital (402–76) and
the Ostrogothic capital (until 540), no churches or other public buildings
are known to have been erected after S. Severo in 570–95. Although many
other churches were built in Italy (e.g. at Vicenza, Verona, Brescia) and
Gaul (e.g. at Narbonne, Clermont, Lyons) during the fifth and sixth century
– some described by Gregory of Tours – their numbers probably did not
reach the number put up in the east. 3
Constantinople, walled by Constantine in the early fourth century, had
continued to expand throughout the fourth century and reached its
maximum extent in the fifth (Fig. 40). After its enlargement under
Theodosius II (413), the fortified space was not further extended. Yet
building within the walls continued and the city benefited from the large
construction programme of Justinian, who rebuilt or set up a senate house,
a forum, a seaside promenade, a baths complex, a vast cistern, six hospices
and four palaces, in addition to thirty-three churches, including St Sophia,
the largest building in Christendom until six centuries later. Other eastern
cities, such as Antioch, Caesarea Maritima, the capital of Palaestina Prima,
and Jerusalem, expanded in size in the fifth or sixth century, adding new
buildings both secular and cultic, and new ‘symbolic’ cities, such as
Justiniana Prima in the Balkans (Fig. 41), were founded. At least in the
diocese of Oriens, construction in the countryside matched that in the city.
In the village of Rihab in the province of Arabia, five churches were built
between 594 and 623. 4
In the late antique city, defensive walls, the water supply, honorific monuments,
places of entertainment and cult buildings were all maintained by
2 Inscriptions: Ward-Perkins, Public Building; Mango, M. M. (1984). Laws: Janvier (1969); Saliou
(1994).
3 Rome: Krautheimer (1980) 33–58; Milan: Krautheimer (1983) 68–92; Ravenna: Ward-Perkins,
Public Building 241–4; other Italian cities: Krautheimer, Early Christian and Byzantine Architecture 125–47;
Gaul: Greg. Tur. Hist. ii.14–17, 20, 21, 43; v.45; vii.10; x.31; Venantius Fortunatus, Carm. passim.
4 Constantinople: Mango, Studies on Constantinople i.118, 124–8; other eastern cities and Rihab:
Mango, M. M. (1984) Gazetteer, i.a.1 430/1–592; vi.b.51; vii.a.1 450–598; vii.a.10 432–630.
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