Aesthetic Maintenance of Civic Space. Th

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ORIENTALIA LOVANIENSIA

ANALECTA

193

AESTHETIC MAINTENANCE

OF CIVIC SPACE

The 'Classical' City

from the 4th to the 7th c. AD

LJACOBS

UITGEVERIJ PEETERS en DEPARTEMENT OOSTERSE STUDIES

LEUVEN - PARIS - WALPOLE, MA

2013



© 2013, Peeters Publishers Department of Oriental Studies

Bondgenotenlaan 153, B-3000 Leuven/Louvain (Belgium)

A catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

All rights reserved, including the rights to translate or to

reproduce this book or parts thereof in any form.

ISBN 978-90-429-2302-7

Dj2013/0602/31



CONTENTS

[ 'TRODUCTION. DESCRIPTION OF THE SUBJECT

1

CHAPTER

1

FORTIFICATIONS

19

1.1. Introduction

1.2. General appearance and building technique

1.3. Gates

1.4. Fortifications and the city

1.5. Summary .

19

34

60

92

106

CHAPTER 2 STREETS AND SQUARES

2.1. Introduction

2.2. Street width and course

2.3. Pavement .

2.4. Colonnades

2.5. Additional decoration

2.6. The later history of streets.

2.7. Summary .

111

111

126

140

159

184

195

200

CHAPTER

3

DECORATIVE MONUMENTS

205

3.1. Introduction. Types of decorative monuments

3.2. Positioning of decorative monuments within the city

3.3. New construction, conversions and maintenance.

3.4. Decoration.

3.5. Negative changes

3.6. Summary .

205

219

237

250

264

268

CHAPTER 4 RELIGIOUS ARCIDTECTURE .

272

4.1. Introduction

4.2. Temples

4.3. Positioning churches in the landscape

4.4. Church entrances

272

285

307

326



4.5. Church characteristics

4.6. The later history of churches

4.7. Summary .

342

383

390

x

CONTENTS

CHAPTER 5 STATUARY.

395

395

406

427

442

444

5.1. Introduction

5.2. Honorific statuary in Late Antiquity

5.3. Pagan and mythological statuary.

5.4. Christian public statuary

5.5. Summary .

CHAPTER

6

LATE ANTIQUE AND EARLY BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURAL

CHANGES.

446

6.1. Changes in colonnades .

6.2. Changes in walls and pavements.

6.3. Visibility .

446

460

472

CHAPTER 7 INITIATORS AND CONSTRUCTORS

479

7.1. The protagonists in the construction process

7.2. Initiators and constructors in separate projects

7.3. Rebuilding and repairs .

7.4. Construction in progress

7.5. Motives.

7.6. Initiators and constructors in Late Antiquity

480

502

533

545

563

584

CHAPTER

8

USING URBAN SPACE

588

588

598

612

622

641

8.1. Everyday maintenance.

8.2. Dumping waste .

8.3. Graffiti, acclamations and paintings.

8.4. Encroachment.

8.5. Summary .



CONTENTS

J Co CLUSION.AESTHETICMAlNTENANCEOFTHECIVICLANDSCAPE 644

1 Evolutions in the urban landscape between the 4th and

the 7th c. AD . 644

._. Constants and changes in the aesthetic maintenance of

the urban landscape . 655

9.3. Influence of the status of the settlement on its appearance 671

9 - . Decline or change of the ancient city in Asia Minor? 675

.-\PPE DIX 1. SHORTDESCRIPTIONOF CORESITES 679

.-\PPENDIX2. OVERVIEWOF MONUMENTSDISCUSSED 702

BIBLIOGRAPHY . 763

LIST

OF FIGURES 832

l'\DEX

Themes and subjects

Place names .

841

850



INTRODUCTION

DESCRIPTION OF THE SUBJECT

DECLINE OR CHANGE?

During the last three decades, the period spanning the 4th to the 7th c. AD

has gradually conquered its own position in archaeological

research .

Our data and knowledge of these centuries have expanded enormously.

General overviews have made way for a more detailed and more region-

alised view, based both on a re-examination of older information and the

increased amount of attention for late antique and Early Byzantine

remains in ongoing excavations-, Attention, originally focused on classi-

cal monumental architecture, inscriptions and art-objects, has extended

to other material categories. Evidence on craft production, faunal and

botanical remains has also proven to be useful for the contextual recon-

struction of human occupation, rebuilding and abandonment', Further-

more, the quality and quantity of research on the late antique and Early

Byzantine countryside has vigorously progressed .

Nevertheless, despite this progress, we are still a long way from a gen-

erally accepted (regional) model of what a late antique or Early Byzantine

city looked like and how urbanism between the 4th and the 7th c. AD

evolved. In particular, there is still an extensive debate on whether the role

and relevance of the city in this period 'declined' and eventually disap-

peared, or was only 'transformed'. The discussion is partially one of ter-

minology. Changes in late antique and Early Byzantine times have been

Bibliography relevant to the late antique and Early Byzantine period has been

collected and made comprehensible in the thematic volumes of the series Late Antique

Archaeology

1-7 (Lavan and Bowden 2003; Bowden, Lavan andMachado 2004; Bowden,

Gutteridge and Machado 2006; Lavan, Ozgenel and Sarantis 2007; Lavan, Zanini and

Sarantis 2007; Lavan, Swift and Putzeys 2008; Gwynn and Bangert 2010; Lavan and

Mulryan 2011) and their predecessor Lavan, L. (ed.) 2001b

Recent Research in Late

Antique Urbanism.

2 See for example Walmsley 1996; Brandes 1999; Brandes and Haldon 2000; Banaji

2001; Poulter 2004; Waelkens et al. 2006, Poulter (ed) 2007.

3 For instance for Sagalassos, see Putzeys 2007.

4 Recent examples include Niewohner 2007: 71-82 for Aizanoi and Vanhaverbeke,

Martens and Waelkens 2007 for Sagalassos. A recent overview of literature on the coun-

tryside is provided in Chavarria and Lewit 2004.



2

LJACOBS

characterised by many scholars as a 'decline's. This 'decline' is foremost

blamed to the slow disappearance of cultural and political traditions that

had sustained the classical city, as well as to the growing predominance

of the Christian religion over urban life. In many cities this may have

corresponded to a shrinking urban population and collapsing economic

structures''. The notion of 'decline' has, however, been opposed by many

other researchers, who prefer to characterise the developments as a 'trans-

formation' or 'accommodation', whereby they emphasize the continuity

with previous periods

7

.

In this view, the urban elites of the Roman and

Late Roman city were replaced between the 5th and the 7th c. AD by a

new elite group consisting of the local bishop, clergy and a group of land-

owners from the same social background. They would have continued

traditional city life, though in a Christian guise . Alternatively, both

stances can be reconciled, whereby transformation/accommodation is then

used to characterise the 4th and 5th and in some regions also the 6th c. AD,

and 'decline' is applicable to the 6th and 7th and in other regions already

to the 5th c. AD9.

The chronology of change is indeed the subject of a second discussion.

Changes occurred in different regions at different moments in time . For

the Eastern Roman provinces, the debate recently has focussed on the

second half of the 6th c. AD. Here again, opinions are divergent, ranging

from continuing prosperity expressed in major building activities, espe-

cially in the Semitic provinces of the Near East (Syria, Palestine, Arabia),

but to some extent in Asia Minor as well ', to a steady 'decline' after the

first occurrence ofthe bubonic plague in AD 541/212. On the whole, it is

5 Jones 1964; 1966; Ward-Perkins 1984; 1996; 1999; 2005; Liebeschuetz 1992;

2001; Robinson 200l.

6 Liebeschuetz 200 .

7

'Accomodation': Bowersock 1990; Cameron 1993; 'transformation': Whittow 1990;

1996; further also in Durliat 1994: 594; Brown 1998; Haldon 2000; Swain 2004. See also

Cameron 2003 for an overview of opinions and approaches in the studies on the late

antique and Early Byzantine period.

8 Whittow 1996.

9 Lavan 2003a-b.

IO

For the West, W. Liebeschuetz (2001) dates the 'markers of decline' before the 5th

c. AD. Likewise, according to B. Ward-Perkins (1996, 2005) decline here occurred around

AD 400, and in the East around AD 600. L. Lavan (2003c) believes that economy and

settlement in the East and Central Mediterranean continued into the 6th c. Cl. Foss (1975;

1976; 1977a; 1979; also Whittow 1996) has argued for a substantive transformation of

urban life in Asia Minor only after 600.

Whittow 1990: 13-15.

12 Liebeschuetz 2001: 408-410,415. Brandes (1999: 32-33) and Brandes and Haldon

(2000: 141-150) occupy an intermediate stance. In their opinion the plague may have



INTRODUCTION

3

a cepted that the c lassical city had disappeared by the 7th c. AD. The

reasons for the disappearance of the classical c ity are likewise still

under debate. There were four large causes that may have influenced this

hange, those being: political instability and military invasions; natural

disasters; fundamental structural changes; and, finally, the decay and

eventual disappearance of municipal government ,

The research presented in this book on the aesthetic maintenance of

the urban landscape between the 4th and the 7th c. AD cannot provide

definite answers to any of these three aspects. Through the provision of

a new and detailed data-set and through an objective reconstruction

and description of evolutions in the appearance of the city, based on

tratified and well-dated evidence where possible, it in the first place

intends to present a fresh view on the concept ofthe classical city in

late antique and Early Byzantine times. Indeed, since the urban fabric is

the product of changes in society, its internal socio-political organisa-

tion, its ideological priorities and aspects of daily life

14,

I believe that

a reconstruction of the physical appearance of the city, the combination

of architecture, streets and squares, statuary and smaller-scale additions

in all their detail is essential to understand past ways of urban life and

their evolution thrcugh time . In this way, and by integrating this new

view of the physical evidence of urban sites, this book can offer a con-

tribution to the debate of transform ation or decline of the ancient

city.

reduced urban population and there may have been a ruralisation of sites as early as the

mid-6th c. AD, but they maintain that some cities in Asia Minor continued to flourish until

at least the 620's. Conversely, the appearance of the cities had, according to them, already

declined from the late 5th c. onwards (Haldon 1999: 4; Brandes 1999: 37).

13

The invasions of both Persians and Arabs, in combination with the usurpation of

Phokas in AD 602, may have been decisive according to Foss 1975; 1976; 1977a-b; 1979;

Howard-Johnston 1995; 1999; Whittow 1996. On the role of natural disasters, see Haldon

1990: 111. Also the Plague may have been an important factor, see recently Little (ed)

2007 for an overview of the evidence. See also Stathakopoulos 2004 for an overview of

epidemics, among which the Plague, in the Late Roman and Early Byzantine period and

the consequences for social life. For fundamental structural changes, see Haldon 1990:

9-40 and 92-99; Cameron 1993: 152-175. The importance of the decay of municipal

government was stressed by W. Liebeschuetz (1996: 163,169-170; 2001: 237,401 and

4(6), but contradicted by M. Whittow (1990: 18,28-30) and W. Brandes and

J

Haldon

(2000: 147-150, 156-157).

14 Zanker 2000: 25.

15 See also Liebeschuetz 2001: 400; Fauvinet-Ranson 2006: 34.



4

LJACOBS

AIMS

The general intention of this research is thus to investigate the attention

paid to the appearance and maintenance of the city in the late antique and

Early Byzantine period. n other words, to examine how architecture,

layout and decoration were built, renovated, repaired or maintained, who

was taking initiative and why it was considered worthwhile. The appear-

ance of the urban framework is thus not treated as a stand-alone phenom-

enon, but as something which is imbedded in daily life, connected to

other aspects of society such as its political organisation, its ideological

(including religious) and aesthetical preferences and priorities, and other

features of daily existence.

From a chronological point of view, the period under consideration

starts with the ascension of Diocletian (AD 284-305). The end lies in the

late 6th or 7th c., when some cities were damaged by natural phenomena

and Syria, Arabia, Palestina and Asia Minor were invaded by the Persians

and a few decades later by the Arabs. The terms used in literature to

indicate this period are various and inconsistent. In this text, when the

terms of 'late antique' or 'Late Roman' are used, they refer to the period

between the late 3rd and the early 6th c., whereas the period from the

reign of Justinian (AD 527-565) onwards is defined as Early Byzantine.

The main geographical focus is Asia Minor. Although evidence for

repairs and renovations from this region is ample, new building was

mainly limited to fortifications and churches. Therefore, this archaeo-

logical evidence has been supplemented and compared to data from some

of the better known and published sites outside Asia Minor, mainly of

the Semitic provinces of the Near East, and, more exceptionally, from

Greece and North-Africa. Some of the better documented sites will return

in the discussion of each element of urban space. Others have been cho-

sen because they contributed to the knowledge of one specific urban

element. Within these chronological and spatial boundaries, the aims of

this research are threefold:

1. Reconstructing the appearance of the late antique city

First of all I wish to reconstruct the appearance of the late antique city in

detail, in order to give an idea of what a contemporary visitor to a town

or city would have experienced. This overview will comprise both older

elements and new additions to public space. Private architecture is largely

passed over, although it will appear from time to time in comparisons.



INTRODUCTION

5

After this overview, the major points of attention and investment

within a city can be identified, positing the question: what buildings/

infrastructure were still considered important and until when did this

anitude remain predominant? Besides this inquiry, a comparison between

investments in diverse elements of urban architecture and infrastructure

will be employed to identify the periods of widespread construction

activities as well as the periods of stagnation within the larger period of

Late Antiquity. Because of the long time span under consideration, it is

possible to examine the perseverance of ancient ideas of city planning

- for instance earlier concepts of Roman urbanism -, manners of con-

struction such as solid ashlars walls, and/or the disappearance of some of

these traditional building methods and/or the rise of innovative ones. It

is also possible to review the continuation of the adornment of the civic

landscape and eventually the fading of the concern for the positioning

and decoration of buildings in relation to their urban environment.

2. Protagonists in aesthetic maintenance

Besides an evaluation of the evolution and appearance of separate ele-

ments of the urban landscape, an assessment of how all of this came into

being is required. The physical form of the city was determined by the

thoughts, beliefs and expectations of the city dwellers, particularly the

leading elite who possessed, and ideally also provided, the funds for pub-

lic construction

projects' ,

The research attempts to trace who the initia-

tors of separate building projects were, how these projects were funded

and how and why decisions for new construction or renovation were

made. In other words, I look into the identity of late antique initiators of

construction works - the imperial court and central administration, gov-

ernors and high officials, civic elite, bishops, etc. - and attempt to

retrieve what their motivations were - self-representation, religious or

economical motives or maintenance out of pure necessity - for the sev-

eral projects in the course of the centuries, and especially review how

long aesthetic concerns were of importance for these discrete categories

of initiators. In the period between the 4th and the 7th c. AD considerable

changes took place in the internal organisation and social priorities of

civic societies, including the disappearance of the municipal system of

self-government and the adoption of Christianity as a universal religion.

16

Lomas 1997: 24-25; Sodini 2003: 27, 40. This idea also underlies the article of

Bowden (2007) on the urban change at Nikopolis.



6

I. JACOBS

The research further attempts to see from what moment onwards and in

which manners these elements influenced the ideas of the elite concerning

the city and eventually also its appearance.

Once the decision to intervene in public space was taken, intentions

needed to be materialised. The nature of initiators also influenced the

amounts and identity of the constructors involved in the separate projects

and thus the quality of the undertaking. We can therefore also judge the

professionalism of the constructors involved in separate projects.

Finally, after a certain component of public space had been finished,

it would be viewed and used often for centuries in a row. Thus a final

aim is the reconstruction of later reactions of the population at large, also

comprising the original initiators and constructors, to the surroundings

created around them. Regarding the long presence of monuments and

statues in the urban landscape, it can be expected that they enticed diverse

reactions throughout time.'? These reactions sometimes could become

quite violent, as is seen in the examples of religiously inspired demolition

of temples. This could have been common practice, but such actions

could also have been rather local 'incidents', outnumbered by positive

adjustments to the provided framework. At times, individuals can be

expected to have reused monumental infrastructure or architecture for

their own private needs. Likewise, the engendered behaviour towards

statuary in all likelihood varied, ranging from continuous veneration over

passive preservation, reuse in walls, and burning in limekilns, to inten-

tional destruction, mutilation, insertion of crosses, ritual disposal and

burial.

3. Transformation or decline of the ancient city

Taken together, these aims should make it possible to give a detailed

view of the aesthetic appearance of the city between the 4th and the

7th c. AD and its importance for contemporaries. Starting from this point

of view, this research intends to contribute to the above-mentioned debate

on the 'transformation' or 'decline' of the city in late antique and Early

Byzantine times. At first sight, this objective may seem beyond reach.

There are indeed many ways in which one can define a city besides its

aesthetic appearance, and the various characterisations of the period sum-

marised above have certainly not always taken this into account. Never-

theless, the city's appearance seems to have been vital for its perception

17 Elsner 1995: 1-2.



INTRODUCTION

7

y its inhabitants and visitors, considering this is what they viewed and

experienced on an everyday basis' . Examining how long and to which

extent the populace held on to the perception of what a 'classical' city

should look like can therefore be a very useful input.

:\1ETHODOLOGY

1. Assessment of the aesthetic appearance and maintenance of the

urban landscape

Aesthetic maintenance

What does aesthetic maintenance comprise? Maintenance by itself is

rather simple: it refers to upholding an existing building, monument,

ystem, and ultimately, the urban environment, both by preserving its

existing components and by adding new ones, and also by removing oth-

ers. At the same time, maintenance in itself can very well be aimed at

ensuring a building's further functioning without any consideration for

its outward appearance. One can, for instance, add pillars to support the

walls of a structure, thus ensuring that they continued to carry the roof,

without taking the visual effects of this addition into account' . Subdivi-

ions and the encroachment of shops and workshops on streets and

quares may have continued economical activities, but were not neces-

sarily beneficial for the aesthetic appearance of a town.

In contrast, aesthetic maintenance goes beyond purely functional con-

cerns. It is illuminating to take a look at the definition of aesthetic given

in the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary: '(1) received by the senses;

2) pertaining to the appreciation or criticism of the beautiful; (3) having

or showing refined taste: in accordance with good taste.' This means that

in order to be aesthetic, an object or monument, urban space or the city

in its totality had to be beautiful or at least pleasing in character. Aes-

thetic maintenance of urban space then implies that interventions were

not only functional, but that they also ensured that the city was appreci-

ated for its appearance. A similar distinction between

decor

and

utilitas

18

Bauer 1996: 'Einleitung ', likewise remarked that when one would have asked inhab-

itants what they regarded as typical for their city, they would have answered with elements

of architecture and statuary, the things they would have come into contact with on a daily

basis.

19 See Porphyrios 1991: 41 for a similar distinction and interrelation between building

and architecture.



8

1. JACOBS

or related tenus appears in literary sources of the Roman and Late Roman

period- , The difficulty is to trace what was regarded as pleasing in

Antiquity and even more why this was

S021.

Objective rules did not exist

and interpretation by contemporary city dwellers was a vital factor for

the preservation of an urban element.

In any case, although archaeologists are by the nature of their evidence

forced to limit themselves mainly to visual impressions, aesthetic main-

tenance also involved the senses of smell, touch and hearing . These

elements could likewise have a strong positive or negative influence on

appreciation of urban space. They will only rarely be touched upon in

these pages, for instance when the positive influence of cooling waters

of nymphaea is reviewed or when the dumping of refuse is discussed.

Finally, things 'received by the senses' also comprises all activities car-

ried out in the late antique and Early Byzantine city, which falls outside

the boundaries of this

dissertation :

Aesthetic maintenance of the composing elements of

the urban landscape

Every city was composed of diverse quarters, each of them consisting of

separate structures and infrastructure. In order to create a comprehensive

overview of the appearance of the city, one has little choice but to start

at the lowest level of the individual structure or statue. It must be stressed,

however, that these divisions are entirely artificial, and are utili sed only

for convenience . Each monument is considered part of its environment,

and eventually, of the entire city. In order to stay as close as possible to

the viewpoint of a contemporary visitor to the city, monuments have been

discussed in the sequence in which they would have been met by visitors:

from the late 4th, early 5th c. onwards, these visitors would have been

confronted by massive fortifications, which are the subject of Chapter 1.

After passing though the city gates, they travelled further by means of

the network of streets, considered in Chapter 2. On their way, they passed

20

See for instance Tacitus, Annales 15.43.5 and Cassiodorus, Variae 7.6.

21

Smith 1994.

22

Tatarkiewicz 1970: 25; Holgate 1992: 1-4.

23

Activities carried out in urban spaces, such as processions, wedding ceremonies, the

sale of foodstuff and artisanal products, etc., are currently the research topic of L. Lavan,

see for instance Lavan 2003b; 2006; 2008 and forthcoming.

24

Lynch 1960: 46-49,83-85; Rossi 1982; MacDonald 1986; Kostof 1995: 10; Ball

2000: 247.



INTRODUCTION

9

along various monumental buildings with a highly decorative nature or

answering to the religious needs of the community. These monuments

are considered in Chapters 3 and 4. Chapter 5 then deals with statues of

various natures that could be found all over the city. Of course, a city

also comprised traditional civic buildings with a wide variety of func-

tions. Since the number of examples of building types such as bouleute-

ria gymnasia, stadiums, and even theatres, for which the late antique and

Early Byzantine history is well-known are not large enough and they are

.::imultaneously too diverse to allow for reasonable comparison, they are

not the subject of a separate chapter. However, these monuments can not

be disregarded completely, since the largest numbers of inscriptions

related to initiators derive from them. They provide valuable information

on initiators that can be transposed to other urban spaces. They will thus

feature in the discussion on initiators, whereas their statuary decoration

has been incorporated in the general discussion of statuary in this

period.

This book eventually aims at reviewing the late antique city as a whole,

which has several advantages and disadvantages. The major disadvantage

is that the material is so wide and various, that detail cannot always be

pursued. The major advantage is that building or armature categories are

not looked at separately, but are integrated into the larger framework of

the city. Similarities or general evolutions are thus more easily retrieved

and will be discussed in Chapter 6.

Urban elements included in this research also comprise, next to new

onstructions, monuments that have been renovated, repaired or only

pa ssively preserved. The prosperity of a certain period in time is often

taken to be directly related with the amount of new building initiated.

However, the integration of urban elements that were repaired, renovated

or carefully maintained can substantially alter this image. Such examples

have been neglected all too often. We are all aware that they have sur-

vived into our age, but it is seldom realised that their survival is the

consequence of a conscious act, since no building can survive without at

least occasional maintenance.

As with monuments at large, by looking at the statuary preserved in

the archaeological record we can distinguish between: statues that have

been produced in Late Antiquity, although this number is considerably

smaller than those in earlier ages; those that were produced in previous

centuries, but were consciously preserved and of which it can thus be said

that they were still functioning elements in the city; those that were sim-

ply preserved without any attested late interventions or role; and statues



10 LJACOBS

that underwent a violent treatment, be it mutilation, burying or other.

A statue can be said to have been actively preserved, for instance, when

it shows traces of repair with iron clamps or re-cutting or later polishing.

Conscious preservation entailed actions such as relocation or re-erection

after renovations to its architectural context had been executed. a

statue, or at least most of it, was found on the location where it had been

displayed, it can be assumed it was still active in contemporary life,

meaning it was still viewed, observed and maybe contemplated by the

inhabitants of the city until the end of its existence.

Therefore, although the late antique and Early Byzantine city was

characterised by an ever growing number of aspects different from its

Greek and Roman predecessors and cannot be simply compared to them,

it also can not be detached from its past either. I am convinced that refer-

ences to the classical city were vital for the period under research, espe-

cially when related to the cities of Asia Minor. They had already been in

existence for centuries. Inhabitants of an early 4th c. city walked over

streets and dwelled amongst buildings, monuments and statues created

and erected mainly between the 1st and the early 3rd c. AD. Even if the

strength of these monuments as a reference point and the desire for their

imitation or re-creation dwindled throughout the centuries, the apprecia-

tion for their remains may have lasted longer.

n addition to newly added and preserved urban components, attention

will be paid also to elements in the civic landscape that did not survive

and were either consciously destroyed or decayed naturally, as well as to

the influence of secondary phenomena on the appearance of intact or

decaying monumental architecture, such as waste-disposal and encroach-

ment.

I would also like to point out the importance of earthquakes on this

research. Although one should always be very careful when using earth-

quakes to date the destruction or renovation of a monument, their occur-

rence can be extremely useful in revealing what the authorities regarded

as the most important buildings and institutions of the city at a certain

moment in time. After a city had been damaged by an earthquake, con-

scious decisions concerning what to renovate and in which sequence, and

conversely, what to leave in ruins, had to be made- .

For each construction or renovation project, the size of investments

and the results of the interventions for the appearance of the building and

25

Tsafrir and Foerster 1997: 112 for Skythopolis and Ladstatter and Piilz 2007: 398

for Ephesos.



INTRODUCTION

11

eventually its surroundings need to be determined. Therefore, this research

examines how elaborate the activities were, which techniques were used,

. .hich luxurious building materials and decoration elements were applied

and whether or not those were reused from elsewhere or newly produced.

Purely stylistic evolutions in art or decoration are not considered. Rather

than trying to explain or analyse these currents in late antique and Early

Byzantine art, it is accepted that changes were present and that regardless

of whatever judgment we may attach to it today, it was the art chosen by

<he late antique citizens to express and to be expressed.

I will, however, pay special attention to the following phenomena, the

combination of which most likely determined the appearance of the gen-

eral urban landscape: (1) the careful maintenance of the facade of a

monument, even though the internal function had changed. Literary

ources for instance inform us that in the 4th c. AD temple cellae were

reused for other secular functions; (2) a thorough readjustment or com-

plete change of the external form, even though the function remained

more or less the same. A typical example is the much discussed phenom-

enon of 'encroachment' on the broad colonnaded streets and agorae,

where the commercial function persisted, but the appearance of the urban

pace was drastically altered; (3) and finally a total change of both shape

and function, such as the dismantling of temple temene or urban squares

and their subsequent encroachment by artisanal or residential structures.

I wish to emphasise that the appearance of a monument or urban space

is prevalent in this research. It is of little importance whether a wall

belonged to an odeion or church, since its impact on the outlook of the

city quarter remained the same. Conversely, the replacement of a colon-

nade by a solid wall would have altered the look of the surroundings

considerably.

Aesthetic maintenance of the total urban landscape

Since all urban components were eventually part of the whole of the city,

actions that were disastrous for a structure by itself could have had a

more positive meaning when seen in relation with the rest of the

city .

The composition of a city as indicated on a plan tells us nothing about

the physical reality that its citizens or visitors experienced. They experi-

enced their environment space by space and step by step, gathering new

26

Thomas 1998 on the notion that all ornaments of a city were a whole. Alchermes

1994: 169 on reuse as preservation of urban ornaments.



•

12

1. JACOBS

impressions along the way27. Therefore, although ground plans will be

used to check matters such as the intervals between columns or to show

the visual impact of a building over a larger distance, as well as to deter-

mine the involvement of professional designers in building projects,

elevations and visual connections between neighbouring buildings are

considered to be far more relevant. It was, for instance, less important

whether or not the course of a street was perfectly straight than whether

or not its turns received additional attention.

There are then two manners in which a city could be experienced, or

rather, two different viewpoints that we can try to reconstruct: that of a

local inhabitant and that of a visitor. I believe that the viewpoint of the

latter is the most valid for this research for two reasons: the experience

that visitors had of the urban landscape can be expected to have been less

varied than that of local citizens, who could have come to the city centre

from all directions, passing through diverse alleys and city quarters. In

contrast, travellers unfamiliar with the city followed the roads laid out

for inter-urban traffic: they entered the city at premeditated locations and

were intentionally guided over the major thoroughfares and public

squares, past grand monuments displaying power and cultural values, to

their final destination, the exit of the city. They stuck to these major roads

and were thus largely excluded from the residential or artisanal quarters

of the towrr .

A reconstruction of the experience of in the first place contemporary

visitors implies that I assume that their opinion mattered to the inhabit-

ants of the town, or at least to a certain portion of them. Since no Roman,

Late Roman or Early Byzantine city was self-sufficient, but instead

formed part of the larger unit of its province - a unit with increased

importance in Late Antiquity - and eventually of the Roman Empire,

such relations between cities and between the city and the provincial and

central government were taken into account in the creation of the urban

landscape' . In the recent past the increased importance of such routes in

Late Antiquity has been convincingly demonstrated by F. A. Bauer for

cities such as Constantinople, Rome, Ephesos and Ostia .

27 Kostof 1995: 9-10; Bek 1997: 61; Bauer 2001a: 94. Cerasi 2004: Chapter 8.

28 Laurence 1999: 161. See also McDonald 1986: 5 for 'urban armature.' and Lynch

1960: 49-51 on the dominance of particular paths over others.

29 A typical example is the presence of statues of emperors and proconsular governors

on the city's agorae from the 1st c. onwards.

3 Bauer 1996; 2001a-b and 2003a.



INTRODUCTION

13

All this makes it possible to make a selection of material evidence

ed on its importance for aesthetic maintenance, incorporating only

:ilose elements that were visible for a larger public. A complete inventory

: all elements within a city would not only be a tedious task, but also a

confusing one, since there is simply too much insignificant material. For

- tance, paintings in underground tombs at Sardis are very interesting,

but irrelevant outside the family circle. For this reason, the exterior of a

monument is also taken to be more important than its interior.

2.

Protagonists in aesthetic maintenance

Initiators and constructors Chapter 7

The largest part of our information provides us with insights into the

circles of the imperial, provincial and local upper or governing classes,

whom possessed land, urban and/or suburban villas and goods of every

possible kind, including works of art, and whom could afford the luxury

of construction and renovation. These elites possessed the means to con-

vey an image of themselves, and by extension of their city, to both fellow

city dwellers and visitors. In this way, they determined what the 'good

taste' in the definition cited above meanr . They were also able to trans-

late their political, social, religious and commercial aspirations into mate-

rial form. The city, its streets and its monuments, and by extension also

the ceremonies taking place within them, were thus shaped according to

the wishes of the elite. Changes in the composition of the elite and/or

their attitudes towards the urban environment were thus likely followed

by changes in the compositional elements of the city and its general

maintenance. Nevertheless, even though the appearance of the city was

to a very large degree determined by the elite, there is little doubt that

most of their opinions were shared by other city dwellers as well. t is

accepted on the whole that the opinion of all city inhabitants on what a

city should look like was shaped by what they saw around them . More-

over, interventions by the elite in the public domain were invariably

expected to be appreciated and were, consequently, in turn tuned to the

expectations and standards of other city dwellers.

31

La Rocca 1992: 163; Elsner 1998: 14; Machado 2006: 160. Also Holgate 1992:

39.

32 Bek 1997.



14

I. JACOBS

However, members of the elite were probably not the only initiators

of actions influencing urban space. Smaller-scale interventions could

have been the work of more humble city dwellers. Their actions in urban

space, at least in the city centres, were probably controlled by the govern-

ment for a large part of the period under review.

There were, no doubt, various motives behind the actions of these

initiators. Although these could have comprised aesthetic aspects, aes-

thetic concerns in se did not exist in the antique, late antique or Byzantine

world. Aesthetics invariably served another purpose, be it political, com-

mercial, religious, or a combination of several. Appreciation of a monu-

ment was likewise invariably interwoven with its significance or con-

tents, or its use in the broadest sense of the word .

Using the earlier estimate on the construction quality, the skills of the

architects and workmen involved in separate projects will be evaluated,

keeping in mind that faults and corrections were no exception even in

earlier centuries and that what we fmd today need not be what a late antique

inhabitant of the city would have seerr' . This can be a stepping stone for

an assessment on the involvement of

mechanikoi

or architects from the

capital, regional and local professional and non-professional builders. At

the other end of the spectrum are buildings that are no longer in use but

were left to dilapidate and thereby became available for dismantling. I will

search for examples of organised dismantling of buildings, looking at the

amount of building blocks with the same origin reused together within one

building and, ideally, also at the presence of re-assembly marks.

Viewers and users Chapter 8

Eventually, all city dwellers had the ability to influence the appearance

of the city. They were confronted with a created environment and could

respond to this shared environment in diverse manners. Most of these

smaller-scale actions can be expected to have left no traces at all, while

others may have been recorded in literary sources, and still others may

also have left material traces in the archaeological record.

33

Smith 1994.

34

Sloppy building work could have been covered by plaster, mortar, etc. so that its

makeshift quality would have been disguised.



INTRODUCTION 15

Aesthetic maintenance and the t ransformation or decline of the

ancient city

~e attention given to aesthetic maintenance was thus not determined

solely by personal liberty or the availability of resources. Rather, it was

_ 1 utilised to promote political, social, religious or even commercial

~:mforms. The persistence of these concerns signifies not only that the city

~ ysically continued to exist, but also that within it a community of citi-

~ Sresided, citizens who were conscious of their own special identity in

respect to other civic communities and the population of the countryside.

The research on the disappearance of such concerns for the urban land-

-~, leaving only functional measures, can therefore contribute to the

::iscussion on the transformation or decline of the ancient city.

OL~CES

For an overview of the urban landscape, archaeological sources are by far

the most important. Literary and iconographic sources related to cities in

Asia Minor - with the exception of the capital- are indeed scanty. As

information on the exact appearance of urban components is required, and

preferably also their evolution through time, this research by necessity

focuses on monuments that have been excavated and for which a chrono-

logical and, if possible, a stratigraphical sequence could be reconstructed.

For the collection of material evidence, a double approach was chosen:

c c

it is important to obtain an image of the city as a whole, a few core

sites were selected based on the extent of excavation and the quality of

ublication and dating (Fig. 1). A short description and site plan of these

sites is provided in Appendix 1. As much as possible, their archaeological

remains have been integrated. Most of these case-studies obviously belong

0

Asia Minor. From north to south and from east to west, these are:

Aizanoi, Sardis, Ephesos, Aphrodisias, Hierapolis, Xanthos, Sagalassos,

Perge and Side. Information pertaining to three more cities from the Near

Eastern provinces has been integrated in the various topics, being Apa-

mea-on-the-Orontes, Gerasa and Skythopolis, whereas Resafa, Zenobia

and Abu Mina were selected as examples of new late antique and Early

Byzantine settlements with a prevalent military or ecclesiastical character.

\ 1 1 incorporated pre-existing cities were either large or medium-sized

[Owns.Although, ideally, they would have been compared to small towns

in all their aspects, information on these smaller settlements remains



16

LJACOBS

difficult to obtain. The status of these settlements and their position within

the wider Roman Empire are sure to have influenced the nature of initia-

tors, constructors and thus the final appearance of their monuments. For

this reason, information pertaining to Constantinople has been added to

the discussion . On one hand, the capital can be expected to have been

exemplary for developments in other cities of the Empire, on the other

hand, its exceptional status should also be obvious in the extent, nature,

number and decoration of its public monuments. Furthermore, due to their

diverse geographical locations, the sites figuring in the following chapters

have different histories. Asia Minor was on the whole a much more

peaceful region than the provinces more to the north or those along the

Persian border.

Although it strongly leans on the evidence from these diverse settle-

ments, this discussion of aesthetic maintenance is primarily conceived

thematically. Therefore, additional evidence pertaining to the diverse

themes from other well published and illustrated sites has been assembled

in order to improve our knowledge of the appearance of urban fabric .

Throughout the chapters, the town of Sagalassos will occupy a prom-

inent position, as my attachment to the Sagalassos Archaeological

Research Project involved my own field work and thus guaranteed

direct access to site notebooks and excavation reports, resulting in a

better knowledge of this site. Field trips to other cities were undertaken

with the intention of supplementing published material and especially

photographs. Since I try to reconstruct urban space as it was seen by

contemporary city dwellers, elevation drawings and photographs of

separate walls and monuments, but also of viewpoints along streets or

overviews of city quarters from major monuments, are indeed vital to

this research.

This archaeological evidence can be supplemented by literary or writ-

ten sources such as law edicts, travel descriptions, city descriptions,

hagiographic texts and so on. There were quite a few late antique law

edicts intended to regulate city life, ancient authors describing their home

35

Since, with exception of the Theodosian walls, so few monuments or urban

spaces of Constantinople were preserved, the capital has not been included in the core

sites.

36 This was especially the case with fortifications, as every city normally only pos-

sessed one such structure. It was deemed necessary to incorporate examples from the

Balkans to verify in how far the presence of a real threat would influence the final appear-

ance of a defence wall. The only other examples within Asia Minor and the Near East

where a threat was ascertained were Resafa and Zenobia.



INTRODUCTION

17

TI. and literary passages on specific building projects - in this period

. :..~nhurches. All of them provide information on architectural elements

- _-'lost, as well as valuable insights into construction motives and meth-

- s. Although law texts often pertain to the capital, it can be assumed

- they must also have been applicable to the situation in other cities.

ographic sources exist in many forms, for instance mosaics, reliefs

:arcophagi, depictions on silverware, ivory diptychs, or coins''?

There is often a discrepancy between the representations of cities and

chirecture in literary sources on the one hand and the archaeological

reality on the other. Iconographic sources likewise are seldom realistic

- _ictions but rather summaries of what a real city was supposed to look

.e.

These sources are thus opaque, but also extremely useful, because

y

reflect ideas as to what the city should be. Literary sources moreover

_ ain essential for the determination of the motives of the initiators. The

:e

ple responsible for maintaining, repairing or even re-erecting public

- _ildings and spaces can be found in contemporary decrees, while indi-

-~uals are known from epigraphic sources. Moreover, there already

sts an extended literature concerning political evolutions from the

man to Byzantine world . Epigraphic sources for late antique and

-::arly Byzantine Asia Minor are mainly limited to Aphrodisias, Ephesos,

- ide and Sardis . Chances that our knowledge on initiators and construe-

will be extended with the discovery of new inscriptions are almost

- n-existent. Therefore, it was decided to compare epigraphic, literary

nd material evidence in order to trace the identity of initiators and con-

szructors.

_ ote for the reader:

For general issues such as date and location of monuments, I refer to

_~ pendix 2, which contains an overview of relevant literature on monu-

zaents discussed. When remarks and exposes on the appearance of archi-

- ture or infrastructure are without reference, this indicates that they are

y personal opinion, the result of site observations and of my own

re earch.

:- Both literary and iconographic sources pertaining to the period under research have

een extensively reviewed in H. Saradi (2006) The Byzantine City in the Sixth Century.

Luerary Images and Historical Reality.

ss See Chapter 7.1.1.

: Lepelley 1997 and Roueche 1997 on late antique epigraphy and geographic varia-

- in the epigraphic record.

Aesthetic Maintenance of Civic Space. Th

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