"Circus Basilicas", "coemeteria subteglata" and church buildings in the suburbium of Rome

Abstract

Symbolic interpretations of ancient architectural forms have often been based solely on the study of their ground plans. Even today, archaeological research too seldom takes into account the fact that it is not possible to understand ancient architecture by studying ground plans alone, but that it is even more important to interpret and try to complete the surviving remains of the building in elevation, even though these are often poorly preserved. The ancient observer himself did not primarily take notice of the ground plan. The fact that this focus on ground plans can sometimes lead to serious misunderstandings and erroneous conclusions may be demonstrated by the example of the so-called Circus Basilicas in the suburbium of late antique Rome. It will be here shown, that these hall buildings can neither architecturally nor ideologically be connected with the circus. With the first comparative analysis of important (but often misunderstood) literary and epigraphic sources, the function of these halls will also be examined: it is not primarily a matter of roofed cemeteries (coemeteria subteglata), but of church-buildings, within which funerals may have taken place – as was possible also in other extra urban basilicas, for example, St. Peter’s.