Basilica: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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At [[Chalcedon]], opposite Constantinople on the Bosporus, the relics of [[Euphemia]] – a supposed Christian martyr of the Diocletianic Persecution – were housed in a ''martyrium'' accompanied by a basilica.<ref name=":27">{{Citation|last=Klein|first=Konstantin|title=Chalcedon|url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198662778.001.0001/acref-9780198662778-e-966|work=The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity|year=2018|editor-last=Nicholson|editor-first=Oliver|publisher=Oxford University Press|language=en|doi=10.1093/acref/9780198662778.001.0001|isbn=978-0-19-866277-8|access-date=2020-07-08}}</ref> The basilica already existed when [[Egeria (pilgrim)|Egeria]] passed through Chalcedon in 384, and in 436 [[Melania the Younger]] visited the church on her own journey to the Holy Land.<ref name=":27" /> From the description of [[Evagrius Scholasticus]] the church is identifiable as an aisled basilica attached to the ''martyrium'' and preceded by an ''atrium''.<ref>Evagrius Scholasticus, ''Ecclesiastical History'', II.3: "The precinct consists of three huge structures: one is open-air, adorned with a long court and columns on all sides, and another in turn after this is almost alike in breadth and length and columns but differing only in the roof above." {{Cite book|title=The Ecclesiastical History of Evagrius Scholasticus|publisher=Liverpool University Press|year=2000|isbn=978-0-85323-605-4|editor-last=Whitby|editor-first=Michael|series=Translated Texts for Historians 33|pages=63–64 & notes 24–27|language=en|doi=10.3828/978-0-85323-605-4}}</ref> The [[Council of Chalcedon]] (8–31 October 451) was held in the basilica, which must have been large enough to accommodate the more than two hundred bishops that attended its third session, together with their translators and servants; around 350 bishops attended the Council in all.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Ecclesiastical History of Evagrius Scholasticus|publisher=Liverpool University Press|year=2000|isbn=978-0-85323-605-4|editor-last=Whitby|editor-first=Michael|series=Translated Texts for Historians 33|pages=63–64 & notes 24–27|language=en|doi=10.3828/978-0-85323-605-4}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|last=Papadakis|first=Aristeides|title=Chalcedon, Council of|url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195046526.001.0001/acref-9780195046526-e-0963|work=The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium|year=2005|editor-last=Kazhdan|editor-first=Alexander P.|orig-year=1991|edition=online|publisher=Oxford University Press|language=en|doi=10.1093/acref/9780195046526.001.0001|isbn=978-0-19-504652-6|access-date=2020-07-09}}</ref> In an [[ekphrasis]] in his eleventh [[sermon]], [[Asterius of Amasea]] described an icon in the church depicting Euphemia's martyrdom.<ref name=":27" /> The church was restored under the patronage of the ''patricia'' and daughter of [[Olybrius]]'','' [[Anicia Juliana]].<ref>{{Citation|last=Haarer|first=Fiona|title=Anicia Juliana|url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198662778.001.0001/acref-9780198662778-e-271|work=The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity|year=2018|editor-last=Nicholson|editor-first=Oliver|publisher=Oxford University Press|language=en|doi=10.1093/acref/9780198662778.001.0001|isbn=978-0-19-866277-8|access-date=2020-07-09}}</ref> [[Pope Vigilius]] fled there from Constantinople during the [[Three-Chapter Controversy]].<ref>{{Citation|last=Neil|first=Bronwen|title=Vigilius|url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198662778.001.0001/acref-9780198662778-e-4991|work=The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity|year=2018|editor-last=Nicholson|editor-first=Oliver|publisher=Oxford University Press|language=en|doi=10.1093/acref/9780198662778.001.0001|isbn=978-0-19-866277-8|access-date=2020-07-09}}</ref> The basilica, which lay outside the walls of Chalcedon, was destroyed by the Persians in the [[Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628]] during one of the Sasanian occupations of the city in 615 and 626.<ref>{{Citation|last=Foss|first=Clive F. W.|title=Chalcedon|url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195046526.001.0001/acref-9780195046526-e-0962|work=The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium|year=2005|editor-last=Kazhdan|editor-first=Alexander P.|orig-year=1991|edition=online|publisher=Oxford University Press|language=en|doi=10.1093/acref/9780195046526.001.0001|isbn=978-0-19-504652-6|access-date=2020-07-09}}</ref> The relics of Euphemia were reportedly [[Translation (relic)|translated]] to a new [[Palace of Antiochos#Church of Saint Euphemia|Church of St Euphemia]] in Constantinople in 680, though [[Cyril Mango]] argued the translation never took place.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bardill|first=Jonathan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YS_AAzcjdK8C&pg=PA57|title=Brickstamps of Constantinople|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2004|isbn=978-0-19-925522-1|pages=56–57|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Mango|first=Cyril|year=1999|title=The Relics of St. Euphemia and the Synaxarion of Constantinople|journal=Bollettino della Badia Greca di Grottoferrata|volume=53|pages=79–87}}</ref> Subsequently, Asterius's sermon ''On the Martyrdom of St Euphemia'' was advanced as an argument for [[iconodulism]] at the [[Second Council of Nicaea]] in 787.<ref>{{Citation|last=McEachnie|first=Robert|title=Asterius of Amaseia|url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198662778.001.0001/acref-9780198662778-e-508|work=The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity|year=2018|editor-last=Nicholson|editor-first=Oliver|publisher=Oxford University Press|language=en|doi=10.1093/acref/9780198662778.001.0001|isbn=978-0-19-866277-8|access-date=2020-07-08}}</ref>

In the late 4th century, a large basilica church dedicated to [[Mary, mother of Jesus]] was constructed in [[Ephesus]] in the former south ''stoa'' (a commercial basilica) of the Temple of Hadrian ''Olympios''.<ref name=":162">{{Citation|last=Thonemann|first=Peter|title=Ephesus|date=22 March 2018 |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198662778.001.0001/acref-9780198662778-e-1664 |work=The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity|editor-last=Nicholson|editor-first=Oliver|publisher=Oxford University Press|language=en|doi=10.1093/acref/9780198662778.001.0001|isbn=978-0-19-866277-8}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Van Dam|first=Raymond|url=http://oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199271566.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199271566-e-017|title=The East (1): Greece and Asia Minor|work=The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Studies|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2008|pages=323–343 |editor-last=Ashbrook Harvey|editor-first=Susan|doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199271566.003.0017|isbn=978-0199271566 |editor-last2=Hunter|editor-first2=David G.}}</ref> Ephesus was the centre of the Roman province of [[Asia (Roman province)|Asia]], and was the site of the city's famed [[Temple of Artemis]], one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.<ref name=":152">{{Citation|last1=Calder|first1=William Moir|title=Ephesus|url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198706779.001.0001/acref-9780198706779-e-246|work=The Oxford Companion to Classical Civilization|year=2014|editor-last=Hornblower|editor-first=Simon|others=Eidinow, Esther (asst ed.)|edition=2nd|publisher=Oxford University Press|language=en|doi=10.1093/acref/9780198706779.001.0001|isbn=978-0-19-870677-9|last2=Cook|first2=John Manuel |last3=Roueché |first3=Charlotte|last4=Spawforth|first4=Antony|editor2-last=Spawforth|editor2-first=Antony}}</ref> It had also been a centre of the [[ImperialRoman imperial cult of ancient Rome]] in Asia; Ephesus was three times declared {{transl|grc|[[Neocorateneokoros]]}} ({{Langlit.|temple-grc|νεωκόρος|translit=neōkoros|lit=warden of a temple|links=no}}) and had constructed a [[Temple of the Sebastoi]] to the [[Flavian dynasty]].<ref name=":152" /> The Basilica of the Virgin Mary was probably the venue for the 431 [[Council of Ephesus]] and the 449 [[Second Council of Ephesus]], both convened by [[Theodosius II]].<ref name=":162" /> At some point during the Christianisation of the Roman world, Christian crosses were cut into the faces of the colossal statues of [[Augustus]] and [[Livia]] that stood in the basilica-''stoa'' of Ephesus; the crosses were perhaps intended to [[exorcise]] [[demons]] in a process akin to baptism.<ref name=":242"/> In the eastern cemetery of [[Hierapolis]] the 5th century domed octagonal ''martyrium'' of [[Philip the Apostle]] was built alongside a basilica church, while at [[Myra]] the [[St. Nicholas Church, Demre|Basilica of St Nicholas]] was constructed at the tomb of [[Saint Nicholas]].<ref name=":26"/>

At [[Constantinople]] the earliest basilica churches, like the 5th century basilica at the [[Monastery of Stoudios]], were mostly equipped with a small cruciform crypt ({{Lang-grc|κρυπτή|translit=kryptḗ|lit=hidden}}), a space under the church floor beneath the altar.<ref name=":32">{{Citation|last=Johnson|first=Mark J.|title=Crypt|url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195046526.001.0001/acref-9780195046526-e-1298|work=The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium|year=2005|editor-last=Kazhdan|editor-first=Alexander P.|orig-year=1991|publisher=Oxford University Press|language=en|doi=10.1093/acref/9780195046526.001.0001|isbn=978-0-19-504652-6}}</ref> Typically, these crypts were accessed from the apse's interior, though not always, as at the 6th century Church of St John at the [[Hebdomon]], where access was from outside the apse.<ref name=":32" /> At Thessaloniki, the [[Roman bath]] where tradition held [[Demetrius of Thessaloniki]] had been martyred was subsumed beneath the 5th century basilica of [[Hagios Demetrios]], forming a crypt.<ref name=":32" />