The Duomo of Naples or cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta is a complex building, or perhaps rather a building complex. This complex consists of the early Christian church and former cathedral of Santa Restituta, the adjacent baptistery of San Giovanni in Fonte, the medieval cathedral itself and lastly the seventeenth-century…
I am really fond of the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. The wall mosaics in the basilica with stories from the Old Testament are of unparalleled beauty. They date from the fifth century and once there were 42 of them. Unfortunately renovations and neglect have caused the loss…
In July of the year 335 Constantine celebrated his Tricennalia, i.e. his thirtieth year on the throne. The festivities in honour of this anniversary were obviously held in his new capital, Constantinople. Constantine was the Roman emperor with the longest reign since the great Augustus. It was not until the…
In 327 Constantine was about 55 years old. By the standards of the day the emperor was an old man. But he had many reasons to be quite content. The Roman Empire had been united again under his rule and the introduction a couple of years back of a new…
The year 326 was meant to be a year of feast and celebration for the emperor Constantine. His last remaining rival Licinius was dead, the Roman Empire was united again under a single emperor and for the moment the unity within the Christian church had been restored thanks to the…
In the spring of 324 Constantine and Licinius were both ready for war. According to Zosimus, Constantine had gathered an army of almost 120,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry, while Licinius commanded almost 150,000 infantry and 15,000 cavalry.[1] These numbers may remind us of the battle of Lugdunum, fought in the…
During the Roman Republic the Senate had been, from time to time, the most powerful body of the state. During the Principate its power had been greatly reduced, while during the Dominate and the reign of the emperor Diocletianus the Senate had become a marginal factor at best. Constantine more…
In February of the year 313 Constantine and Licinius met in Mediolanum (Milan) in Northern Italy. There the two men formalised the alliance that had already been in effect since 311. Licinius married Constantia, Constantine’s Christian half-sister. The emperors furthermore agreed that Constantine would rule over the western half of…
On paper Galerius was the senior augustus within the Tetrarchy. We do not know his exact age, but at the beginning of 311 he was well into his fifties. The old emperor had become a shadow of a man, perhaps as a result of colon cancer. That is at least…
On paper, the Tetrarchy had been an excellent idea: two senior emperors (augusti) and two junior emperors (caesares) would rule over the vast Roman Empire in perfect harmony. When Diocletianus, who had designed the system, and his co-emperor Maximianus abdicated in 305, the system of succession seemed to be working…
After the celebration of his Vicennalia, Diocletianus had left for Ravenna. The emperor was now in his sixties and his health was not good. At the start of the year 304 he nevertheless became consul for the ninth time, together with Maximianus, who was now consul for the eighth time.…
Diocletianus styled himself dominus et deus, but towards the end of his reign as emperor it was crystal clear that he was not omnipotent. There was one enemy that proved to be invincible: inflation. Although the emperor tried to blame greedy and depraved individuals, the inflation had in fact been…
In the third century the vast Roman Empire had at least 50 million inhabitants. Since Caracalla’s Constitutio Antoniniana of 212 almost all of these possessed Roman citizenship, provided that they were freeborn. The large majority of the people lived in the country or in one of the many hundreds of…
In the year 284 the Roman Empire had two augusti, who were not on speaking terms. Of the two, Carinus was the legitimate emperor. Immediately after the death of his father Carus in the summer of 283 he had travelled to Rome to claim the purple. For about a year…
Those who enter the village of Grand in the Vosges completely unprepared, will perhaps wonder how on earth it ever got its name. With a population of less than 400 souls, Grand is anything but grand. But the name Grand has nothing to do with the French adjective for ‘large’.…
There is a lot to see in the Duomo complex of Verona. Apart from the cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, the complex comprises the baptistery of San Giovanni in Fonte, the church of Sant’Elena and the cloister of the canons (Chiostro dei Canonici). The Duomo has the most intelligent staff…
The splendid church of San Fermo Maggiore is also known as the church of Santi Fermo e Rustico. Fermus (or Firmus) and Rusticus were according to tradition Christians from Bergamo who were martyred in Verona in the year 304. The execution supposedly took place on the shores of the river…
The historical centre of Verona, much beloved by tourists, is situated in a bend of the river Adige. But this is not where the city of Verona came into existence. That happened on the other side of the river, on the hill that is called the Colle San Pietro. From…
People standing in front of the church of Sant’Anastasia will probably not realise that this is one of the oldest churches in the city. The history of the church possibly goes back to the first quarter of the fourth century, when Christianity had just become an allowed religion (religio licita)…
The basilica of Santa Maria della Steccata can be counted among the most important churches in Parma. Since 1718 it has been the seat of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George, a Catholic order with a rather shady history. The church also serves as the mausoleum of members…