Class Notes for Sbragia’s lecture Thursday Week 5
 Religion in Roman Empire, St. Augustine, early Christian art.

I. RELIGIONS and PHILOSOPHIES of Roman Empire

Roman Empire was polytheistic, fairly tolerant and inclusive of other gods and religions

Religious syncretism: blending of different religious traditions

State Religion:  worship of traditional Roman state gods and patriotic imperial cult
--test was sacrifice to cult
--a religion based on proper ritual to ensure pax deorum; not overly concerned with individual
             morals and ethics (however, Roman culture and philosophy are strongly moralistic)

Greek Philosophies inherited by Romans for ethical issues.  i.e., the best way to live one’s life
1)                 Stoicism: --self-control, freedom from passions and sense of duty and public life.
                           --Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (170s CE)

2)         Epicureanism: --atomistic explanation of reality, no afterlife, hedonism (withdrawal from public life)
            --Lucretius, De rerum natura (c. 60 BCE)

3)         Neoplatonism: ideal forms vs. reality, the return to the universal good --Plotinus

Stoicism:  Marcus Aurelius Meditations (170s CE):   selected excerpts

Take away your opinion of something and you will take away your complaint.  Take away the complaint, “I have
been harmed,” and the harm is taken away.

In the morning when you rise unwillingly, let this thought be present— "I am rising to the work of a human being."
Say to yourself in the early morning: "I shall meet today ungrateful, violent, treacherous, envious, uncharitable men.
All of these things have come upon them through ignorance of real good and ill... I can neither be harmed by any of
them, for no man will involve me in wrong, nor can I be angry with my kinsman or hate him; for we have come into the
world to work together..."

Keep yourself then simple, good, pure, serious, free from affectation, a friend of justice, a worshipper of the gods,
kind, affectionate, strenuous in all proper acts.  Strive to continue to be such as philosophy wished to make you. 
Reverence the gods, and help men.  Life is short.

Eastern Mystery Cults and Religions

--Greek Mystery Cults: typically involve secret and orgiastic initiation rituals; fertility rebirth
--Dionysus-Bacchus
--Egyptian cult of Isis:  Fertility cult associated with Nile River, Mother Goddess
--Persian cult of Mithras: male cult of soldiers and contracts, bull sacrifice, associated with sun god cult
--Judaism: ethical, monotheistic, apocalyptic (coming of a Messiah); spreads after Diaspora of Jews
--Christianity: an offshoot of Judaism which becomes progressively more distinct; ethical, monotheistic,
             apocalyptic [= expecting the end of the world]; fairly intolerant of other religions or of any deviances
              from Christian orthodoxy [called heresy]

ARCH OF CONSTANTINE: dedicated to Constantine by the Roman Senate
no Christian symbolism on the Arch, only images of the Sun God (Sol Invictus)
Images of "good Emperor" are medallions (sculptural insets) lifted from several
monuments of Trajan and Hadrian 2cd century. Far less sophisticated images
of Emperor and his court are from the time of the Arch itself. Arch is believed by
recent art historians to have opened onto the colossal statue of Sun God in
front of the Colosseum. See Art History Readings

CHRISTIAN attitudes toward ROME
1)            Apocalyptic: Opposition to Rome as Whore of Babylon;
              Rome as perversion of Kingdom of Christ
           --Donatists: against readmission of recanters
                        (Christians who renounced Christ to avoid execution)

2)          Teleological: [= goal oriented; telos = purpose or goal]
                       pax romana [the Roman peace] prepares way for God’s Christian Empire on Earth
                       --Eusebius: History of Christian Church with Eulogy of Constantine

--384: Debate between pagan Symmachus and St. Ambrose
            on removal of pagan Statue of Victory from the Senate House
--392: Emperor Theodosius outlaws paganism; Christianity as the exclusive religion of Empire
--410: Sack of Rome by Alaric the Visigoth  (Germanic tribe)

St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430), Confessions (his autobiographical work)
--City of God (De civitate dei contra paganos = On the City of God against the pagans) (413-426)
            presented as an Apologia (apology or defense)
                                                defense of Christianity against accusations by pagans that due to rejection of pagan gods
                           Christians had failed to protect Rome against sack by Alaric in 410
                                                    (reading for Friday sections)
--Problem of spiritual Church in secular world:  City of God vs. Earthly City, or city of man
                           the Christian as pilgrim in the earthly city                            
--Reinterpretation of Roman Values in accordance with a new and different founding story
                        --Roman Superbia (pride) versus Christian Humility dependent on Divine Grace
                        --Reinterpretation of Roman moral exempla: Lucretia’s suicide

II. Early Christian Art

Catcombs: (Gr. cata=near, cumba=hole) from 2^nd -4^th C AD; burial site for the Christian dead. 
underground networks of multi level galleries and tomb cut into tufa stone; not secret meeting
places for Christians; occasional funeral meals on the anniversary of the deceased..  
          LOCULI (openings cut in the tufa to receive the bodies of the dead, are placed one above one another
CUBICULA (small rooms) carved into the rock to serve as mortuary chapels.  We find much
GRAFFITI in the catacombs with images of the new religion such as the Fish: Early Christians identified Christ with the
Greek word for fish, ICHTHUS (Iesus Christos Theou Huios Soter (Jesus Christ of God the Son Savior). 
The Anchor symbolized hope and often had cross on top. 

Constantine began the process of covering the cemeteries and their martyrs with churches, as in the case of St. Peter’s;
catacombs fall into disuse after Christianity receives official approval.

Christ as Good Shepherd youthful protector of Christians with a lamb on his shoulders. 
“I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.”  Dominant image before Constantine:
Shepherd or as a young teacher.  After Constantine: imperial attributes as halo, purple robe, and throne, later beard
Story of Jonah swallowed and then spit out by a whale or sea monster: seen as a prefiguration of Christ, who rose from dead

SCULPTURE:
           All Christians rejected cremation, and wealthier Christians, like their pagan contemporaries, had their bodily remains
deposited in impressive marble sarcophagi (stone coffins). 
He died in 359 AD when official public Christian imagery (biblical scenes) was still being established.  Roman toga.
Enthroned Christ (as a youthful teacher flanked by Peter and Paul), facing outward in a frontal pose & surrounded by others like Constantine. 
Classicizing detail: allegorical representation of the heavens under his rule (as on breastplate of the Prima Porta Augustus). 

MOSAICS:  .  Brilliant ornamental mosaics, with sparkling tesserae (small pieces used to make a mosaic) of reflective glass;
in new basilicas, it is preferred artist medium of the new religion. 

BASILICAS: Roman building type used for public meetings, converted by Christians into places of worship for congregation

Santa Pudenziana (a converted bath hall in 390 with decorations immediately following). 
                                 Earliest surviving apse mosaic in Rome, although heavily restored in 19^th century.  Images from 410-417.  
Classicizing: Outlawing of paganismend of the 4^th C : Church can now fully embrace the classical tradition.
Christ enthroned in shimmering imperial purple and gold, now bearded and haloed
Romanized apostles dressed in togas, stand for the
Church of the Jews and that of the Heathen (or gentiles),
two female figures with laurel crowns behind St. Peter (right) and the second behind St. Paul, apostle to theGentiles, or doctor gentium.  Architectural backdrop with buildings in classical style, a cross with gems and symbols of evangelists
(cosmic/human dimension: Angel of Matthew, Lion of Mark, Ox of Luke, Eagle of John).  The depiction of Christ and the apostles
and the Romanized view of Jerusalem behind them evokes the art of Rome at its most classical, monumental, and conservative. 
Peter and Paul, replace Romulus and Remus as the new founders of Christian Rome, with martyrs replacing the Roman heroes in a
Christiam renovatio urbis, or rebirth of the city.    

Santa Maria Maggiore:  (430s) on the Esquiline; first Basilica built oby Pope’s rather than that of the imperial authorities
Classicizing:: harmonious, well-proportioned, entablature resting on Ionic capitals, in a fully classical style.  Directly in front of apse is the triumphal arch with Latin inscription (Sixtus episcopus plebi Dei: “Sixtus the bishop to the people of God: Sixtus the 3rd). 
Nave and arch and apse covered with mosaics as a teaching device in classicizing a figurative language.  Nave celebrates Old Testament and Triumphal Arch the annunciation to Mary, birth and childhood of Christ. Adoration of the Magi:  Manger scene— later Christian scene of humility but here  Christ is depicted not in his mother’s arms but seated on a throne in the manner of an emperor, not a humble Mary but Mary as an empress. lassical gravity and imperial splendor.  Above, the Annunciation: Angel Gabriel with Holy Spirit, come to tell Mary that she will give birth to Christ.