Letter of 386, from the emperors Valentinian II, Theodosius, and Arcadius to the Prefect of Rome (Collectio Avellana 3), concerning the building of the basilica of *Paul (the Apostle, S00008) outside Rome (San Paolo fuori le mura). Written in Latin.
E06134
Documentary texts - Letter
Collectio Avellana 3 (Valentinian, Theodosius and Arcadius, to Salustius, Prefect of the City of Rome)
DE CONSTRUCTIONE BASILICAE SANCTI APOSTOLI PAULI
UALENTINIANUS THEODOSIUS ET ARCADIUS AUGUSTI SALUSTIO PRAEFECTO URBIS
(1.) Desiderantibus nobis contemplatione uenerationis antiquitus iam sacratae basilicam Pauli apostoli pro sanctimonia religionis ornare, pro quantitate conuentus amplificare, pro studio deuotionis attollere gratum fuit tuae sublimitatis officium, quod ad inspicienda uniuersa, ut res exigebat, detulisti et omnem situm locorumque faciem sermonis congrui diligentia nostrae serenitatis auribus intimasti. Instructiores enim nos iubere decuit, quae iubenda sunt. (2.) Quare participato examine cum uenerabili sacerdote intimatisque omnibus et magnificentissimo ordini et Christiano populo, quae iubemus, sublimitas tua rem diligentiore tractatu et plena rerum inspectione discutiat. Ac si placuerit tam populo quam senatui iter uetus, quod basilicae praeterit dorsum quodque ripae Tiberini amnis adiacet, innouari, ita ut praesens uia spatiis futuri operis applicetur, eatenus per architectos futurae basilicae diriget formam, quatenus se planities extructioni amica praetulerit, ne ulla inaequalitas splendorem fabricae amplificentioris oblimet; siquidem in omni moenium facie decor summus est, quem seruari oportere prima statim fronte magnarum aedificationum demonstrat intentio. (3.) Iam illud ipsa res exigit, ut et synopsis operis construendi fideli tendatur examine sumptuumque omnium iuxta pretia rerum, quae in sacratissima urbe, praetaxatio plenius ordinetur atque ad nostram clementiam debita maturitate referatur; ut communi omnium consilio nostrae quoque serenitatis nutus accedat, quo facilius id, quod deuota mens statuit, pro tantae religionis meritis explicetur.
ET ALIA MANU PRINCIPIS : Diuinitas te seruet per multos annos, parens karissime atque amantissime.
'ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE BASILICA OF THE HOLY APOSTLE PAUL
EMPERORS VALENTINIAN, THEODOSIUS AND ARCADIUS TO SALUSTIUS PREFECT OF THE CITY
(1.) Wishing as we do, in view of its long-sanctified veneration, to adorn the basilica of Paul the Apostle for the sake of religious piety, to extend it for the sake of the size of the congregation, to raise it up for the sake of the ardour of devotion, Your Sublimity’s service has been welcome, because in order to review everything as the matter demands, you have reported, and with the diligence of fitting speech you have described to the ears of Our Serenity the whole site and the appearance of the places. It was fitting for us to be better informed so as to command the things that need to be commanded. (2.) Therefore, when the examination has been shared with the venerable bishop, and everything that we command communicated both to the most magnificent order [the Senate] and to the Christian people, let Your Sublimity scrutinise the matter by more diligent consideration and full inspection of matters. And if it pleases both the People and the Senate to renew the old road, which passes the rear of the basilica, and which is adjacent to the bank of the Tiber, so that the present road may be joined to the space for future work, so [Your Sublimity] may direct the plan of the future basilica, through the architects, in such a way that an open space favourable to construction offers itself, in case any unevenness may obscure the splendour of the enlarged building; in as much as in every face of the walls there is the greatest beauty, which our purpose indicates should be observed immediately in the chief facade of great buildings. (3.) Now the matter itself demands this: that an overview of the work to be constructed should also be drawn up through a faithful assessment, and [one] of all expenditures, according to the prices which, in the most sacred city, a preliminary assessment may set out more fully, and should be referred to Our Clemency with due promptness, so that the nod of Our Serenity too may accede to the common decision of all, whereby that which a devout intention has decreed may more easily be carried out for the sake of the merits of such a great religion.
AND IN THE HAND OF THE EMPEROR: May the Divinity preserve you for many years, dearest and most beloved relative.'
Text: Günther 1895.
Translation: David Lambert, taking account of Coleman-Norton 1966.
Cult building - independent (church)
Non Liturgical ActivityConstruction of cult buildings
Renovation and embellishment of cult buildings
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesMonarchs and their family
Officials
Source
The Collectio Avellana is a collection of 244 letters and other documents dating from 367 to 553, mostly correspondence between the papacy and the imperial authorities in Italy or in Constantinople. The date of its compilation is uncertain, but has most frequently been placed soon after 553.This letter is written in the name of the emperors Valentinian II, Theodosius I, and Arcadius to the Prefect of the City of Rome, Sallustius (PLRE I, 'Sallustius 4'). The letter is a rescript, an official reply by the emperor(s) conveying a decision, and can be dated to the year 386 (for further discussion of the date, see below).
Discussion
A basilica on the site of St Paul's tomb on the via Ostiensis had been built in the Constantinian or immediately post-Constantinian period (Camerlenghi 2018, 32-38), but in spite of its relative newness, this was replaced in the 380s-390s by a completely new and much larger five-aisled basilica, which stood until it was badly damaged by fire, and then largely demolished, in 1823 (the current church of San Paolo fuori le mura is the one reconstructed, to the same plan and design, after the fire). This letter documents the building of the new church at an early stage, indeed, when it was evidently still being planned. Its main historical significance is to show that the initiative for rebuilding the church came from the emperors: the bishop of Rome is to be asked for his approval (§ 2), but nothing in the letter suggests that he originated the project.As preserved in the Collectio Avellana, the letter does not contain a date, but it can be assigned to the first half of 386 from the attested tenure of Sallustius as Prefect of the City (Liverani 2008, 108). This has often been rejected (see e.g. Chastagnol 1966), on the basis that several of the letters of Symmachus, including some from his own tenure as Prefect of the City in 384, refer to a basilica on the via Ostiensis which was in the process of construction. This appears to conflict with a date of 386 for the imperial letter, which was evidently written before construction had started. Those who take this view therefore argue that the addressee of the letter must be misidentified, and that it dates from 383 or 384 (it cannot be earlier than August 383, when Arcadius became an Augustus). However, Paolo Liverani has argued (Liverani 2003, 73-8) that the basilica mentioned by Symmachus, which is never explicitly identified as a church, is a different building, a secular basilica attested epigraphically as the basilica Piniani. This has generally been accepted in subsequent scholarship (see e.g. Camerlenghi 2018, 295, n. 2; Brandenburg 2006, 170, leaves the question open).
There is also an inscription in the basilica, dated to 390, apparently commemorating its consecration (ICUR II, 4778, $E###), which appears to leave little time for its construction if it was only being planned in 386. However Hugo Brandenburg and Paolo Liverani have argued that this could have been a partial consecration, when work on the apse and the transept was complete but other parts of the church were still being built (Brandenburg 2002; Liverani 2008, 109). An alternative explanation (Camerlenghi 2018, 45) is that the inscription does not commemorate the consecration of the church, but of the commencement of building work on the nave. Another inscription (ICUR II, 4780, $E###) states that the basilica was completed during the reign of Honorius after the death of Theodosius, and thus no earlier than 395. On the early inscriptional evidence in general, see Camerlenghi 2018, 44-5.
Though the letter documents an early stage in the rebuilding of the basilica, it was by no means the first step: Sallustius had already provided a detailed report on the site (§ 1), which would only have been commissioned if the replacement of the existing basilica was at least being considered. The rescript then requires him to undertake three actions: first (§ 2), to liaise with the pope, the Senate and the wider Christian community (Christiano populo); then (§ 2) to seek the approval of the Senate and people to make alterations to two roads in order to facilitate the expansion of the basilica site; third (§ 3), to draw up a schedule for construction and a budget.
The alteration of the roads relates to the topography of the basilica and the nature of its rebuilding. The shrine of Paul was located on the western side of the via Ostiensis, the main road south from Rome, between the road and the river Tiber. The Constantinian basilica fronted onto the via Ostiensis, with its rear towards the river. Since it was hardly possible to change the course of a road as important as the via Ostiensis, this meant that the basilica complex could only be expanded westwards. This impinged on two roads between the existing basilica and the river: the ‘present road’ (praesens uia), evidently the more used of the two, which was closer to the basilica and was appropriated for the expansion of the site, and the ‘old road’ (iter uetus), further to the west and closer to the river, which had to be upgraded (innouari) in order to replace it (Brandenburg 2006, 170; Camerlenghi 2018, 47-8). The ‘present road’ presumably followed a route similar to the present-day Viale di San Paolo, but closer to the via Ostiensis. Apart from significantly increasing the size of the basilica, one of the changes made in the new building was to reverse its orientation, so that the front of the church faced westwards towards the river, while the apse faced the via Ostiensis (as remains the case with the current church).
Bibliography
Edition:Günther, O., Collectio Avellana. 2 vols. (Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 35/1-2; Vienna, 1895-1898)
English translation:
Coleman-Norton, P.R., Roman State and Christian Church: A Collection of Legal Documents to a.d. 535, vol. 2 (London: SPCK, 1966), 412-413.
Further reading:
Brandenburg, H., "Beobachtungen zur architektonischen Ausstattung der Basilica von S. Paolo fuori le Mura in Rom," in: W. Blümer, R. Henke, and M. Mülke (eds.), Alvarium: Festschrift fiir Christian Gnilka (Münster: Aschendorff, 2002), 83-107.
Brandenburg, H. "S. Pauli basilica, coemeterium, balneum, porticus," in: A. La Regina (ed.), Lexicon topographicum urbis Romae – Suburbium, vol. 4 (Rome: Quasar, 2006), 169-179.
Camerlenghi, N., St. Paul's Outside the Walls: A Roman Basilica, from Antiquity to the Modern Era (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018).
Chastagnol, A., “Sur quelques documents rélatifs à la basilique Saint-Paul-hors-les-Murs,” in: R. Chevalier (ed.), Mélanges d’archéologie et d’histoire offerts à André Piganiol (Paris, 1966), 421-437.
Liverani, P., "Basilica di S. Paolo, basilica nova, basilica Piniani," Boreas: Münstersche Beiträge zur Archäologie 26 (2003), 73-81.
Liverani, P., "La cronologia della seconda basilica di S. Paolo fuori le mura," in: H. Brandenburg and F. Guidobaldi (eds.), Scavi e scoperte recenti nelle chiese di Roma. Atti della giornata tematica dei Seminari di Archeologia Cristiana (Roma – 13 marzo 2008) (Vatican City, 2012), 107-123.
Images
)
The present-day church of San Paolo, with the Tiber behind.
)
View of the interior of the basilica before the fire of 1823, by Giovanni Paolo Panini (1750).
)
View of the basilica after the fire (Luigi Rossini, 1823)
)
The rebuilt (present-day) basilica
David Lambert
02/12/2021
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00008 | Paul, the Apostle | Paulus | Certain |
|---|
Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
David Lambert, Cult of Saints, E06134 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E06134