FAH215H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Cathedra, Caelus, Spolia
Document Summary
Catacombs are around the city because people weren"t allowed to be buried in the city. Christian structures were all on the outskirts of the city. Constantine, when it came time to build a new church, did not put it in the middle of the forum, but topographical evidence showed that constantine provided his own land for these churches. Thing to keep in mind is that this is a large-scale structure for christian worship, which can hold hundreds of people. Represents a fundamental shift of the status and the public face of christianity. Rather than having a meeting placed for 50 people for christian activities, constantine himself gets behind the religion and causes a great wave of conversion of many people to follow in his path. We get a result of hundreds of people public professing their faith. He built the first one for the bishop of rome (aka pope)
