Late Antique Basilicas on Cyprus sources, contexts, histories 1: Text Richard Maguire 2012 Thesis submitted to the University of East Anglia for the degree of PhD 2012 Late Antique Basilicas on Cyprus sources, contexts, histories Richard Maguire Text and Bibliography : 101259 words This copy of the thesis has been supplied on the condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with the author and that use of any information derived therefrom must be in accordance with current UK Copyright Law. In addition, any quotation or extract must include full attribution. For my Dad 6.12.13-1.1.93 Abstract It is commonly accepted that Late Antiquity Cyprus emerged from relative isolation to greater engagement with Constantinople. This thesis reverses the paradigm and offers a contextual account of the island’s basilicas in support of the proposition. Located between New Rome and New Jerusalem, fourth-century Cyprus occupied a nodal position in the Eastern Mediterranean. Under Epiphanius, bishop of Salamis (r.367-403) it was at the forefront of Nicene-Constantinopolitan faith-forging. In the late fourth and fifth centuries it was also the site of an ambitious building programme which instantiated its affiliations and produced buildings which, in scale and treatment, represented an engagement with Christendom’s major monuments. This, arguably, was the period of greatest affiliation between Cyprus and Constantinople, not as centre and satellite, but in a shared recognition that Jerusalem was their new Christian capital. By the late-fifth century post-Cyrilline Jerusalem had lost some of its hold on the Cypriot imagination and other issues - autocephaly, liturgical changes and the rise to prominence of its bishops - coalesced in a greater engagement with the wider Eastern Mediterranean. At about the same time healing the Orthodox-Monophysite schism became an imperial obsession. Monophysites were sponsored by the Sassanids intent on dividing the Empire before invading it. Reacting to threats from north as well as the east, Justinian reorganised the Empire relegating Cyprus to the eastern outpost of five provinces and transferring its administration from Constantinople to the Black Sea. The schism unresolved, in the seventh century Heraclius developed doctrinal ‘innovations’ designed to heal the breach with the Monophysites, insisting that Cyprus serve as his laboratory. For Orthodox believers doctrinal innovation was anathema to the extent that, on the eve of the Arab invasion, Cyprus found Old rather than New Rome a more congenial ally, a reorientation that the archaeology too, might support. i Acknowledgements In 1985 W.H.C.Frend wrote ‘Working in the field is an essential counterpart to working in a library.’ I would, therefore, like to thank Eleni Procopiou, Senior Archaeological Officer of the Department of Antiquities of Cyprus, for allowing me to participate in the dig at Katalymmata ton Plakaton during the 2008 and 2009 seasons. For library facilities on Cyprus, my thanks to Maria Economidou (Cyprus Museum Library) and Tom Davis, Andrew McCarthy, Evi Karyda and Vathoulla Moustoukki (Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute). Many individuals have given generously of their time and expertise including Michael Angold, Steve Appleton, Fabio Barry, Sebastian Brock, Lefteris Charalambous, Ginette Colombo-Agosti, Mike Cosby, Paul Croft, Gérard Dedeyan, Andreas Foulias, Michael Given, Elizabeth Halls, Judith Herrin, Erol Kahraman, Hasan Karlitaş, Chrysovalantis Kyriacou, Liz Lake, Guido Lammers, Andrew Louth, John Mack, Cyril Mango, Judith McKenzie, Neil McLynn, Demetrios Michaelides, Kleanthis Moustakis, Asher Ovadiah, Tassos Papacostas, Anne Phipps, Claudia Rapp, Christina Riggs, Richard Rutherford, Veronika Scheibelreiter, Marina Solomidou-Ieronymidou, Alison South, Bryan Ward-Perkins and Nick Warr. Bill Caraher (University of North Dakota) has been a model of generosity in disseminating material. I am particularly grateful to Jane Chick for being a patient listener and a stimulating companion in search of Late Antique Albania, Cyprus, Italy, Jordan, Libya, Macedonia, Tunisia and Turkey. With similar forbearance Clara Crockatt has encouraged, questioned, precision proof read and sustained me throughout. I owe particular thanks to Mark Edwards who so expertly filled the gap between what I intended and what my skills permitted. Finally, my thanks go to the AHRC for funding my research and to my supervisors, Jo Clarke, who introduced me to Cyprus and John Mitchell to whose erudition and emphasis on wider contexts this thesis is particularly indebted. Finally, my thanks to two unseens: firstly to A.H.S.Megaw with whom it would not have been possible to take issue had not his legacy been so rich, and secondly, since errors are entirely my own, my thanks go to those kind enough to bring these to my attention. Richard Maguire ii Contents i Introduction 1 1 Cyprus a fluid zone of transition 27 2 Basilicas Agios Epiphanius and Sion 63 3 Baptisteries Agios Epiphanius, Ayios Philon, Ayia Trias and Kourion 97 4 Apses Lythrankomi, Kiti and Livadia 140 5 Transepts Katalymmata ton Plakoton 176 6 Conclusion 211 Bibliography 235 Abstract i Acknowledgements ii i Introduction i.1 Thesis: argument 1 i.1.1 Prevailing views 1 i.1.2 Proposition 2 i.1.3 Survey and synthesis 2 i.1.4 Evidential base 3 i.1.5 Appropriating archaeology 4 i.1.6 Privatisation and non-publication 4 i.1.7 Field survey and ‘big digs’ 5 i.1.8 Typological surveys 6 i.1.9 ‘Place in whatever guise is…a social construct’ 7 i.2. Thesis: context 8 i.2.1 The monocentric, monocausal and logocentric 8 i.2.2 Bury’s Later Roman Empire and ‘Brown’s big bang’ 10 i.2.3 Micro-history and multidisciplinarity 12 i.2.4 Unequal couples and equivalent partners 13 i.3 Thesis: parameters 15 i.3.1 Basilicas: privileged status or artefactual outcome 15 iii Contents i.3.2 Place 16 i.3.3 Period 17 i.3.4 Terminology 17 i.4 Thesis: material 20 i.4.1 Earlier material 20 i.4.1 Hagiography 20 i.4.2 History 22 i.4.3 Buildings 23 i.4.4 Councils 23 i.4.5 Later material 23 i.4.6 Coda: chapter layout 25 Notes 26 1 Cyprus: a fluid zone of transition 1.i Argument 27 1.1.1 Island approaches 29 1.1.2 Island laboratories 30 1.1.3 The Island of the Day Before 30 1.1.3 Islands of disparagement 31 1.1.4 The rehabilitation of the sea 32 1.2 Later Roman Geographies 34 1.2.1 Islands and continents 34 1.2.2 Okeanos and river 35 1.2.3 The discourse of displacement 37 1.2.4 Micro-regionalising the Mediterranean 39 1.3 ‘Cyprus and the Sea’ 40 1.3.1 Cyprus in the Stadiasmus Periplus Maris Magni 40 1.3.2 Adjacent distance 1 41 1.3.3 Adjacent distance 2 42 1.3.4 Cyprus and Constantinople 1: decentred cities 45 1.3.5 Cyprus and Constantinople 2: nodal islands 46 1.4 Towards a Christian thalassocracy 47 1.4.1 The adjudicating sea 47 1.4.2 Four Cypriot Saints 49 iv Contents 1.4.2.i Spyridion 49 1.4.2.ii Hilarion and Epiphanius 50 1.4.2.iii Mamas 51 1.4.3 The congregational shore 51 1.4.4 Cyprus at the centre I: a pilgrimage isle-carrefour 53 1.4.5 Cyprus at the centre II: the centrifugal and omphalic 53 1.4.6 ‘…the sea, believe me, is safer than the land’ 55 1.4.7 Trade and the transmission of ideas 57 1.5 Coda: was Akrotiri an island? 58 2 Basilicas: Agios Epiphanius and Sion 2.i Argument 63 2.1 Egypt, Palestine and the first Ecumenical Council 64 2.1.1 Epiphanius: biography 64 2.1.2 Agios Epiphanius at Salamis 65 2.1.3 Basilical origins 66 2.1.4 Epiphanius in Egypt 70 2.1.5 Fourth-century Egypt: five-aisled basilicas and four-sided ambulatories 71 2.1.5.i Antinoopolis and Pbow 71 2.1.6 Circumambulation 72 2.1.7 Multi-aisled basilicas in Cyprus 73 2.1.7.i Campanopetra 75 2.1.7.ii Soloi B 76 2.1.7.iii Kourion 77 2.1.7.iv Chrysopolitissa 77 2.1.8 Inflation, polyvalance and economy 77 2.2 Sion, Agios Epiphanius and the Second Ecumenical Council 81 2.2.1 Theodosius and Epiphanius 81 2.2.2 Bi-partite Salamis and bi-partite Jerusalem 83 2.2.3 Jerusalem: a bipartite and tripartite capital 83 2.2.4 Mount Sion 84 2.2.5 The Sion Basilica 86 2.2.6 Complementary structures 87 v Contents 2.2.7 Probatica and Gethsemane 88 2.2.8 The Theological position 90 2.2.8.i Agios Epiphanius as evidence 90 2.2.8.ii Discrepant intervals 91 2.2.8.iii Tri-apsidal east ends and the Trinity 92 2.3 Conclusion: a reconfigured geography? 94 3 Baptisteries: Agios Epiphanius, Ayias Philon, Ayia Trias and Kourion 3.i Argument 97 3.1 Introduction 98 3.1.1 Baptisteries and fonts 98 3.1.2 Dates and Sequence 100 3.1.3 Liturgy and layout 101 3.1.4 Contexts 102 3.2 Material evidence 102 3.2.1 Agios Epiphanius 102 3.2.2 Ayios Philon 104 3.2.3 Ayia Trias 106 3.2.4 Kourion 108 3.2.5 Kourion and Peyia 114 3.3 Liturgical evidence 115 3.3.1 Alexandria, Jerusalem and the Jordan Event 115 3.3.2 Jerusalem, Palestine and the Pauline Paradigm 116 3.3.3 Cyril of Jerusalem: the Catechetical Lectures and the Mystagogical Catechesis 117 3.3.4 The Baptistery at the Holy Sepulchre 119 3.3.5 The christocentric and the pneumatic 121 3.4 Cyprus: reconstructing the liturgy 122 3.4.1 Lignum Crucis: presence, dispersion and politics 122 3.5 Modifying the model 126 3.5.1 Material evidence 126 3.5.2 Demographic evidence 129 3.5.3 Later liturgical evidence 130 3.5.4 Arians and unfinished business 131 vi Contents 3.5.5 John Chrysostom: a symmetrical liturgy 131 3.5.6 Theodore of Mopsuestia: a procedural asymmetry 133 3.5.7 Dionysius the Areopagite and the Barberini Euchologian 134 3.5.8 Apodyteria and chrismaria in the later rite 135 3.6 Conclusion: Myron,