© Copyright by Milton Luiz Torres 2008
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© Copyright by Milton Luiz Torres 2008 The Dissertation Committee for Milton Luiz Torres certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Christian Burial Practices at Ostia Antica: Backgrounds and Contexts with a Case Study of the Pianabella Basilica Committee: __________________________ L. Michael White, Supervisor __________________________ Ingrid Edlund-Berry __________________________ Karl Galinsky __________________________ Penelope J. E. Davies __________________________ Joanne M. Spurza Christian Burial Practices at Ostia Antica: Backgrounds and Contexts with a Case Study of the Pianabella Basilica by Milton Luiz Torres, B.A.; M. A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May 2008 Dedication To Tania, Kérix and Krícis “Todos vamos embarcados na mesma nau, que é a vida, e todos navegamos com o mesmo vento, que é o tempo; e assim como na nau, uns governam o leme, outros mareiam as velas; uns vigiam, outros dormem; uns passeiam, outros estão assentados; uns cantam, outros jogam, outros comem, outros nenhuma cousa fazem, e todos igualmente caminham ao mesmo porto; assim nós, ainda que não o pareça, vamos passando sempre, e avizinhando-nos cada um a seu fim; por que tu, conclue Ambrósio, dormes, e teu tempo anda: tu dormis, et tempus tuus ambulat.” Padre António Vieira, Sermão da Primeira Dominga do Advento. Acknowledgments I would like to acknowledge all the encouragement that I have received from my family, especially my wife Tania, my children Kérix and Krícis, my mother (in memoriam), and my sisters. I would also like to thank the Faculdades Adventistas da Bahia, in Brazil for providing me with continuous financial support. I am also grateful to Dr. L. Michael White and the other members of my Committee for their guidance in the preparation of this dissertation. I especially thank Dr. White for suggesting that the Basilica of Pianabella would be a worthy Dissertation topic. Taking his remark seriously, I became interested in the subject and made it a case study in my Dissertation work. I want also to express my gratitude to Mrs. Theresa Vasquez, the D-Doc Interlibrary Services, and my friends in three different Departments at UT-Austin (Classics, Spanish and Portuguese, and Art History) for their invaluable support as well as to Dr. Lidia Paroli from the Museo del Alto Medioevo, in Rome, Dr. Anna Gallina Zevi, Dr. Elizabeth Shepherd, Dr. Simona Pannuzi and to all the staff of the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici di Ostia for making my work at Ostia as much illuminating as enjoyable. vi Christian Burial Practices at Ostia Antica: Backgrounds and Contexts with a Case Study of the Pianabella Basilica Publication No. ____________ Milton Luiz Torres, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2008 Supervisor: L. Michael White This study investigates the archaeological and social contexts of early Christian burial practices at Ostia Antica, Rome’s port city, through a case study of the cemeterial basilica at Pianabella. Built on a pagan necropolis in ca. 400 AD, the Pianabella Basilica is one of the few unambiguously Christian monuments from Ostia in the Late Antique period. Consequently, it provides evidence for the continuities and transformations of late Roman culture during the period of Christianity’s rise to prominence. Examination of the construction of the basilica , as well as its rich iconography and epigraphy, proceeds through a social approach within a holistic view of material culture, showing that the physical characteristics of Christian burial were acquired through selective appropriation vii of common pagan mortuary practices while also adjusting to changing cultural assumptions. The Pianabella inscriptions show the persistence of patronage, while the construction of the basilica and its dedication to a nameless saint show the increasing importance of the suburbium for the city’s religious topography. The semi-monumental nature and advantaged location of this basilica made it an important meeting place for the Christians, whose appropriations can be seen in three aspects: (1) epigraphy suggests that patronage by the institutional church gradually replaced that by important families; (2) patterns of sarcophagus use point to attempts at social improvement while showing clear preference for less iconic forms of sarcophagi; and (3) the arrangement of the burials in the basilica’s main funerary enclosure and epigraphy emphasize the prominence of the saint to whom the basilica was dedicated. The basilica thus took on much of the ritual and social creativity that had belonged to the family tomb, where reunion in death did away with death’s sting, while providing Christians with a sense of community. The organization of funerary space at Pianabella suggests further that the focus of mortuary provision was ultimately on the living. Taken together, it seems that funerary processions to the basilica provided a sphere in which local Christians could benefit from communal meals and the spectacle of status display, while pointing to God as a new and improved type of paterfamilias. viii Table of Contents List of Tables, Sketches, and Figures ..................................................................xiii Introduction ...........................................................................................................1 Chapter One: Ostia as Social and Religious Environment ...................................8 New Perspectives on Ostia’s Urban Development ................................................9 Later Dates for the Castrum ……………………......................................10 Later Dates for Ostia’s Wall Circuit .........................................................11 Later Dates for the Forum ………………….............................................12 Later Dates for Ostia’s Decline .................................................................13 Religion as a Vehicle for Civic Patronage and Urban Development ....................24 Foreigners at Ostia ....................................................................................25 Onomastic Evidence .....................................................................27 Prosopographic Linkage: The Caltilii as Sponsors of a Foreign Cult .........................................................…..32 Conclusion ..……………………………………………………………..49 Chapter Two: The Evidence for Christianity at Ostia .........................................53 The Problem of Christian Triumphalism ..............................................................54 Ostia as a Syncretic Religious Environment: Assessing the Evidence ….............57 A Jewish Community at Ostia ..............................................................................62 A Christian Community at Ostia ..........................................................................68 ix The Literary Evidence ..............................................................................69 The Architectural Evidence ......................................................................72 The Oratory of the Baths of Mithras .............................................72 The “Basilica Cristiana” sul Decumano .......................................74 The Basilica of S. Ercolano ..........................................................81 The Basilica of St. Aurea ..............................................................83 The Constantinian Basilica ...........................................................84 The Chapel of St. Cyriacus ...........................................................87 The Basilicas and the Xenodocheion at Portus .............................89 The Basilica of Pianabella ............................................................93 Supposedly Christian Private Buildings .......................................93 The Epigraphic Evidence .........................................................................99 The Iconographic Evidence ....................................................................111 The Anicii and the Christians of Ostia ..............................................................115 Conclusion .........................................................................................................124 Chapter Three: The Pianabella Basilica and the Necropoleis of Ostia/Portus ....................................................................................................................128 The Necropolis of Pianabella ..............................................................................130 The Installation and Use of Tombs ............................................................131 Development of the Necropolis and Main Features of Tombs ..................133 The Absence of Funerary Couches and Grave Goods ..............................139 Social Level ...............................................................................................141 A Different Kind of Patronage ..................................................................145 The Basilica of Pianabella ..................................................................................147 Location and Topography ..........................................................................148 Excavation History .....................................................................................150 x Description .................................................................................................152