Temple Reuse in Late Antique Greece Stefan Moffat Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts Degree in Classics Supervisor: Dr. Geoffrey Greatrex Department of Classics and Religious Studies Faculty of Arts University of Ottawa July 2017 © Stefan Moffat, Ottawa, Canada, 2017 Abstract The subject of this thesis is the variety of ways that temples were reused by Romans, both Christian and non-Christian, at the end of Antiquity in the present-day country of Greece. It discusses these means of reuse using principally archaeological evidence as a means of countering interpretations of the material culture that temples were either destroyed or reused as churches. These interpretations are based on the assumption that contemporary written sources such as Saints’ ‘Lives’ (the literary genre known as hagiography) are an accurate portrayal of temple reuse in Late Antiquity, without taking into consideration the legendary nature of hagiography. On the other hand, they do not account for potentially contradictory evidence of temple reuse derived from archaeological excavation. It is argued in this thesis that archaeological evidence provides an alternative outcome to that described in contemporary written sources such as hagiography, one that emphasizes practical forms of temple reuse rather than religious. The evidence for this argument is presented at both a geographic level and as discreet categories of forms of reuse of both a religious and practical nature, as a first glimpse of the nuanced image of temple reuse in Greece. Specific examples of the evidence are then cited in a number of case studies to be further developed as a valid attribute in the characterisation of the Late Antique sacred landscape at the level of the Roman Empire. It is concluded that, although practical forms of temple reuse do not greatly alter the sacred landscape of Late Antique Greece, they are crucial in developing a more diverse view of Late Antique religion. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS GENERAL INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER ONE ......................................................................................................................................... 19 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................................... 19 Methodology ......................................................................................................................................... 20 GEOGRAPHICAL DIVISION OF TEMPLE REUSE .............................................................................................. 29 Northwestern Greece ............................................................................................................................ 29 Northeastern Greece ............................................................................................................................. 31 Central Greece ..................................................................................................................................... 37 Central Cyclades and Crete .................................................................................................................. 42 Eastern Aegean Sea .............................................................................................................................. 47 Peloponnese .......................................................................................................................................... 50 CHAPTER ONE FIGURES .............................................................................................................................. 57 CHAPTER TWO ........................................................................................................................................ 66 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................................... 66 FORMS OF REUSE....................................................................................................................................... 71 Churches ............................................................................................................................................... 71 Stone Quarries for Other Building Projects ......................................................................................... 75 Burial Locations ................................................................................................................................... 78 Practical Type ....................................................................................................................................... 80 Unknown Reuse Type ............................................................................................................................ 82 REASONS: WHY THESE FORMS OF REUSE? .................................................................................................. 83 Preliminary Comments on Reuse as Churches ..................................................................................... 83 Reasons for Forms of Reuse given in Written Sources ......................................................................... 87 The Purpose of Spolia ........................................................................................................................... 89 Orientation of Temple ........................................................................................................................... 91 Size of Temple ....................................................................................................................................... 93 Dedication of Temple ............................................................................................................................ 94 Other Reasons ....................................................................................................................................... 98 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................................... 103 CHAPTER TWO FIGURES ........................................................................................................................... 105 iii CHAPTER THREE .................................................................................................................................. 114 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................ 114 CASE STUDIES .......................................................................................................................................... 124 Dion .................................................................................................................................................... 124 Aulis .................................................................................................................................................... 126 Philia .................................................................................................................................................. 127 THE EVIDENCE IN THE CONTEXT OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE ......................................................................... 128 Archaeological Survey ........................................................................................................................ 128 Quarrying Stone ................................................................................................................................. 134 Bishops and Christianisation .............................................................................................................. 137 Questions about Chronology .............................................................................................................. 148 CHAPTER THREE FIGURES ........................................................................................................................ 150 GENERAL CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................... 156 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................................................... 160 APPENDIX ............................................................................................................................................... 187 iv General Introduction The subject of this thesis is the variety of ways, both religious and practical, that temples were reused by Romans, both Christian and non-Christian, at the end of Antiquity in the present-day country of Greece. It discusses these means of reuse using principally archaeological evidence. This topic is of importance today because of the persistence, among current scholars, of obsolete assumptions about how Christians in the Roman Empire generally destroyed derelict temples during their religion’s climb to power in the fourth to sixth centuries CE, the period typically known as Late Antiquity. These assumptions depend too often on the belief that contemporary written sources such as Saints’ ‘Lives’ (the literary genre known as hagiography) provide a realistic impression of temple reuse in Late Antiquity.