University of Groningen Helena Augusta and the City of Rome Drijvers, Jan Willem Published in: Monuments & Memory DOI: 10.1484/M.ACSHA-EB.4.2018013 IMPORTANT NOTE: You are advised to consult the publisher's version (publisher's PDF) if you wish to cite from it. Please check the document version below. Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Publication date: 2016 Link to publication in University of Groningen/UMCG research database Citation for published version (APA): Drijvers, J. W. (2016). Helena Augusta and the City of Rome. In M. Verhoeven, L. Bosman, & H. van Asperen (Eds.), Monuments & Memory: Christian Cult Buildings and Constructions of the Past: Essays in Honour of Sible de Blaauw (pp. 149-155). 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For technical reasons the number of authors shown on this cover page is limited to 10 maximum. Download date: 02-10-2021 Places Helena Augusta and the City of Rome* Jan Willem DRIJVERS Flavia Iulia Helena Augusta, mother of Emper‑ of publications have seen the light of day in the or Constantine the Great (306‑37), is associated last two to three decades,2 but focuses on her with many cities: Drepanum, Naissus, Trier, connection with the city of Rome during her Reims, Colchester, Constantinople, Bethlehem lifetime. Also this topic is not terra incognita but and Edessa. However, foremost among the cities justifies consideration in the light of recent pub‑ that have connections with the empress are Je‑ lications, in particular Sible de Blaauw’s 1997 rusalem, where she is alleged to have found the article Jerusalem in Rome and the Cult of the Cross ‘true’ cross (i.e. the cross of Christ), and Rome in which he pays special attention to the Church where she probably lived after her son had con‑ of S. Croce in Gerusalemme, the preservation quered the city in the battle at the Milvian bridge of a cross relic in this early church, and Helena’s on 28 October 312. Helena clearly left her mark association with it.3 Apart from a few literary on the eternal city and there are several me‑ sources, in particular the Liber pontificalis dated mentos which remind both the tourist and the to the years 515‑30 but based on earlier writings, scholar of the sojourn of the augusta in the city. epigraphic and material sources are available for She figures prominently next to Bishop Sylvest‑ reconstructing Helena’s association with Rome. er and her son Constantine in the Rome‑based It has generally been accepted that Helena Sylvester legend which includes the story of her spent part of her life in the city of Rome and inventio crucis; frescoes in the Sylvester Chapel of resided there formally, although the sources do Ss. Quattro Coronati display her looking for the not contain references about Helena’s residence cross at Golgotha. The Scala Sancta (the alleged in Rome, apart perhaps from an implicit re‑ stairs of the praetorium of Pontius Pilate) are sup‑ mark by Eusebius that after her death she was posed to have been brought to Rome by He‑ with a great guard of honour carried up to the lena, an immense statue (by Andrea Bolgi and imperial city and buried there in the imperial dated to 1639) of Helena holding a large cross tombs.4 Although it has sometimes been argued and three nails has a prominent position in the that Eusebius’s imperial city refers to Constan‑ northwest pier in the crossing under the dome tinople, this cannot be the case because by the of St Peter’s Basilica, her porphyry sarcophagus time of Helena’s death in c. 328‑29 the new east‑ is shown in the Vatican Museums, and (part of ern capital was not yet inaugurated and did not her) relics have been kept in S. Maria in Ara‑ yet have an imperial mausoleum.5 Eusebius can coeli since the twelfth century. therefore only refer to Rome where on the ba‑ The discovery of the cross of Christ in Jerusa‑ sis of epigraphic and material evidence Helena’s lem made Helena famous, even though the cross presence and close connection with the city can was never found by her and the event was only be reasonably surmised. ascribed to her posthumously. Nevertheless, the Helena was buried in a mausoleum at the inventio crucis made her a saint of the Church.1 third mile of the Via Labicana (now Via Casili‑ As discoverer of the cross she is described in late na) outside Rome. The mausoleum, a domed antique and medieval narratives and she is often rotunda and known by its popular name of depicted holding a cross – in the Greek east of‑ Torpignattara, was attached to the cemeterial ten together with her son Constantine with the Basilica of Ss. Marcellino e Pietro and is the cross between them. However, this contribution first example of a funerary monument associ‑ is not about the legendary tradition of Helena as ated with a martyr church, thereby indicating discoverer of the cross and Helena as saint of the association between the Constantinian fam‑ the Church about which a considerable number ily and Christianity. Constantine built both 147 Jan Willem Drijvers the church and the mausoleum, probably in SESSOR or SESSORI and most likely refers to the period between 315 and 327. The mauso‑ the palace.10 The Palatium Sessorianum or Sesso­ leum may have been intended initially for the rium was located just within the Aurelian wall emperor, although it cannot be excluded that in the south‑east corner of the city. This part of it was planned for Helena from the beginning. the city was known for its horti of which several The Liber pontificalis reports that Constantine are known by name (Horti Maecenatis, Horti La­ donated rich gifts to the mausoleum in love and miani, Horti Tauriani). The area of the Sessorium honour of his mother.6 The same source men‑ was formerly known as the Horti Spei Veteris and tions that the empress’ body was placed in a por‑ imperial property since at least the end of the phyry sarcophagus carved with medallions and second century. Apart from living quarters, the images of cavalrymen. The sarcophagus, now in complex of the Sessorium consisted of an amphi‑ the Museo Pio‑Clementino of the Vatican Mu‑ theatre (Amphitheatrum Castrense) of which re‑ seums, was clearly not designed for Helena since mains are still clearly visible to this day; it was the decoration was not suitable for a woman. to all likelihood used for private gladiatorial It has often been assumed that the coffin was shows for the imperial family and its entourages originally intended for Constantine himself or as well as for the equites singulares. The complex his father Constantius Chlorus. Recently it has furthermore contained a circus (Circus Varianus) been suggested that the sarcophagus was made and public baths, known as Thermae Helenae.11 for Maxentius and was readily available because During recent excavations in the area part of the it had remained unused.7 circus as well as cisterns for the Thermae Helenae The area of Ss. Marcellino e Pietro and Hele‑ have been discovered.12 na’s mausoleum were part of the territory called Helena’s engagement with the area is ex‑ fundus Laurentus or fundus Lauretum. This was a pressed by four inscriptions which have been large imperial domain extending from the Porta found close to the Sessorium.13 The first inscrip‑ Sessoriana (modern Porta Maggiore) southward tion to be discussed was inscribed on a marble to Mount Gabus and bounded by the Via Prae‑ base carrying originally a statue of Helena, and nestina and Via Latina. The Liber pontificalis re‑ found in the vineyard of S. Croce in Gerusa‑ ports that the whole area once was in possession lemme in 1571.14 It mentions Helena as mother of Helena: ‘fundum Laurentum iuxta formam of Constantine and grandmother of the Caesars balneum et omnem agrum a porta Sessoriana Constantinus and Constantius. Helena is ad‑ usque ad via Penestrina a via itineris Latinae dressed as Augusta, a title which she received in usque ad montem Gabum, possessio Augustae the autumn of 324.15 Because Crispus, Constan‑ Helenae, praest. sol. TCXX’.8 On the fundus tine’s oldest son and Caesar since 1 March 317,16 Laurentus was located the territory of ad duas is not mentioned the inscription must have been lauros, also mentioned by the Liber pontificalis,9 set up after May 326, the date of Crispus’s death. and known as the burial site of the equites sin­ The inscription and accompanying statue was gulares, an army unit which had their military dedicated to Helena by Iulius Maximilianus, barracks at the site of S.