090054 SE Two Models for a City: Rome and Constantinople in the 4th-7th Centuries (2017W)

The course focuses on the transformations of the topography of the two prominent cities of Mediterranean Rome and Constantinople. It intends to highlight the nature, pace and causes of the gradual demise of Rome as imperial and political capital and the rise of Constantinople as new center. The approach to urban transformation will discuss public pagan spaces (forum), edifices for spectacles (Coliseum and Hippodrome), private residences (aristocratic domus in Rome - Imperial Palace in Constantinople), defensive structures (city walls and gates) and so on. Attention will be paid to the development of ecclesiastical architecture, martyrial shrines and pilgrimage sites.

The course focuses on the following:
• urban development from pagan to Christian/Byzantine
• architecture and arts (mosaic, painting, sculpture)
• Sources as Hagiography, ekphraseis, pilgrim accounts such as Notitia ecclesiarum urbis Romae, De locis sanctis martyrum quae sunt foris civitatis Romae etc.
• inscriptions

Method employed:
Interpretation of monuments within their historical context.
Methodological combination of Archaeology and Hagiography
Ample multilingual bibliography will be suggested to students
according to treated subjects.