DOI Kapitel:
IV. Die Stadt als Erinnerungsträger
DOI Kapitel:Niewöhner, Philipp: Byzantine Preservation of Ancient Monuments at Miletus in Caria: Christian Antiquarianism in West Asia Minor
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61687#0199
198
Philipp Niewöhner
Cilicia, along the southern coast of Asia Minor, and the leading central Anatolian
quarry and workshop of Docimium in Phrygia.60 In comparison, by denying the cur-
rent trends, the Corinthian capitals at Miletus seem to reference the city’s ancient past
and helped the churches, rather than stand out as contrasting novelties, fit in harmo-
niously with the surrounding antiquities.
The same may be said about fluted architraves in the basilica of St Michael (Fig. 7).
This basilica was built in the early seventh century, making it one of the latest dated
early Byzantine basilicas of Asia Minor.61 It replaced the earlier chapel of the Bishop’s
Palace, until then no more than the cella of the Temple of Dionysus, to which a simple
apse had been added. All this was now razed, and the basilica built instead. The new
building had colonnades and newly carved architraves that were decorated with flut-
ing and a cross in the centre of each block or intercolumniation. The use of colonnades
with architraves was anachronistic; arcades had long since become standard in early
Byzantine church building, as they were relatively inexpensive and simple to build.62
Going to the extraordinary expense of having architraves carved seems to make an-
other antiquarian statement, in particular as their equally unusual fluting, which at
Constantinople had gone out of fashion more than a century earlier,63 appears to hark
back to the fluted friezes in the entablature of the Roman Heroon III that remained
standing diagonally across the street from the church of St Michael throughout the
early Byzantine period.64
Pagan antiquarianism?
It would seem, then, that the unusual preservation of ancient monuments in the centre
of Miletus throughout the early Byzantine period was the result of conscious anti-
quarianism and that this attitude affected even the ways in which new churches were
built and decorated. The next question is, of course, what informed this antiquarian-
ism, and here one might think of paganism as an obvious candidate.65 Indeed, the
pagan residue in Christian paideia as well as an atmosphere of competition with the
greater and thus more venerable age of pagan monuments could conceivably have also
inspired antiquarian choices in church building.66
However, other than antiquarianism itself there seems to be no evidence for early
Byzantine paganism at Miletus. To the contrary, all available data suggests that pa-
ganism came to an end in the fourth century and that the city was thoroughly Chris-
tianized by the fifth. The closure of a cave sanctuary underneath the theatre of Miletus
60 Peschlow (1998); Mietke (2006); Niewöhner (2007).
61 Niewöhner (2016a), pp. 37—57.
62 Krautheimer (1984).
63 Niewöhner (2017b).
64 Weber (2004), p. 158.
65 Kaldellis 2007.
66 Cf. fifth-century Rome: Brandenburg (2013).
Philipp Niewöhner
Cilicia, along the southern coast of Asia Minor, and the leading central Anatolian
quarry and workshop of Docimium in Phrygia.60 In comparison, by denying the cur-
rent trends, the Corinthian capitals at Miletus seem to reference the city’s ancient past
and helped the churches, rather than stand out as contrasting novelties, fit in harmo-
niously with the surrounding antiquities.
The same may be said about fluted architraves in the basilica of St Michael (Fig. 7).
This basilica was built in the early seventh century, making it one of the latest dated
early Byzantine basilicas of Asia Minor.61 It replaced the earlier chapel of the Bishop’s
Palace, until then no more than the cella of the Temple of Dionysus, to which a simple
apse had been added. All this was now razed, and the basilica built instead. The new
building had colonnades and newly carved architraves that were decorated with flut-
ing and a cross in the centre of each block or intercolumniation. The use of colonnades
with architraves was anachronistic; arcades had long since become standard in early
Byzantine church building, as they were relatively inexpensive and simple to build.62
Going to the extraordinary expense of having architraves carved seems to make an-
other antiquarian statement, in particular as their equally unusual fluting, which at
Constantinople had gone out of fashion more than a century earlier,63 appears to hark
back to the fluted friezes in the entablature of the Roman Heroon III that remained
standing diagonally across the street from the church of St Michael throughout the
early Byzantine period.64
Pagan antiquarianism?
It would seem, then, that the unusual preservation of ancient monuments in the centre
of Miletus throughout the early Byzantine period was the result of conscious anti-
quarianism and that this attitude affected even the ways in which new churches were
built and decorated. The next question is, of course, what informed this antiquarian-
ism, and here one might think of paganism as an obvious candidate.65 Indeed, the
pagan residue in Christian paideia as well as an atmosphere of competition with the
greater and thus more venerable age of pagan monuments could conceivably have also
inspired antiquarian choices in church building.66
However, other than antiquarianism itself there seems to be no evidence for early
Byzantine paganism at Miletus. To the contrary, all available data suggests that pa-
ganism came to an end in the fourth century and that the city was thoroughly Chris-
tianized by the fifth. The closure of a cave sanctuary underneath the theatre of Miletus
60 Peschlow (1998); Mietke (2006); Niewöhner (2007).
61 Niewöhner (2016a), pp. 37—57.
62 Krautheimer (1984).
63 Niewöhner (2017b).
64 Weber (2004), p. 158.
65 Kaldellis 2007.
66 Cf. fifth-century Rome: Brandenburg (2013).