CHRISTIANIZATION AND ITS CHALLENGESS. Apollinare Nuovo (c. 490) and S. Apollinare in Classe (530s–540s) at
Ravenna.^18 S. Maria Maggiore in Rome, built under the patronage of Pope
Sixtus III (432–40), is a spectacular surviving fifth-century example of a
consciously classical style of church building; the elaborate mosaics on the
triumphal arch, including a representation of the Virgin Mary in the dress
of a Roman empress, draw for their biblical scenes on the existing secular
repertoire. Similarly, the earliest surviving Roman apse mosaic, from the
church of S. Pudenziana (end of the fourth century), also uses imperial motifs,
showing Christ surrounded by the apostles in the style of representations of
the emperor and the Roman senate.^19 The other main architectural type fol-
lowed by church architects was based on the martyrium and used especially
(but not only) for baptisteries, such as the octagonal Orthodox Baptistery at
Ravenna (early fifth century). Many such baptisteries were attached to basili-
cal churches, but Constantine’s ‘Golden Church’ at Antioch, for instance,
which does not survive, was also octagonal.^20 By the sixth century a much less
classicizing architectural form had developed, with many variations ranging
from the domed basilica to the so-called double-shell octagon of Sts Sergius
and Bacchus at Constantinople.^21
Figure 3.1 S. Maria Maggiore, Rome. A fifth-century basilica with typical apse, long nave,
windows and coffered ceiling. Many churches were built in this style, derived from Roman
public buildings.