Art And Architecture 383
octagonal upper structure with a circular interior room, but no exterior colon-
nade. Mausoleum II, likely that of Galerius, is dodecagonal on the lower level,
which provides the floor for the upper level, but its upper structure is circu-
lar both externally and internally and was encircled by a freestanding portico.
Both were probably domed. They represent the type of mausoleum Theoderic
had in mind in the design of his own and demonstrate once again that his
models were Roman and his intent was to associate himself with the Roman
imperial tradition. The fact that his building was freestanding and not attached
to a church as were many mausolea of Christian emperors is an expression of
his desire to make himself “equal to the ancients”.90
On the other hand, the original mausoleum of Constantine had been built as
a freestanding monument, only to have a cruciform church attached to it later.
Theoderic’s building might have had an intended association with Constantine’s
monument in the appearance of the names of the twelve apostles on the spurs
above a twelve-sided exterior wall. Constantine’s own sarcophagus was origi-
nally set up in Constantinople in his mausoleum-church of the Holy Apostles
surrounded by stelai or cenotaphs of the twelve apostles, an arrangement of
which Theoderic could have known from his time in Constantinople.91 At the
very least Theoderic would have been aware that emperors in the East were
buried in a church dedicated to the Apostles and some emperors in the West
had found their final resting space in the Mausoleum of Honorius, attached to
Old St Peter’s in Rome.
The link to Constantine’s tomb was but one symbol employed here. The
choice of a decagonal structural to surround the burial chamber is unique and
may be related to the symbolism of the number ten, which represented perfec-
tion, an idea found in both the writings of Boethius and Cassiodorus.92
The related buildings in Gamzigrad also provide a clue as to the original
location of the sarcophagus of Theoderic within his mausoleum. Both had
burial chambers in the lower level, as did another imperial monument found
at Sarkamen, perhaps that of the mother of Maximin Daia, the Mausoleum
of Diocletian at Split, as well as the so-called Tor de’ Schiavi in Rome and its
close relative the Mausoleum of Maxentius.93 The cruciform arrangement of
the interior space in the Mausoleum of Theoderic has many parallels in Roman
90 For other associations of the building with antiquity see Deliyannis, “Mausoleum”.
91 Johnson, Roman Imperial Mausoleum, pp. 119–20.
92 Boethius, De institutione arithmetica, 2.41, Patrologia Latina, vol. 63, p. 1146; Cassiodorus,
Variae 1.10, ed. Mommsen, p. 19; ed. Fridh, p. 20–1. Johnson, “Theoderic’s Building Program”,
p. 94.
93 Johnson Roman Imperial Mausoleum, pp. 59–109.