A Companion Roman Religion - Spiritual Minds

Such Christian borrowings from the heroes’ cult cannot, however, be proven. The

basilicas in honor of the martyrs were without doubt intended as architectural expres-

sions of triumph. All of Constantine’s churches express this also in architectural,

and monumental, terms: the Basilica of Peter through the canopy (Ziborium) above

the martyr’s tomb, the Lateran Basilica through the so-called Fastigium– a gable

monument in between nave and altar room, which carried the statues of Christ

and the apostles (fig. 28.3) – and the other basilicas on precisely these circus-shaped

ground-plans.

420 Stefan Heid

Figure 28.2 Constantinian church buildings outside the gates of Rome (Pani Ermini
1989: fig. 4).