in Rome when he speaks of services in honor of the martyrs. The apostles (the “wise
men”) provide a lasting example for those who were prepared to be martyred because
of the divine power against which no one can do battle. God, to whom they nobly
bore witness, awarded them the victor’s wreath. Henceforth the heroes deserve
continuing commemoration and eternal glory, by celebrating the sacrifice of the
Eucharist for them (Or. ad sanct.11.5 – 6, 12.2 – 5). Therefore the martyrs were hon-
ored as athletes in the churches of Rome. Amongst those who were persecuted under
Maxentius and Maximius, Eusebius mentions in particular the agonof the women
who gained the prizes of victory for their heroism in Rome (HE8.14.14). He speaks
as a matter of course of the “agon of martyrdom,” of the holy and great agonin
different kinds of sport, especially because of those martyrs who had to battle naked
against the animals (Antiquorum martyrorum collectio1, HE8.2.3, 3.1, 6.5, 7.1).
The martyrs of Lyon and Vienna who suffered in the amphitheater are portrayed
by Eusebius as combatants for the faith whose sufferings are inscribed on lasting stelae
which will proclaim their tropaia, their victories over the demonical adversaries, and
their wreaths forever (HE5, praefatio4). He continues that the stadium of these
combatants lies in Gaul (HE5.1.1), by which he refers to the amphitheater but also
the locus of martyrdom per se, insofar as the “stadium” here becomes synonymous
with the battle of martyrdom. In this sense the athletes of the faith everywhere suf-
fered martyrdom during the persecution of Severus. But in particular the athletes of
God from all over Egypt and the Thebaid were sent to Alexandria in order to undergo
diverse types of combat, so to speak in the greatest stadium, and finally to gain the
wreath of victory from God (HE6.1.1). Martyrdom itself may therefore be termed
a stadium or arena. A considerable number of legends note that the confessors entered
into the stadium of martyrdom. The different contests, that is, series of tortures,
which they underwent are termed stadiums or arenas. Even the martyr’s church itself
becomes a stadium (Aug. Civ.8.27, Sermo280.2.2; Basilius, In Gordium martyrum
1; Pseudo-Basilius, In Barleam martyrum2; BHG1477b).
Therefore it surely would have been possible to conceive of the idea of develop-
ing for martyrs’ churches a triumphal architecture based on a circus-shaped ground-
plan in Rome, in particular since it is likely that people assumed that the martyrs
had achieved their victory over death and the devil precisely there, outside the gates
of Rome.Martyrs’ Celebrations and the Days of the Games
It is difficult to tell what effect this had on the liturgy. Many of the prayers for Mass
contained in the Roman sacramentaries of the seventh and eighth centuries were meant
for the “agon,” “contest” and “victory,” of the martyrs. We may therefore assume
that such metaphors had long become a common feature of martyrs’ celebrations.
Furthermore, it ought to be investigated whether the celebrations contained special
acclamatory elements (cf. Const. Imp. Or. ad sanct.12.4), known from the circus.
Similar exclamations may have entered the martyrs’ liturgy. The sarcophagi of the
late fourth century certainly often portray Christ or the Constantine labarumin the
center, with rows of apostles to their left and right acclaiming them.
422 Stefan Heid