spectacle as an overarching theme for sermons and the (biblical or legendary) report
of the passion, in order to redirect the popularity of the games toward the celebra-
tions of the church. On the day of St. Cyprian in Carthage, Augustine complained
about the wild celebrations that took place in the martyr’s church during the night:
“We do not celebrate games with the demons here, but the feasts of the martyrs;
we do not leap about here, but sing” (Sermo311.5 – 6, 335D, drawing on Matthew
11.17; cf. Paulinus of Nola, Carmen27.573).
In Rome, reading out the Passioneswas prohibited by the church (Decretum
Gelasianum). This prevented the martyrs’ celebrations from turning into replacements
for the circus games. The notion of the agononly played a minor role in the Roman
Passionesand sermons on the martyrs. Eastern influences came to the fore only from
the sixth century onward through the Byzantines in Rome. The Greeks in particu-
lar appear to have found the games in Rome objectionable (Theodoretus, HE5.26).
It is no coincidence that complaints were voiced precisely by those who venerated
St. Anastasia at the church of the Byzantines, which lay right next to the Circus
Maximus. They objected to the Roman church’s prohibition on reading out the
Passionesof the “athletes of the Lord” during the service, which drove the faithful
to displays of diabolical boxing matches (de Gaiffier 1964). The celebration of
St. Anastasia on December 25 coincided with a traditional day of games. The Greek
legend about her, which was likely composed in Rome itself, accordingly pictured
the saint’s martyrdom in terms of a contest throughout (BHG76z).
The dangers which the wars against the Goths and the Byzantine reconquest posed
to the Suburbium, as well as the noticeable depopulation of the city, led to a pro-
found change of the suburbs from the mid-sixth century. Burials there continued in
spite of the establishment of cemeteries inside the city, and the martyrs’ shrines con-
tinued to be visited by pilgrims into the seventh and eighth centuries. The stational
liturgy of the martyrs, however, was reduced, concentrating mainly on churches close
to the city (Gregorian and Old Gelasian Sacramentary; Comesof Würzburg). On
the other hand, the titular churches inside the city were integrated into a system of
stational services, in particular over the weeks leading up to Easter (Quadragesima),
in which the pope and the urban population took part. The classical Roman sta-
tional liturgy of the early Middle Ages was now developing.
The circus-shaped basilicas were doomed by this shift of focus from services held
at the periphery right into the center of the city. The martyrs’ basilicas of St. Boniface
and St. Sophia outside the gates of Rome continued to be mentioned as worthy of
their contest, yet without in all likelihood referring to any concrete architectural fea-
ture (BHL1413, 1415; BHG1637y). The titular churches inside the city benefited
instead. They now established connections with named martyrs, since a church that
did not commemorate a martyr, and indeed possess relics, now became inconceiv-
able (fig. 28.4). The Roman legends (gesta martyrum) were being composed from
about the sixth century in order to establish this connection between the titles and
the Roman martyrs, and to render the choice of new churches for the stational liturgy
inside the city plausible. In this way the commemoration of the martyrs now became
linked to the liturgy inside the city. This itself had been made possible by extend-
ing the city’s liturgy from Sundays to weekdays.
424 Stefan Heid