YURI A. MARANO
THE CIRCULATION OF PROCONNESIAN MARBLE IN
THE ADRIATIC SEA IN THE AGE OF JUSTINIAN
The circulation of artefacts, produced in the quarries and workshops on the island of
Proconnesos/Constantinople (primarily architectural elements and liturgical furnishings), is one of the
most distinct phenomena in the age of Justinian. Apart from Constantinople some of the richest
collections of such materials have been found along the shores of the Adriatic Sea and at Ravenna in
particular1 (fig. 1). However, the often-stated existence in that city of yards, where column-shafts,
capitals and other items were stockpiled before their use, is far from being demonstrated. From the
analysis of the archaeological and historical data, it is apparent that the presence of artefacts in
Proconnesian marble in the regions facing the Adriatic Sea (from Venetia to Apulia, from Dalmatia to
Epirus) marks the intervention of the imperial and Church authorities in sites of political, religious and
strategic relevance. Seemingly, marbles were directly imported from Constantinople rather than passing
through Ravenna, and lay and ecclesiastical patrons were responsible for their circulation.
Marble in Late Antiquity.
In the Roman world, marble was a particularly appropriate symbol of wealth and power as an
expensive, imported and unnecessary material in lands endowed with good building stone, like the
greatest part of the Mediterranean, and Roman society demanded marble on an unprecedented scale.
The largest single factor in creating a genuinely broad trade in marble was the Roman imperial quarry
system. At the end of the 1st century BC, Roman emperors took over many sources of the already
famous varieties of marble2, exploiting them to provide the imperial building projects with these
materials whose appeal was precisely their short supply. By the late 1st century AD the quarry system
began to chance and become more directly commercial: under the Flavians and Trajan-Hadrian, the
emperors loosened their hold on marble supplies directing the great output of the latter into
commercial channels3. However, after a very strong expansion until the mid 3rd century, the marble
industry was affected by the general crisis of the Empire and went into decline: many quarries slowed
down or stopped their production4.
By contrast, marble industry of Proconnesus took off in this period: exploited since the 6th century BC
and mentioned by Vitruvius and Pliny the Elder, local quarries were made dependent on the imperial
treasury by Hadrian. Their production expanded in the 3rd century, but a new decisive impetus came
from Diocletian’s transformation of Nicomedia into a Tetrachic seat and in that of Constantinople by
Constantine. This was the prelude to the ultimate mission of Proconnesian quarries: to supply official
projects in the new imperial capital. According to Diocletian’s Edictum de Pretiis chapter 31,
Proconnesian marble was the cheapest, with a cost of 40 denarii per pedem (Greek, pov(d)a)5. The
The area here considered is not only that of the Adriatic Sea strictu sensu, but it comprises the Ionian coast of Apulia and
northern-western Greece, that in Antiquity was connected to the Ionios kolpos thorugh a web of routes following patterns of
sea currents and winds regime (KOZLIČIĆ 2012).
2 PENSABENE 2002A.
3 FANT 1988.
4 SODINI 2002, 130-132.
5 It is normally assumed that pes denotes a cubic foot, but one cannot rule out the possibility that it refers to the square foot.
Prices within chapter 31 of the Edict are not without logic: they may vary according to a combination of all or some of
rarity, difficulty of extraction, and difficulty of transport. Thus, it is not surprising that the common marbles from islands
with the easiest transport have the cheapest maxima: the marble from Scyros and Lesbos cost 40 denarii just like
Proconnesian one, while marble from Thasos is just a bit more expensive (50 denarii) (CORCORAN, DELAINE 1994). Even
Parian marble as still exploited in the 6th century taking advantage of the insularity of the quarries (HERRMANN JR, TYKOT,
VAN DEN HOEK 2009), and Thessalian verde antico was transported from the quarries nearby Larissa to the port of Demetrias,
from which it was shipped to various destinations (including Constantinople, Thessaloniki, Philippi and Gaza), along the
now-dried Lake Voivoiês, reducing the far more expensive land route to almost ¼ of its total (KARAGIORGOU 2001, 186).
1
cheapness of Proconnesian marble is due to the insular nature of its quarries, from which marble was
floated directly out for despatch, and to the fact that Constantinople is only 100 nautical miles from
them6.
Another factor contributed to the cheapness of Proconnesian marble: in the 2nd/3rd century, marble
production changed from a command to a mainly demand industry, manufacturing standardised good
for specific markets. The quarries on the island made pieces to order, tied to the large imperial building
projects of Constantine and, in particular, of Theodosius I and his dynasty, but Proconnesos also
manufactured column-shafts of standard size, together with column-bases and capitals, piercolonnettes, chancel-posts and screens, liturgical furnishings, sarcophagi, water-pipes, seat for spectacle
buildings... 7 These materials were stockpiled at the quarries, before being widely exported all over the
Mediterranean Sea (in Asia Minor, Syria and Palestine, Egypt, Cyprus, Greece, Crete, Northern Africa,
Balkans, and Italy) and beyond (in the Black Sea and so far as Adulis, in the northern Red Sea region of
Eritrea)8.
Proconnesian quarries also shipped unfinished or partially finished block and architectural elements to
be carved at the building sites. This system precluded damage to sculpted details, which – if carved
prior to shipping – might be broken in transit: masons indicated and partially carve the decorative
pattern on the surface, and the block would be sent to its final destination where the details finished
according to their guidelines. The discovery of waste-cores from drill-work at Saraçane, on the site of
the church of Saint Polyeuktos9, the unfinished capitals of Hagia Sofia at Istanbul, and the capitals of
San Vitale, put in place with their surface left unfinished on the side hidden from view, are a clear
demonstration of such a procedure10.
A well-known example of the exportation of pre-finished export marble works is given by the cargo a
ship sank around 500-540 at Marzamemi, off the coast of south-eastern Sicily11. On the Marzamemi
ship’s final journey the cargo consisted of the components of a small basilica’s furnishings: 28 eight
column-shafts, bases, and capitals as well as 4 or 5 chancel-screens, a ciborium, 12 pier-colonnettes, and
chancel-posts in Proconnesian marble, the elements of an ambo in verde antico of Thessaly, and an altar
table of a finer marble (from Pentelikon or Asia Minor). All these items (76/77 tons of weight) were
loaded on board at Constantinople, but the circumstances of the ship’s last sailing are trickier ground:
southern Italy, Sicily and Tripolitania are all well-grounded hypotheses12.
We can also suppose that specialized craftsmen were sent out from the quarries to the building sites.
Several late antique inscriptions prove the existence of itinerant sculptors13: an epitaph from Korykos in
Cilicia mentions a marmaravrioı from Proconnesos14, while a funerary inscription from Gortyna in
Crete celebrates a certain Theoktista from Constantinople (Qeoktivsth Buzantiva), married with a
stonecutter (liqoxou') possibly of the same origin15. From an archaeological standpoint, the presence of
Constantinopolitan sculptors is attested on the building yard of the Lechaion basilica at Corinth, where
excavations brought to light marble elements shipped in roughed-out condition whose detail and
finishing were provided on the building site16. Sculptors trained in Constantinopolitan or Proconnesian
On Proconnesos as an exemplary case of exploitation of island resources, see HORDEN, PURCELL 2000, 224-230; on the
role of Imperial authorities in the quarrying operations, cf. MARANO (FORTHCOMING).
7 ASGARI 1995.
8 On the production and export of Proconnesian marble sculpture in Late Antiquity, see SODINI, BARSANTI, GUIGLIA
GUIDOBALDI 1998, SODINI 2000, and SODINI 1989.
9 HARRISON 1985, 163 and 414.
10 SODINI 1989, 64.
11 A similar cargo has been identified in 1992/1993 in the waters off the village of Amrit, not far from Tartous, along the
coast of Syria. Here, 20 capitals, 1 column-shaft, 1 impost-capital, and 16 column-bases have been recovered (DENNERT,
WESTPHALEN 2004).
12 See BOHNE 1998, 14, and DUVAL 1998, 185; recently CASTAGNINO-BERLINGHIERI, PARIBENI 2011 have expressed
themselves in favour of Syracuse as the final destination of the ship. A similar cargo, with marbles carefully packed in hay
and tow (“... tovn te a[mbwna kai; to kibwvrion kai; ta; kiovnia stoibh/' kai; stuppeivw/ kateilhmmevna”), is described
in one of the Miracula sancti Demetrii (LEMERLE 1979, 163-169; LEMERLE 1981, 234-241).
13 A very keen supporter of this hypothesis is RUSSO 2011.
14 The text has lacunas (SODINI 1987, 256, n. 136).
15 FEISSEL 2006, 37, n. 133.
16 SODINI 1977, 424-425.0
6
workshops were active at Philippi, as attested by the basket capitals and imposts of basilica B (c. 540)
sculpted in local marble following closely the designs of capitals in Hagia Sophia17. For “extraordinary”
projects, such as San Vitale, a special order was probably forwarded to Proconnesos, where – as
revealed by masons’ marks in Greek letters – columns, capitals and bases were quarried and shaped18.
Moreover, according to a procedure already attested in the Roman period, one might create a design
and send specifications to Proconnesos to obtain special items or skilled artisans to finish them on
place: this could be the case of the capitals with “butterfly” acanthus type bearing the monogram of
Theoderic, now in the portico of the Palazzetto Veneziano in Piazza del Popolo at Ravenna, but
originally part of the architectural decoration of the ecclesia Gothorum19. À jour carving was very prone to
damage, and it is possible that these capitals were finished in Ravenna by Constantinopolitan masons.
The complexity of the marble trade has been furtherly demonstrated by the application of isotopic
analyses for determining the provenance of single artefacts. There is no doubt that Proconnesus was a
marble source of primary importance in the early Byzantine period, but there is a tendency to discount
other possibilities in favour of Proconnesian. For example, recent research have highlighted the
possibility that marble was still quarried on Paros in the first half of the 6th century20. Chancel-screens
from Delphi, worked according to an unmistakably Constantinopolitan style, were sculpted in marble
from Thasos21, while the two capitals re-employed in the 15th cent. funerary monument of Cardinal
Venerio in the basilica of San Clemente at Rome, sculpted in Carrara marble by artisans coming from
or trained in the eastern capital22. At Stobi (FYROM), marble from the quarries Sivec nearby Prilep
were carved in a style and quality without precedent in the region, often indistinguishable from the
production of the quarries and workshop at Proconnesus/Constantinople23.
At the same time, Constantinopolitan sculpture were copied, both imitatively and in a cruder style in
local varieties of marble, and the development of outlying regions favoured the persistence of local
styles, which find expression in materials other than marble.24
Venetia.
If imports of marbles of eastern Mediterranean origin are attested at Aquileia, the most important city
of Venetia, since the late Republican period, for Late Antiquity the situation is completely different. To
date known cases counted on the fingers of one hand: a mid-4th/early 5th cent. Ionic capital from
Thasos, which in Italy finds parallels at Rome and Ostia25, and a Corinthian pilaster-capital with
parallels in 5th/6th cent. Constantinopolitan production26, unfortunately all erratic. An Ionic-impost
capital, decorated with a Latin cross on one of the two opposite sides (fig. 2), is of unknown
provenance too. This typology is well attested in Greece and the Aegean Sea, but a few examples come
from Ravenna and others Adriatic sites27.
On the nearly island of Grado, the churches of Santa Maria delle Grazie and Sant’Eufemia preserve
several early Byzantine basket, composite and finely carved acanthus leaf decoration capitals, but
possibly they should be considered spolia of the Fourth Crusade28. On the contrary, both at Aquileia and
17 PANAYOTIDI
1972.
OLIVIERI FARIOLI 1969, 14, 29, 30, 36-37, 38-40, 46, 85-86, nn. 1, 36, 38-39, 53, 54, 56, 57, 59, 81, 179-181.
19 On these capitals, cf. DEICHMANN 1976, 326-328, and OLIVIERI FARIOLI 1969, 31-32, nn. 40-41. In some cases, rough
blocks of marble seem to have been imported to Ravenna: capitals in Proconnesian marble (probably from the basilica of
Santo Stefano) were carved by local sculptors (OLIVIERI FARIOLI 1969, 10, nn. 63-64).
20 HERRMANN JR, TYKOT, VAN DEN HOEK 2006.
21 DÉROCHE, MANDI, MANIATIS, NIKOLAOU 1989, 409.
22 GUIDOBALDI 1992, 31-58.
23 NIEWHÖNER, PROCHASKA 2011.
24 On Greece and the Balkans, see respectively SODINI 1977 and NIKOLAJEVIĆ-STOJKOVIĆ 1957; on Palestine, RUSSO 1984;
On Cyprus, ROUX 1998; on Egypt, PENSABENE 1993.
25 SODINI, HERRMANN JR 1977¸424-425.
26 PENSABENE 2012, 92.
27 On this typology, cf. VEMI 1987.
28 PENSABENE 2006, 380-383.
18
Grado there is ample evidence of the existence of local workshops that created an original idiom
adopting Constantinopolitan, Ravennate and earlier Roman motifs29.
On the mainland, an interesting corpus of materials is represented by the small pergola which delimits the
apse in the early Christian chapel of San Prosdocimo, annexed to the basilica of Santa Giustina at
Padua. The pergola is supported by four pier-colonnettes fitted for the attachment of chancel-screens.
The beam, with a horse-shaped arch, has a kyma pattern on either sides of the inscription that occupies
his entire length and celebrates the foundation of the chapel by the vir inlustris et praefectus praetorio Opilio
(before 524)30.
Istria and Dalmatia.
The marble sculpture preserved at the episcopal complex of bishop Euphrasius (...559...) at Poreč, a
small Roman city located on the west coast of Istria, is a major feature on the landscape of Early
Byzantine art. This large and varied body of sculpture includes Corinthian and double-zone capitals
with their attendant columns and imposts, and about a hundred chancel-related and liturgical
furnishings, as well as a number of architectural elements such as door-frames, window mullions and
transennae. The Greek masons’ marks on the pier-colonnettes and columns are an evidence of the
importation of all these elements from the Proconnesos. Capitals find a series of parallels at Ravenna,
Constantinople, Carthage, Kairouan and other sites of the eastern Mediterranean31. It is worth noting
that the ambo with a double staircase of the episcopal basilica was sculpted in Proconnesian marble by
local sculptors. Probably, this piece of furniture does not pertain to the original phase of the building,
as clearly evidenced by the reuse of an earlier chancel-screens for the sculpting of one of its parapets,
and should be dated to the second half of the 6th century32.
Proconnesian materials are attested at Pula too: three chancels-screens, carved with typically early
Byzantine design of a chrismon framed with ribbons, from the two ends of which spring Latin crosses,
come from the local cathedral, while the double-zone capital, now in the Archaeological Museum, is
from the baptistery. Two fragments of chancel-screens have been found on the site of the basilica of
Santa Maria Formosa, founded in his hometown by the archbishop Maximianus of Ravenna33.
In Dalmatia, the age of Justinian was marked by a period of intense church building activity 34. The
euergetic effort of the bishops of the time is exemplified by the works sponsored at Salona by
Honorius II (527-547): he restored the sanctuary of the local cathedral and provided it with new
chancel-screens in Proconnesian marble bearing his monogram on the faces towards the nave35.
Honorius II or one of his successors, Peter IV (554-562), realized the lattice-worked transennae in the
Basilica Urbana at Salona and in the suburban basilica at Manastirine: these items were carved in
Proconnesian marble by Constantinopolitan sculptors who probably use spolia as base material36. At
last, four double-zone capitals are in the baptistery at Salona37 (fig. 3).
Picenum.
In the territory of ancient Picenum (nowadays roughly the Italian Marches), several Constantinopolitan
Theodosian and ionic impost capitals, as well as three and seven column-shafts in Proconnesian
PENSABENE 2012, 92-93; TERRY 1987, 104-106.
1958.
31 For a complete catalogue of these sculpture, see RUSSO 1991 and TERRY 1988.
32 CHEVALIER 1995, 129.
33 VICELJA 1998, 1039-1040.
34 JELICIC-RADONIC 1998.
35 CHEVALIER, METZGER 1994. Parallels are offered by the chancel-screens of the basilica of San Clemente at Rome with the
monogram of pope John II (533-536) (BARSANTI, GUIGLIA GUIDOBALDI 1992, 154-155), and by the chancel-screens from
the Katapoliani at Paroikia on the island of Paros with the monograms of a certain George, of the presbyters George and
Constantine and of two members of the civil administration (MITSANI 2006, 79-84).
36 METZGER 1994, 236-237.
37 NIKOLAJEVIĆ 1975, 92.
29
30 ZOVATTO
marble, were re-used in the cathedral of San Ciriaco at Ancona38. These materials come without doubt
from the early Christian basilica of San Lorenzo, the remains of which have been investigated
underneath the Romanesque building39. The same can be said for a quadrangular slab with a curved
profile pertaining to the parapet of an ambo40 (fig. 4). Other 5th/6th century materials (two fragmentary
chancel-posts and a Corinthian capital) have been recovered during the excavation of the early
Christian church discovered under Santa Maria alla Piazza41.
At Fano (Pesaro-Urbino), a pilaster-capital, decorated with a central chrismon flanked by to peacocks,
was possibly imported from Greece during Late Antiquity, while at Fossombrone (Pesaro-Urbino) is a
chancel-post that replicates in local stone a Proconnesian model42.
Apulia.
Abundant evidence of the circulation of Proconnesian artefacts in the Adriatic Sea comes from the port
and coastal vici of Apulia. Constantinopolitan capitals, column-shafts and bases, chancel-screens, piercolonnettes, chancel-posts and sarcophagi are attested at various sites (e.g. Bari, Trani, Canne, Barletta,
Canosa and Otranto), reflecting the ties between the heel of Italy and the eastern Mediterranean in the
5th and 6th century43.
Imitating the lattice-worked transennae of Hagia Sofia and of the basilica of Saints Sergius and Bacchus
at Constantinople and of the Basilica Ursiana and the basilica of San Vitale at Ravenna, a group of
chancel-screens from Siponto the shrine of Saint Michel the Archangel on the Mount Gargano,
Benevento and the abbey of Santa Maria di Pulsano is quite exceptional44 (fig. 5).
Other Proconnesian materials come from the early Christian basilica at Canne della Battaglia45, while a
double-zone capital from Canosa, with corners occupied by ram (?) busts, has parallels at
Constantinople, Philippi, Damous-el-Karita (Carthage), Sant’Apollinare in Classe at Ravenna, and
Durrës46.
Praevalis and Epirus.
The territories of the late antique provinces of Praevalis, Epirus Nova and Vetus were at the cross-road of
the administrative, religious and linguistic frontiers between the western and the eastern Empire. In this
area, early Christian buildings have produced a wide variety of sculptural elements, ranging from
elaborate double-zone capitals to chancel-screens, but high quality and elaborated imported elements
are attested only in small quantity. The plotting of the distribution of Proconnesian artefacts
demonstrates a marked dearth of such materials within these territories47.
A piece of exceptional interest is the sarcophagus in Proconnesian marble brought to light in the
northern annex of the three-aisled basilica at Doljani (Montenegro). The gable-shaped lid with acroteria
is decorated on the main face with a central chrismon flanked by two Latin crosses; the same motif on
the front of the chest, whose rear shows a Latin cross on a disk48.
38 BARSANTI
1985.
ERMINI 2003, 100-107.
40 POLVERARI 1993, 14.
41 BARSANTI 1995, 190-191.
42 BARSANTI 1993, 65.
43 For a catalogue of these materials, see BERTELLI 2002.
44 BARSANTI 2003; BARSANTI 1999. Similar artefacts have been recovered in Greece (Sykion, Nea Anchialos, Pierion-Veroia),
in Jordan (Mount Nebo) and in Egyot (monastery of Deir Abu Makarios in the Wadi Natrun, Church of al-Adra bi Arat
Zuwaila in Cairo) (SODINI 1977, 441-443).
45 BERTELLI 2002, 208-224.
46 BERTELLI 2002, 255-256.
47 BOWDEN 2003, 114-121.
48 From site, on which the remains of a second, triconch church have been identified, comes a series of sculptural elements
in marble (NIKOLAJEVIĆ-STOJKOVIĆ 1965, 465-469).
39 PANI
In the churches of Byllis, the use of imported marble was limited to altars, often marked with Greek
letters and monograms, in one case that of bishop Praesi[o]u (Praesios), who also donated the mosaic
floor of the sanctuary of the basilica C and that of the nave of the basilica D49.
Excavations in the city of Durrës (ancient Dyrrachion) have revealed an early Byzantine plaza of a type
widely attested in the eastern Mediterranean in the 4th-6th century, that – as revealed by the ceramic
evidence – can be dated to the reign of Anastasius (491-518)50. The circular square, paved a raised
platform supported Troad granite column-shafts resting on roughed-out bases and Corinthian capitals
(Kautzsch VII), all in Proconnesian marble. The eastern provenance of these elements is certified by a
series of marks in Greek letters (PAT and EU) incised on the bases51.
At Saranda (ancient Onchesmos), a series of pier-colonnettes, chancels-screens, capitals, cymatia, and
altar-tables in Proconnesian, bearing Greek letters and monograms (Paulou?), has been brought to
light on the site of the Rruga Skenderbeu basilica, inserted between the end of the 5th and the beginning
of the 6th century in an earlier synagogue52 (fig. 6). Decorated on the upper surface by crosses on discs,
the cymatia have a particular interest: their presence testifies the fact that the chancel of the basilica were
manufactured as a single order at Constantinople53.
With the exception of a few altar tables in imported marble, in the roughly contemporary Church of
the Forty Martyrs, built on a nearby hill overlooking the city and its harbour, all the liturgical
furnishings were carved in local limestone imitating Constantinopolitan models54.
At Butrint, a chancel-screen, a few window-mullions and Ionic impost capitals come in Proconnesian
marble come from the Great Basilica55. Fine latticed chancel-screens in Proconnesian marble, as well as
crutch capitals ad window-mullions, have been brought to light in the basilica on the Acropolis, but
their quality is inconsistent with the small dimension ad the rather crudely built structures of the
building, to suggest the provenance of these materials from an otherwise unknown church56. In the
5th/6th c. baptistery, a centrally-planned building with two rows of columns each radiating from the
font, the granite drums stand on a variety of reused bases. They support Ionic capitals which, decorated
in low reliefs with acanthus leaves and crosses, seem to have been carved locally for the baptistery,
using marble spolia as base material57.
Further south, the early Christian basilicas at Nikopolis were decorated with imported sculptures,
among which the now lost lattice-worked chancel-screens of basilica B58. In the capital of Epirus Vetus,
the most spectacular finding is, without doubt, the sarcophagus brought to light in the northern arm of
the transept of basilica D (fig. 7). The sarcophagus probably hosted the remains of an unknown martyr
or, more plausibly, those of the bishop who refurbished the cult building59.
Conclusion
Gregorius of Nazanzius tells the story of a priest, one of his enemies in Constantinople in 379/380,
who had come to the city for Thasos, with money supplied by his Church in order to buy slabs in
Proconnesian marble for a chancel-screen60. This suggests that at the end of the 4th century the quarries
on the Proconnesos were still engaged in commercial activity. However, much of this marble was
produced for the state’s own ends: in fact, marble was central to the representation of imperial wealth
and power, and state production and distribution were indeed closely interlinked. In the 5 th and 6th
49 CHEVALIER
2005, 73.
WILKES, METALLA, SKHODRA 2008, 392-394.
51 PENSABENE 2002B, 329-330.
52 LAKO 1991.
53 HOBDARI 2005, 131-134; cymatia are widely attested in the Balkans, in insular and continental Greece, in the Levant and in
Cyrenaica (BARSANTI 2004).
54 On the basilica, see MITCHELL 2004; on its liturgical furnishings, HOBDARI-PODINI 2008, 153.
55 HOBDARI-PODINI 2008, 151-152.
56 BOWDEN, MITCHELL 2004, 111.
57 BOWDEN, PËRZHITA 2004, 187.
58 CHALKIA 2006.
59 CHALKIA 2004.
60 Greg. Naz., Poema de ipso, lines 875ff. = PG 38:1089.
50 HOTI,
cent., with the dwindling of private patronage, the use of marble represented the hallmark of imperial
intervention in sites or regions of political, military, economic, and religious importance. Proconnesian
marble was the main fine material used both for secular and ecclesiastical imperially sponsored projects
throughout the 4th, 5th and 6th century. Just to mention a few examples, the presence of architectural
sculptures and liturgical furnishings has been detected at San Paolo fuori le Mura at Roma, built “pro
sanctimonio religionis” by Valentinian II, Arcadius and Theodosius I61; at the shrine of Saint Menas at
Mareotis in Egypt, whose construction was started by Arcadius and Theodosius II and completed by
Zeno62; at the shrines of Saint Thecla at Meriamlik in Cilicia and of the Mother of God on the Mount
Gazirim in Samaria63. Obviously, Proconnesian marble was widely used in the buildings projects carried
out by Justinian in the re-conquered provinces of the Empire.
In the Adriatic Sea, marble for Proconnesos had been used in imperial foundations in Ravenna from as
early as the mid-5th century: the impost-blocks in the basilica of San Giovanni Evangelista, founded by
Galla Placidia between 424 and 434, and the twenty-four columns, capitals, and impost-blocks in the
basilica Apostolorum are the first example of an usage that would have become a regular feature in the 6th
century64. It has been recently calculated that between the installation of bishop John I (477-494) and
the death of bishop Peter III (570-578), the period of most intense building activity in the late antique
history of the city, 1.556 tons of marble were imported to Ravenna. These hundred-years encompass
the building programs of Theoderic and Justinian65. This had suggested the existence at Ravenna of a
marble-yard modelled on the Marmorata in Rome (the imperial “Marble Bureau”), in which marble was
stockpiled and then dispatched to building sites in the city and the provinces66. At Ravenna, the marbleyard has been located just north of the city outside the Porta Guarcinorum, in the vicinity of the church of
San Giovanni Battista in Marmorata67. Unfortunately, this is no more than a simple assumption: no
source mentions such a marble entrepôt in late antique Ravenna, the existence of which, implying a
coherent, state-controlled system of quarrying and stocking of marble, is at least unlikely in the
politically fragmented situation of the time.
As a matter of fact, Proconnesian marble was mass-produced and could be furnished from pre-made
stocks at the quarries68. The marble elements of the Marzamemi shipwreck were not completely
finished and their dimensions were not homogeneous. This reminds us the case of Poreč, where the
column-shafts, the bases, and other such elements could have been a “standard order”, while the
capitals and the pier-colonnettes form a less homogeneous assortment, differing in date, design and
functional types, as well as in stages of refinement. For this reason, bishop Euphrasius has been
described as having acquired his marble at Ravenna, where the local entrepôt did not allow a
homogeneity as pronounced as that of the churches whose uniform marble elements were specifically
ordered at Constantinople69. The evidence from Marzamemi seems to deny such an hypothesis: the
architectural sculptures at Poreč could have been ordered and shipped directly from Proconnesos,
where single elements were stocked even for long periods, without the intermediation of a Ravennate
stockyard or re-distribution centre.
Euphrasius as others of his colleagues of the 5th/6th century played a major role in patronage and in the
supply of marble and other building materials. For example, in his Liber Pontificalis Ecclesiae Ravennatis
(76) Agnellus states that archbishop Maximianus (546-556) “removed the wooden columns made of
Corinthian capitals (Kautzsch II) of Proconnesian marble were put in place column-shafts in Proconnesian and, very
possibly, Parian marble (HERRMANN JR, TYKOT, VAN DEN HOEK 2006, 729-732). Capitols of the same typology were also
used in the triumphal arch of Theodosius I in the Forum Tauri at Constantinople, inaugurated in 393 (BARSANTI 2002, 14511454).
62 SEVERIN 1987.
63 For Meriamlik, see, GOUGH 1972, 202-203; for the shrine of the Mother of God, cf. SCHNEIDER 1951.
64 FARIOLI CAMPANATI 1991, 252; OLIVIERI FARIOLI 1969, 79-83, nn. 151-171.
65 The estimate is conservative and does not consider the marble imported for floor-paving, revetment, liturgical furniture
and sarcophagi: HARPER 1997, 146.
66 On the Marmorata, see HIRT 2007, 344-356.
67 HARPER 1997, 134.
68 Cassiodorus (Variae 10, 8) reports that Amalasuintha sent a certain Calogenitus to Constantinople to acquire “marmora
vel alia necessaria”, suggesting that marble (at least is some cases) was bought in the imperial capital.
69 TERRY 1987, 57.
61
nut trees” in the basilica of Sant’Andrea and “he filled the church with columns of Prokonnesian
marble”70. It is plausible that Maximianus provisioned himself with marble at Constantinople.
Maximianus had with Justinian, who consecrated him at Patras in 546, and – in turn – Euphrasius was
linked to Maximian71. Most probably, Maximian hired eastern mosaicists for the decoration of the
basilica of Santa Maria Formosa, that – according to Agnellus – the archbishop “founded... and
decorated with various stones”72: indeed, the fragmentary Traditio Legis (?) from the apse of the church
belongs to the metropolitan artistic tradition, and it finds parallels in the mosaics in the conch of the
church of Hosios David at Thessaloniki, in those on the base of the ambo of basilica B at Nikopolis,
and in the decoration of the apse of the church of the Panagia Kanakariá at Lythrankomi, in Cyprus.
The possibility that the Traditio Legis was realized by Constantinopolitan or eastern artists is supported
by the fact that a Greek inscription ran below it in the apse73.
The works sponsored by Maximianus at Ravenna and Pula, Euphrasius at Poreč and Honorius at
Salona were part of a strategy of consolidation of the episcopal authority, that found expression in the
monograms on architectural sculpture and liturgical furnishings (chancel-screens, altar tables, imposts)
and a parallel in mosaic dedicatory inscriptions74.
The circulation of marble can be placed in the wider context of the relations connecting the regions
facing the Adriatic Sea and Constantinople in the 5th/6th century. Some marbles may have left
Constantinople by means of military and civil officers. A late Medieval (and unfounded) tradition
attributes to Galla Placidia the construction of the early Christian church underneath the Romanesque
cathedral at Ancona, which – as we have seen – was decorated with imported capitals. However, the
role of Ancona as one of the most important imperial strongholds along the Adriatic shores during the
Gothic war, where – according to Procopius – “the Romans... brought all their supplies from Sicily and
Calabria and stored them in that places”75, suggests a strong interest by the Byzantine authorities for
this city after the re-conquest of Italy. An interest that found expression in the reconstruction of the
church preceding S. Maria alla Piazza, provided with marble capitals and liturgical furnishings.
Moreover, archaeological evidence points out to an administrative and ecclesiastic re-organization of
the region in the aftermath of the war76, and the presence in the area of high officers is documented by
the mosaics celebrating the restoration of the episcopal basilica at Pesaro by Iohannes vir gloriosus
magister militum et exconsul provinciae Mysiae natus and a certain Narses, very possibly the namesake
generalissimo77.
It is worth noting the same Iohannes might have stamped with his name a brick brought to light at the
early Christian complex at San Giusto, in the territory of ancient Luceria78. The great double-basilica
complex with a baptistery, annexed residential and productive spaces has been interpreted as the of a
rural diocese and that of the saltus Carminianesis, where the Notitia Dignitatum places a particular official,
the procurator rei privatae per Apuliam et Calabria79. Apulia was an area of strategic importance: with the
foundation of Constantinople and the redirection of Egyptian grain to the new eastern capital in the
early 4th century, and the later loss to the Vandals of the grain-producing provinces of Northern Africa,
Apulia took up part (with Sicily) of the burden of feeding Italy. This contributed to the growth of
importance of its vici and ports, from which the products of the mainland (grain, leather, wool) were
70 Translation
by MAUSKOPF DELIYANNIS 2004, 190; on Maximianus, see PCBE – Italie 2, 1446-1452.
Euphrasius, see PCBE – Italie 2, 671-672.
72 Liber Pontificalis Ecclesiae Ravennatis, 76.
73 TAVANO 1974, 247-252.
74 On this regard, see CAILLET 2003; ASSIMAKOPOULOU-ATZAKA, PARCHARIDOU-ANAGNOSTOU 2009.
75 Procopius, History of the Wars, 6.24.14.
76 PROFUMO 2008, 159-160.
77 FARIOLI CAMPANATI 1998. Married with Iustina, daughter of Germanus, Justinian’s cousin, Iohannes was sent to
reinforce Belisarius in Italy, where he commanded the Byzantine army in Picenum and Apulia. A lost inscription from
Ravenna or Rimini attributes to him the construction of a basilica in one of the two cities (ICVR II, 1) (PLRE IIIa, 652-661;
PCBE – Italie 2, 1096-1097).
78 As previously cited, Iohannes commanded the imperial armies in Apulia, but the possibility that the Iohannes of the brickstamp is to be identified with an otherwise unknown episcopus Carmeianensis (VOLPE 2002, 86-93).
79 VOLPE 2002, 88-89.
71 On
exported80. Later written sources inform us of the interaction between Constantinople and Apulia.
According to the late 8th century Vita sanctae Artellaidis, a certain Artellais, daughter of a proconsul
Lucius, left Constantinople to flee Justinian’s lust, reaching her uncle Narsus (Narses?) in Apulia. Here,
the young woman visited Siponto and Luceria, and donated thirty gold aurei to the shrine of Saint
Michel the Archangel on the Mount Gargano81. As we have seen, between the late 5th and the early 6th
century the shrine was decorated with high-quality Constantinopolitan chancel-screens, of the same
type recorded at Siponto. The presence of these materials can be here connected to the story told by a
late 11th century Vita of bishop Laurentius, who is said to have been a relative of emperor Zeno;
Laurentius asked the emperor to send him to “the most skilled craftsmen” from Constantinople and
received from Zeno a gift of 150 pounds of gold too!82
Admittedly, these Lives narrate episodes taking place several centuries before their redaction, but the
long-trade distance links of late antique Apulia with the eastern Mediterranean and the circulation of
prestigious sculpture in the region confirm their kernel of truth. Apulia had long established contacts
with the Balkans and Greece, and since the 4th century its bishops played a major role in the diplomatic
relation between Rome and the eastern Church83. This can explain the spread of artistic and
architectural models in the region, attested by an unmistakably Constantinopolitan “flavour” of the
monumental tetraconch of San Leucio at Canosa or by the more modest three-aisled church
underneath the cathedral of Barletta, provided with a so-called “Helladic pastophorion”84. The
involvement of ecclesiastic authorities in the circulation of marble artefacts is apparent at Saranda and
Nikopolis too.
Another area in which to observe the interaction between the Centre of the early Byzantine Empire and
its Periphery is that of imperial building projects in the provinces85. For the area here concerned, a clear
example is offered by Durrës. In his Chronicle, Malalas states that in Dyrrachion, his native city, Anastasius
“built many buildings... and had even provided a hippodrome for the habitants”86. The extent of
Anastasius’ embellishment of Durrës is not entirely clear: there is no archaeological evidence for the
hippodrome mentioned by Malalas, but there is some indication that the emperor was responsible for
the city walls87. To date, the best evidence of Anastasius’ munificence at Durrës is offered the Circular
Forum, decorated with architectural elements quarried at the imperial quarries of Proconnesus and of
the Troad.
If Durrës was a key point on both sea and land routes between East and West, Saranda was the best
harbour along the sea lanes between the Ionian and Adriatic Seas88, that connected the Apulian and
Calabrian coasts of southern Italy to north-western Greece to the Otranto channel89. This explains the
presence of imported marble sculpture in the Rruga Skenderbeu basilica, while only a few marble altars
come from the site of the Forty Martyrs basilica, whose role as an “international” pilgrimage centre is
far from being demonstrated90. However, Saranda participated to a web of maritime relations
connecting
In general terms, the diffusion of Constantinopolitan sculpture is attested primarily along both the
shores of the Adriatic Sea. This reflects undoubtedly the exorbitant cost of land transport in
comparison to that of sea-transport. This is clearly illustrated by the case of Caričin Grad-Justiniana
Prima, the city founded by the emperor Justinian on his birthplace. Placed at the junction of important
80 VOLPE
2003.
1995.
82 CAMPIONE 2004.
83 OTRANTO 1995.
84 On the basilica of San Leucio, see PENSABENE-D’ALESSIO 2008; on the early Christian Church at Barletta, cf. FAVIA,
GIULIANI 1997, 341-342.
85 MUNDELL MANGO 2003, 119.
86 Translation by JEFFREYS, SCOTT 1986, 416-417.
87 The monograms on bricks-stamps revealed by current excavations contain the letter NASTIOU, that appear in the names
both of Anastasius and Justinian (HAARER 2006, 242-243).
88 CABANES 2001.
89 VON FALKENHAUSEN 2008, 13-23.
90 Pace HODGES 2006, 239-240.
81 BERTELLI
land routes91, the city is located several hundred kilometres inland, and here the use of marble was
limited – with the exception of a few altar tables and chancel-posts – to the most sacred part of the
main cult building, i.e. the Acropolis basilica, the sanctuary of which was provided with a ciborium
decorated by basket-capitals92. However, the presence of marble sculptures in coastal towns and sites is
also a consequence of the relevance of these localities in the political, military and religious geography
of the 5th/6th century. As we observed, the circulation of marble was targeted and it was directed mainly
by the elites. The mobility of men and goods played a major role in the interaction between the Centre
of the early Byzantine Empire, i.e. Constantinople, and its internal Adriatic peripheries, and the marble
circulation of marble should be considered an expression of these links. On this regards, a good parallel
is offered by the case of Rome, where in the 5th and 6th century Constantinopolitan sculpture is
documented only by a few tens of capitals and a series of chancel-screens and post, of which the most
famous example are those of the chancel in the basilica of San Clemente93. It is now recognized how
the presence of these materials corresponds to a period of intense diplomatic and epistolary relations
and gifts exchange between the Papacy and the eastern court, started at the time of Hormisdas (514523), when in 519, not yet ascended to the throne, Justinian asked the pope for corporal relics of the
Apostles and of Saint Laurence to place in his new basilica dedicated to them94. Significantly, at Rome
the reappearance of Constantinopolitan sculptures dates to the aftermath of the Gothic war: in 565
Narses rebuilt the Ponte Salario on the Aniene destroyed by Totila, the parapets and post of which
were possibly sculpted by artisans from the eastern Mediterranean and Egypt95.
As in the previous centuries and in the following ones, during Late Antiquity the Adriatic Sea
represented a sort of “corridor” connecting continental Europe to the Mediterranean Sea. Artistic
relations between Constantinople and the area are not apparent only in the field of sculpture, but also
in sectilia and mosaic production96 and in church architecture97. On this regards, the Adriatic region
shows a high degree of cohesion, also found in other areas, such as transmarine communications and
trade98. This unity finds its best expression in the diffusion of the sarcophagi carved in limestone from
the island of Brač, that between the second half of the 6th and the beginning of the 7th century took the
place of marble artefacts of Constantinopolitan and eastern origin99.
91 SPIESER
1988.
JEREMIĆ, POPOVIĆ 2010.
93 BARSANTI 2002; GUIGLIA GUIDOBALDI 2002.
94 IACOBINI 2002, 665-668.
95 GUIGLIA GUIDOBALDI 2002, 1491-1500.
96 The early Christian basilica of San Lorenzo at Ancona can be compared with the southern basilica of the episcopal
complex at Salona and with the church of Oborci (Bosnia-Erzegovina) (PANI ERMINI 2003,101). The early Christian
complex at San Giusto had its model in the double-basilica complex at Salona, while its baptistery finds parallel again at
Salona, at Butrint, at Canosa, as well as in southern Italy at Nocera Inferiore (Salerno) and Santa Severina (Crotone) (VOLPE
2003, 527).
97 DE SANTIS 2006; FARIOLI CAMPANATI 2005, 371-381; MORENO CASSANO 1976.
98 VOLPE 2003, 515-516.
99 FARIOLI CAMPANATI 1991, 264; on this class of sarcophagi, see D’ANGELA 2008.
92 DUVAL,
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Fig. 1. Map of the main sites mentioned in the paper.
. 1. Map of the main sites mentioned in the paper.
Map of the main sites mentioned in the paper.
p of the main sites mentioned in the paper.
of the main sites mentioned in the paper.
the main sites mentioned in the paper.
FIG. 2. Aquileia, Ionic impost capital of unknown provenance (photo: Author).
Fig. 3. Salona, chancel-slab from the cathedral (Chevalier, Metzger 1994).
Fig. 4. Ancona, parapet of an ambo (photo: Author).
Fig. 5. Siponto, chancel-screens (Barsanti 1999).
Fig. 6. Saranda, marble altar tables (Hoti 1991).
Fig. 7. Nikopolis, Constantinopolitan sarcophagus from the basilica D (fig.