(gentle piano music)
Beth: We're standing in the main aisle of what's known as
the Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine,
and even what's left is just huge.
Darius: Yes. Its massive scale here
is to just overwhelm you with the power
of the engineering and the architecture.
Beth: And the power of the Emperor.
Darius: That niche is where the famous head
and limbs of Constantine were found.
We love it in archaeology, our history,
when we actually find the work of art in situ,
so we actually have the original architectural
location and we actually have the architecture.
Beth: This was started by the Emperor Maxentius,
but then completed by the Emperor Constantine.
Darius: It's pretty much a Maxentian project,
but Constantine does some small modifications,
so then, ultimately, his gargantuan statue,
about 15 meters high, was placed on one end.
Beth: This is almost unprecedented in terms of scale
in the history of architecture, and the Romans
were able to do this because of concrete.
Darius: They do have some gigantic Basilicas
like the Basilica Ulpia by Trajan in this Forum,
and the Basilica Julia itself down in the Roman Forum,
but this one here looks different.
This one here looks more massive. Why?
Because it's using a different kind of technology.
It didn't have a ceiling of roof beams.
It didn't have the timber trusswork.
Instead, it's borrowing from the frigidarium spaces,
the large cold halls in the bath complexes,
like the Baths of Caracalla
and the Baths of Diocletian,
and it just looks awesome.
Beth: Over the main area, there was a massive
groin vault made out of concrete,
and we see that the side aisles
have barrel vaults, and we can still see
the impressions from the coffers that were there.
Darius: Creating these coffers, you are reducing
the overall weight of the vaulting,
so it has a double purpose,
and that's the way the Romans were.
They were interested in aesthetics,
and they were interested in
engineering and technology,
and they were building things to last.
Beth: What we're seeing here
is brick facing on the concrete,
and then these would have been covered
by [what were] slabs of marble
that would have been very colorful and geometric
like the interior of the Pantheon.
Darius: Right. When you look at these small little holes
that pepper this surface, that's for the metal clamps.
The metal clamps would have helped hold in place
the panels of marble that also would have been
glued in with cement,
and it's, of course, all been stripped away.
Beth: Concrete enabled the Romans to shape space
in a way that was different
from post-and-lintel architecture,
and to create this sense of grandeur.
We're talking about a period now
at the end of the third century
and the beginning of the fourth century,
when the Empire is coming undone,
and has been coming undone for a while now.
Darius: Maxentius managed to pull things together
for at least six years of reign, and he decided,
"I'm going to make a fresh start in the city of Rome.
"I'm going to build a lot of
"massive structures in the Forum area."
The warehouses around this part of town
had burned down. It was a great opportunity
to create a new large Basilica,
and that's what he does.
When you see a structure like this,
you're very much aware
that the Romans are still able to build
and still able to wow the audience.
Beth: But then a civil war follows,
and Constantine goes to battle with Maxentius
with whom he was co-ruler before that.
Darius: Right. There's a major discrepancy
in who is the Emperor. That Tetrarchic system,
where there are two senior Emperors
and two junior Emperors, really doesn't work
and these guys are sons of some of those Emperors,
so they're duking it out, literally,
all throughout the Empire,
and it's at the Milvian Bridge then that you get
the total victory of Constantine and his troops
and Maxentius is killed at the Milvian Bridge.
Beth: It was just before this battle
that Constantine had his vision
that inspired him to become a supporter
of Christianity and decriminalize it.
Darius: Right. Then legalize it, ultimately.
Beth: And so this is the end of the Empire,
and, in some ways, the beginnings of the Middle Ages.
Darius: Here's a point in time in which
Constantine is coming in, he's celebrating his victory,
but he's not making a sacrifice
at the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus,
and he will eventually move to make
these big public churches for the first time,
St Peter's and St John Lateran.
At the same time, he's going to make sure
that he takes care of the city
and he wants to be associated with the Forum.
He doesn't build a church here,
but he does make sure that everyone knows
that this Basilica is, indeed, his, and he is the ruler.
Beth: The Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine
was a civic space. It was a law court,
like all Basilicas were, but this is a form
that will be adopted by the Christians
for their first churches.
(gentle piano music)