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The Emperor Zeno and some Cilician Churches1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Extract

The subject of this paper, which I dedicate in gratitude and affection to Professor Seton Lloyd after twenty-three years of close association and friendship, was suggested to me by an article published by Professor Cyril Mango in the Festschrift of F. Dölger. This article, entitled “Isaurian Builders”, drew attention to the material contribution of Isaurians to early Christian architecture and, more generally, to the merited reputation of their rugged province as a home of skilled masons and builders. Most interesting, from the present writer's point of view, was Mango's belief that four famous Isaurian churches (at Alahan, Daǧ Pazarı, Meryemlik and Corycus), might all be dated fairly confidently to the last quarter of the fifth century, i.e. to the period of the Emperor Zeno.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute at Ankara 1972

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References

2 Mango, C., “Festschrift F. Dölger”, Polychronion (1966), 358365Google Scholar.

3 Bent, J. Th., JHS XII (1891) Pt. I, pp. 206224CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 Langlois, V., Voyage dans la Cilicie, Paris, 1861Google Scholar, passim.

5 Th, Mommsen, History of Rome, Book V, London, 1887, p. 114.

6 CAH 1, Vol. X, 1934, p. 273Google Scholar.

7 Bent, op. cit., p. 209.

8 Strzygowski, J., Kleinasien, Ein Neuland der Kunstgeschichte, Leipzig, 1903, p. 51Google Scholar.

9 Herzfeld, E. and Guyer, S., MAMA II (1930), pp. 6162Google Scholar.

10 Strzygowski, op. cit., pp. 110–111.

11 Forsyth, G. jr., “Architectural Notes on a Trip through Cilicia”, DOP XI (1957), pp. 223236Google Scholar.

12 Gough, M., “Excavations at Alahan Monastery, Third Preliminary Report”, AS XIV (1964), p. 186Google Scholar. No dome voussoirs at all were found, and indeed the masonry of the tower is neither substantial enough nor sufficiently buttressed to take the thrust of a hypothetical stone dome.

13 Headlam, A. C., “Ecclesiastical Sites in Isauria (Cilicia Trachea)”, Occasional Papers of the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies No. 2 (1893), pp. 2021Google Scholar. Headlam called the site “Da Pazar” or “Kestel”. Strzygowski invented a variant, “Kesteli”. The real name is as published here.

14 Forsyth, op. cit., p. 234.

15 Fig. 4 shows clearly the base of a pier north-west of the apse, and a column base to the south of that pier. From these it seems logical to assume that the nucleus of the Daǧ Pazarı church was, as at Alahan and Meryemlik, a rectangular bay, and that the western part of the ambulatory buttressing this was barrel-vaulted.

16 The doctor remains, sadly, anonymous, for I never learned his name. He gave a hand-copy of the inscription to Bayan Süheyla Keskil, the Turkish Government representative at Alahan that year, and she kindly passed it on to me.

17 Gough, M., “Alahan Monastery, Fourth Preliminary Report”, AS XVII (1967), pp. 4547Google Scholar sets out my main arguments in some detail.

18 Procopius, , De Aedificiis V, 9Google Scholar.

19 Isaiah, XI, 6–7. The most frequent misquotation is that which suggests that “the lion shall lie down with the lamb”.

20 Herzfeld and Guyer, op. cit., pp. 106–107 and Pl. 104.5.

21 Gough, M., “A Temple and Church at Ayaş”, AS IV (1954), pp. 5962Google Scholar, Pls. V and VI and Fig. 5.

22 The typescript of this article is already in the hands of the printers in Turkey.

23 Levi, Doro, Antioch Mosaic Pavements, Princeton, 1947, Pls. LXXXVII–LXXXIXGoogle Scholar.