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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 September 2013
In recent articles the present writer has used the evidence of brickstamps in proposing new dates for the walls of Thessaloniki, for the mosaics of the second phase of the Rotunda (now dedicated to St. George), and for the Byzantine palace. In each case, reference was made to only two or three examples, and it is with a view to reinforcing and developing the arguments already expressed that all the published fifth-century brickstamps recognizable as such are assembled here (with the addition of some unpublished examples).
Acknowledgements. I am grateful to Dr. Robin Cormack and to Professor Cyril Mango for kindly reading through a draft of this article. It has benefited from their comments; any mistakes, however, are my own.
1 Vickers, M., ‘The Date of the Walls of Thessalonica’, Istanbul Arkeoloji Müzeleri Tilhgi xv–xvi (1969) cited below as Vickers 1969) 313–18Google Scholar; idem, ‘The Late Roman Walls of Thessalonica’, Transactions of the 8th International Congress of Roman Frontier Studies, Cardiff-Birmingham, 1969 (forthcoming). Strictly speaking, of course, these marks are not stamps, but mould-made impressions. See Zheku, K., ‘Decouvertes sur les murs de ceinture du château fort de Durrës’, Studia Albanica ix (1972) 121–33Google Scholar, who suggests that ‘brickstamps’ of Anastasius I (491–515), similar to those of Thessaloniki, were achieved by means of incisions cut into the surface of a wooden mould.
2 Vickers, 1969, 318; idem, ‘The Date of the Mosaics of the Rotunda at Thessaloniki’, BSR N.s. xxv (1970) 183–7 (cited below as Vickers, 1970). Attention should be drawn to Ulpert, Th., ‘Studien zur dekorativen Reliefplastik des östlichen Mittelmeerraumes’, Miscellanea Byzantina Monacensia x (Munich, 1969) 97Google Scholar, who, as a result of a comparison between the revetment capitals from the Rotunda (which he dates, following Kautzsch, to c. 500) and the ambo in Istanbul (which he dates to the same period), calls into question the date of c. 400 usually given to the mosaics. It will be seen below, however, that Kautzsch's dates are probably several decades too low.
3 Vickers, , ‘A Note on the Byzantine Palace at Thessaloniki’, BSA lxvi (1971) 369–7Google Scholar (cited below as Vickers, 1971).
4 Mango, C., ‘Byzantine Brickstamps’, AJA liv (1950) 19–27CrossRefGoogle Scholar (cited below as Mango, 1950).
5 Omont, H., ‘Inscriptions grecques de Salonique, recueillies au XVIII siècle par J.-B. Germain’, RA, 3rd series, xxiv (1894) i. 196–214Google Scholar (cited below as Omont, 1894).
6 Texier, C. and Pullan, R. P., Byzantine Architecture (London, 1864) 134, 145Google Scholar, 150 (cited below as Texier, 1864).
7 Tafrali, O., Topographie de Thessalonique (Paris, 1913) 76–7, 151–4Google Scholar (cited below as Tafrali, 1913).
8 Cf. Torp, H., Mosaikkene i St. Georg-Rotunden i Thessaloniki (Oslo, 1963) 12Google Scholar (cited below as Torp, 1963).
9 Soteriou, G., ADelt iv (1918)Google Scholar supplement, pl. 9 figs. 24–5 (cited below as Soteriou, 1918).
10 Soteriou, G. and Soteriou, M., Ἡ Βασιλικὴ τοῦ Ἁγίου Δημητρίου Θεσσαλονίκης (Athens, 1952) 116 fig. 43aGoogle Scholar; 235, pl. 94b (cited below as Soteriou, 1952).
11 Diehl, Ch., Le Tourneau, M., and Saladin, H., ‘Les monuments chrétiens de Salonique’, Monuments de L'art byzantin iv (Paris, 1918) 58.Google Scholar
12 Hébrard, E., ‘Les travaux du Service archéologique de L'Armée d'Orient à L'Arc de Triomphe “de Galère” et à L'église Saint-Georges de Salonique’, BCH xliv (1920) 31–2Google Scholar (cited below as Hébrard, 1920).
13 Kalligas, M., PAE 1936, 115.Google Scholar
14 Idem, Die Hagia Sophia von Thessalonike (Würzburg, 1935) 23 Pl 16.
15 Cormack, R. S., ‘The Mosaic Decoration of S. Demetrios, Thessaloniki. A re-examination in the light of the drawings of W. S. George’, BSA lxiv (1969) 19–20Google Scholar; Weir, R. S. in British Archaeological Discoveries in Greece and Crete 1886–1936. Exhibition Catalogue (London, 1936) 90–1.Google Scholar
16 While this article was being written, two further examples of Type IA, 1 were published by Gounaris, G. in Makedonika xi (1971) 321Google Scholar fig. 5 (from a building at the junction of Odos Philippou and Odos Venizelou) and 322 fig. 6 (reused as the lining of a drain N.W. of St. Demetrius). See the present writer's observations in Makedonika xii (1972), 228–33.
17 i.e. the Byzantine palace; see Vickers, 1971.
18 Vickers, 1970.
19 See n. I.
20 According to the latest study, R. S. Cormack, Ninth-Century Monumental Painting and Mosaic in Thessaloniki (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of London, 1968) 48, to be dated to 780–797; see too Buchwald, H., ‘The Church of the Archangels in Sige near Mudania’, Byzantina Vindobonensia iv (Vienna/Cologne/Graz, 1969) 43Google Scholar [a slightly earlier dating]. Mango no longer believes St. Sophia to have been built in the sixth century (Mango, 1950. 22 n. 21), but now accepts an eighth-century date: ‘The Byzantine Church at Vize (Bizye) in Thrace and St. Mary the Younger’, Recueils des travaux de l'Institut byzantin xi (Belgrade, 1969) 13.
21 Pelekanides, S., ADelt xvii (1961–1962) 256 pl. 311Google Scholar; BCH lxxxvi (1962) 814; AR for 1961–62, 14; Drosoyanni, Ph., ADelt xviii (1963) Chronika, 235–40 pls. 267–71Google Scholar; BCH lxxxix (1965) 801–7 figs. 8–14; AR for 1963–64 19; AR for 1964–65 21–2; Makedonika vii (1967) 302; Vickers, M., Symposium ‘Ancient Macedonia’ Thessaloniki 1968 (Thessaloniki, 1970) 240Google Scholar, 242, fig. 2. See also SOPH 2, above.
22 Op. cit. 235.
23 Wessely, C., ‘Die lateinischen Elemente in der Gräzität der ägyptischen Papyrusurkunden’, Wiener Studien xxiv (1902) 129Google Scholar; Meinersmann, B., Die lateinischen Wörter und Namen in den griechischen Papyri (Leipzig, 1927) 18.Google Scholar
24 Preisigke, F., Sammelbuch griechischer Urkunden aus Ägypten (Strasbourg, 1915) 57CrossRefGoogle Scholar (= Breccia, E., ‘Un ipogeo cristiano ad Hadra’, Bulletin de la Société archéologique d'Alexandrie xi, N.S. ii/3 (1909) 283).Google Scholar
25 Mango, op. cit. 27.
26 Tafrali, 1913, 152.
27 Edson, C. (ed.), IG x. ii. i (Berlin, 1972) no. 43.Google Scholar
28 Ioannou, Hadji, Ἀστυλραψία Θεσσλονίκης (Thessaloniki, 1881) 12 and 17Google Scholar; Papageorgiou, P. N., ‘Zwei Inschriften aus Thessalonik’, Berliner Philologischer Wochenschrift iii (1883) 345.Google Scholar
29 Tafrali, 1913. 369.
30 e.g. Torp, 1963. 12; C. Edson, loc. cit. (n. 27, above); Gounaris, G., Makedonika xi (1971) 311–23CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Cattani, P., ‘La rotonda e i mosaici di San Giorgio a Salonicco’, Studi di antichità cristiane x (Bologna, 1972).Google Scholar
31 Vickers, M., Istanbul Arkeolqji Müzeleri yilligi xv–xvi (1969) 313–18Google Scholar; idem, JHS xciii (1973) 242–3; idem, Makedonika xii (1972) 228–33.
32 Jdl xliv (1933) 197.
33 See A. H. M. Jones, J. R. Martindale, and J. Morris, Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire ii (forthcoming) s.v. Hormisdas.
34 Grumel, V.Traité d'études byzantines i, ‘La chronologie’ (Paris, 1959) 243.Google Scholar
35 Soteriou, 1952. 235.
36 Krautheimer, R., Early Christian and Byzantine Architecture (Harmondsworth, 1965) 90–101.Google Scholar Cf. Kautzsch, R., Kapitellstudien, Beiträge zu einer Geschichte des spätantiken Kapitells im Osten vom 4. bis ins 7. Jahrhundert (Berlin/Leipzig, 1936) 72–5.Google Scholar Kautzsch's chronology rested on what was thought to be the one firmly dated church of the period, St. John Studios in Constantinople, which was said to date from c. 463. Professor Mango, however, will show in a forthcoming article that the donor's inscription (Anth. Pal. i. 4) indicates that it was in fact completed by 453/4.
37 Vickers, 1970, 184.
38 A date in the second quarter of the fifth century has been proposed by G. Stričević in his unpublished thesis Ranohrišćanska arhitektura u severnim provincijama Ilirika (cited by Maximović, J., ‘Contribution à L'étude des fresques de Stobi’, Cahiers archeologiques x (1959) 207–16Google Scholar, apparently concurring) and by Nikolajević-Stojković, I., Ranovizantiska arhitektonska ptastična dekoracija u Makedoniji, Srbiji i Crnoj Gori (Belgrade, 1957).Google Scholar Cf. Mano-Zissi, D., ‘Mosaïques gréco-romaines de Yougoslavie’, La mosaïque gréco-romaine, Paris, 1963 (Paris 1965) 293Google Scholar, and Wiseman, J. and Mano-Zissi, D., ‘Excavations at Stobi in 1970’, AJA lxxv (1971) 400Google Scholar; ‘Excavations at Stobi, 1971’, ibid, lxxvi (1972) 423.
39 Cormack, , BSA lxiv (1969) 43Google Scholar; Kleinbauer, W. E., ‘Some Observations on the Dating of S. Demetrios in Thessaloniki’, Byzantion xl (1970) 36–44Google Scholar; Panagiotides, M., ‘ΒυƷαντινὰ κιονόκρανα μὲ ἀνάγλυφα’, Δελτίον τῆς Χριστιανικῆς Ἀρχαιολογικ 4th series, vi (1972) 423.Google Scholar
40 Justinian, , Novella xi (ed. Schoell-Kroll, , 94)Google Scholar and Theodoret, , Eccles. Hist. v. 17. 1Google Scholar (ed. Gaisford, 430) cited by Lemerle, P., Philippes et la Macédoine orientale (Paris, 1945) 82–3.Google Scholar
41 The present writer's suggestion (Vickers, 1971) that the brickstamp ELIAS 1 indicates a mid-fifth-century date for the Byzantine palace is supported by the fact that two reused capitals in Profitis Elias are dated by Miss Panagiotides to the mid fifth century (op. cit. 97, 116–17 no. 24 pl. 30; cf. Farioli, R., ‘I capitelli paleocristiani e paleobizantini di Salonicco’, Corsi di cultura sulL'arte ravennate e bizantina xi (1964) 168).Google Scholar Perhaps they too belonged to the palace.
42 Cf. Pelekanides, S., Πατόχριστιανικὰ μνημεῖα Θεσσαλονίκης, ἈΧειροίητος, Μονή Λατόμον (Thessaloniki, 1949) 11Google Scholar, followed by Kramer, J., Skulpturen mit Adlerfiguren an Bauten des 5. Jahrhunderts n. Chr. in Konstantinopel (Cologne, 1968) 64.Google Scholar
43 Delehaye, H., Les légendes grecques des saints militaires (Paris, 1909) 103–9Google Scholar; idem, ‘Les recueils des miracles des saints’, Analecta Bollandiana xlii (1925) 58–64; idem, Les origines du culte des martyrs, 2nd edn. (Brussels, 1933) 228–9. Cf. Lemerle, P., ‘S. Démétrius de Thessalonique et les problèmes du martyrion et du transept’, BCH lxxvii (1953) 669Google Scholar, and Vickers, M., ‘Sirmium or Thessaloniki? A critical examination of the St. Demetrius legend’, Byzantinische Zeitschrift lxvii (1974)Google Scholar (forthcoming).
44 ‘Palace Churches’ probably did not exist as early as the fifth century (Mango, C., ‘The Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus at Constantinople and the alleged tradition of octagonal palatine churches’, Jahrbuch derösterreichischen Byzantinistik xxi (1972) 189–93)Google Scholar; but if we are to have one at Thessaloniki, then St. Demetrius, being closest to the prefect's palace of the known major churches, would seem to be the best candidate.
45 This is the hexagonal building discovered by Pelekides in 1922 but never published (BCH xlvi (1922) 527), and which has subsequently been called a ‘Roman nymphaeum’: e.g. BCH lxiii (1939) 314; von Schoenebeck, H., ‘Die Stadtplanung des römischen Thessaloniki’, Bericht über den VI. Internationalen Kongress für Archäologie, Berlin 1939 (Berlin, 1940) 481, fig. 1Google Scholar; Drosoyanni, Ph., ADelt xviii (1963) Chronika, 237 fig. i, 241.Google Scholar The arguments in favour of its being a baptistery are (1) its position immediately to the south of St. Sophia; cf. the baptistery to the south of Acheiropoietos (Pelekanides, op. cit. 24 pls. 1, 6); (2) its plan, which is very close to those of known fifth-century baptisteries (e.g. Zadar: Windfield-Hansen, H., Acta ad Archaeologiam et Artium Historiam Pertinentia iv (1969) 85Google Scholar (with full references to earlier publications) pl. 14b; Stobi, North Basilica: Hoddinott, R. F., Early Byzantine Churches in Macedonia and Southern Serbia (London, 1963) 168–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar (bibliography) figs. 78–9; Stobi, Episcopal Basilica, Wiseman, J. and Mano-Zissi, D., AJA lxxvi (1972) 422–4 pls. 89–90Google Scholar; Cologne, Boppard and Richborough: all illustrated, with bibliographies, by Brown, P. D. C., ‘The church at Richborough’, Britannia ii (1971) 225–31, pls. 30–1CrossRefGoogle Scholar; (3) the incised setting for a bronze cross on the one extant cipollino column is significant; and (4) the motifs on a door lintel lying in the area are very close to some on the ambo of the Episcopal Basilica at Stobi (Hoddinott, op. cit.). This important monument deserves to be carefully surveyed and published.
