At the same time he built the basilica of the holy martyr Agnes1, at the request of Constantia2, his daughter, and a baptistery3 in the same place, where both his sister, Constantia, and the daughter of Augustus were baptised by Silvester, the bishop, where also he presented the following gifts:
a paten of purest gold, weighing 20 lbs.;
a golden chalice, weighing 10 lbs.;
a chandelier of purest gold with 30 dolphins, weighing 15 lbs.;
2 silver patens, weighing each 20 lbs.;
5 silver chalices, weighing each 110 lbs.;
30 silver chandeliers, weighing each 8 lbs.;
40 chandeliers of brass;
40 candelabra of brass overlaid with silver and adorned with reliefs;
a golden lamp with 12 wicks, which weighs 20 lbs., over the font, weighing 15 lbs.;
likewise a gift for revenue:
all the land about the city of Fidelinae4, yielding 160 sol.;
on the Via Salaria as far as the ruins, all the land of the holy Agnes, yieldin, 105 sol.;
the land of Mucus, yielding 80 sol.;
the property of Vicus Pisonis, yielding 350 sol.; [250 sol.;]
the land of Casulac, yielding 100 sol.
| |
1. The church of Sant' Agnese on the Via Nomentana, erected over the traditional tomb of the virgin martyr, was rebuilt by Honorius I in the seventh century, so that it is now uncertain if any part of the present structure belongs to the age of Constantine.
2. The name of Constantine's daughter was Constantina. Originally an acrostic inscription in the apse of the basilica commemorated the dedication of the church in her name. Constantine's sister was Constantia. Duchesne, op. cit., p. 106, n. 80.
3. The small, circular building, now known as the church of Santa Costanza, was used originally as a mausoleum but may have been intended also as a baptistery. The huge porphyry sarcophagus, at present in the Vatican Museum, stood in a niche in the wall facing the entrance and a baptismal font may have occupied the central space under the dome. The arrangement would then have been similar to that in the Lateran baptistery, and the shape of the two buildings, with their double apsed vestibules, is not unlike. At any rate there is no vestige of another baptistery in the vicinity. There is no unimpeachable account of the baptism of the princesses of Constantine's house, but it is not, of course, improbable that such a ceremony took place. Ammianus Marcllinus tells us that in the year 360 the body of Helena, one of Constantine's daughters, was sent to Rome to be buried on the Via Nomentana, outside the city, where her sister Constantina already lay. Roman History, XXI, 1; tr. Yonge, Bohn's Library, p. 244.
4. Probably Fidenze, the modern Castel Giubileo, five miles from Rome, near the Via Salaria.
|