Friday, December 9, 2022

Justinian's church in Adulis

Via Saraceni: two churches in Christian Adulis. The earlier one is done according to an indigenous standard; the later one has a dome. The former, dated after 400 but before the Sunless Year, hosted the episcopal seat. The latter is dated 480-625.

Both structures are distressingly vaguely dated. I might however hazard a context for the dome.

We are looking at Constantinopolitan influence at a time when the locals - by then firmly Ephesian and not Chalcedonian - were willing to share Communion with the capital. From AD 480 I cannot see outsider respect for the gimp Zeno, but Anastasius reigned AD 491-518 decidedly on the had-qnoma. Not long later, Justinian comes who - whatever his theology - was an absolute chad, over Egypt anyway. And he is very interested in keeping the Persians off the Red Sea.

More architecture will likely point to a reflection of the Hagia Sophia.

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