Owners of Imperial Mausoleums at Rome in the Fourth Century

Abstract

The article gives an overview of the various Imperial mausoleums of the 4th century AD. The author points out that the commonly held view that a mausoleum formed an integral part of late Antique Imperial dwellings, is wrong; in fact, it holds good only for the mausoleum of Maxentius outside Rome. An object of discussion is the shift from pagan two-storied mausoleums with a crypt underneath to Christian ones with only one level. The latter type was used for the Constantinian mausoleums adjacent to the U-shaped funerary basilicas which this Emperor constructed outside Rome, with one exception: the so-called Tor de’ Schiavi mausoleum, which is of the traditional pagan type. It is here suggested that the building was originally intended for Diocletian, and that the funerary basilica was a later addition.