A good place to start to see the changes of this period is to contrast two palaces of the late third to early fourth centuries. The Piazza Armerina in inland Sicily is a sprawling country villa that recalls Hadrian’s Villa at Tivoli, whereas the Palace of Diocletian at Split (on Croatia’s Adriatic coast) is a rigidly planned complex that recalls the Roman military camp, but with features that will be taken up in future architecture.
The Piazza Armerina was built in the early fourth century by an unknown person of distinction and wealth. This palace consists of a series of pavilions, placed in a tighter arrangement than Hadrian’s Villa (Figure 25.1). It is famous for its many floor mosaics, covering approximately 3,000m2. Illustrated here is a comic chariot race, in which the chariots are pulled by flamingoes and pigeons and ridden by boys (Figure 25.2). The style is late antique, and is an excellent example of art of this period. Such floor mosaics will continue to be laid elsewhere, with a notable sixth-century example in the Great Palace at Constantinople.
Figure 25.1 Plan, Piazza Armerina
Figure 25.2 Mosaic from Piazza Armerina (detail): comic chariot race
The Palace of Diocletian at Split offers a different synthesis of past and future (Figures 25.3 and 25.4). It was laid out in a near square, 175m and 181m x 216m, with fortified walls with square and octagonal towers; inside, two main streets cross, like a cardo and decumanus. The feeling is definitely that of a fortified military camp, a result perhaps of the uncertainty of the times, and so Diocletian, who indeed included military leadership among his duties, honored a Roman principle of planning developed many centuries before. Inside, however, certain features are characteristic of the late third to early fourth centuries, not earlier. First, in one centrally placed peristyle court, the porticoes are arcaded, with, at the rear, a Greek-type pediment combined with a Roman arch, a favorite design of late Roman architecture (Figure 25.5). And second, the emperor’s mausoleum is a building of the type known as the marlyrium, a free-standing round or, as here, octagonal building which would become the standard form for marking the burial of an important or saintly person or, in Christian times, the site of a major religious event (such as the Nativity ofJesus).
Also included in this palace complex is a Golden Gate (Porta Aurea) on the north; Constantinople will later have its own celebrated Golden Gate. A Temple of Jupiter with a barrel vault lies symmetrically opposite the mausoleum, on the other side of the peristyle court. And on the south side, a big rectangular hall with two additional halls to the west are among the reception rooms opening onto a sea-side gallery running the full length of the building (here labelled “Living Quarter”). The rest of the palace is not well known, because of the alterations caused by later rebuilding.
Figure 25.3 Plan, Diocletian's Palace, Split
Figure 25.4 Diocletian’s Palace (reconstruction), Split
Figure 25.5 Peristyle Court, Diocletian’s Palace
World History
