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| The semi-domed and rounded area at the terminus of a Christian basilica or at the ends of a secular Roman basilica. |
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| The emperor associated with the transition from a pagan to a Christian Roman Empire and the subsequent changes in the arts. Art began to abandon the verisimilitude ("true-likeness" or realism) of the Greek classical heritage in favor of an increase in abstraction and reduction suitable for the increasingly spiritual content of much of the arts in the 4th century AD. Constantine founded the new capital of the Empire in what was formerly Byzantium and renamed it Constantinople (now Istanbul). |
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| A series of underground passageways and chambers most often associated with the Christians who buried their dead there and sometimes used them during the worst persecutions of the sect (under Diocletian) in order to escape or hide from the authorities. Easily carved out of tufa (volcanic stone), the catacombs had a marvelous structural integrity. |
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| A central plan, domed structure, built as a memorial. |
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| The original church and basilica founded by Constantine in Rome to honor the martyred St. Peter, chief of Jesus' disciples and first high priest of the Christians. The church was begun in AD 313 and was the most significant of the Early Christian basilicas. It was torn down in the early 16th century in order to build the grandiose new structure worked on by Bramante, Raphael, Michelangelo, and others. |
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