The conversion of city centres in fifth-century Egypt.

Abstract

In Alexandria, the monumental establishment of Christianity in the heart of the city and thus the transformation of urban life and cityscape had reached a significant stage by the middle of the fourth century, when the episcopal cathedral moved from the western city gate to the Caesarion in the city centre. The case of Alexandria is exceptional, however. The transformation of the traditional cityscape took longer in other regions of the Empire1 and in the Egyptian countryside. A relatively well-documented case is that of Hermopolis Magna, capital of the Hermopolite nome, where the episcopal basilica2 was built in the city centre around 450,3 more than one century after the Caesarion had been donated to the Church4 and transformed from the temple of the imperial cult into the Patriarchal Cathedral of Alexandria. The episcopal church complex (Fig. 1)5 of Hermopolis Magna (modern Ashmunein, c. 320 km south of Cairo) was erected in the heart of the late Roman city6 at the junction of two colonnaded streets, viz., Antinoe Street, the main east-west road of the city, and the Dromos of Hermes, the north-south processional avenue lead-