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Late antique sponsors of architectural projects gained status from their benefactions. After the middle of the fourth century many patrons in Rome devoted their energies to conserving pre-existing buildings, in part due to a law of 364 ce curtailing the use of civic funds for the construction of new buildings.2At the same time, codes of civility encouraged restorers to honour the original founders of buildings as esteemed forebears. Through the display of inscriptions connecting the restorer's prestige to that of the original benefactor, the transformation of a pre-existing structure into a church during late antiquity commemorated cross-generational affiliations in keeping with the Roman textual practice of recording those who sponsored repairs.3In late antiquity, preserving and reusing buildings both guaranteed the survival of ancient architecture and constructed identities for those who maintained the late classical past.
This essay examines a patron who converted the fourth-century secular basilica of Junius Bassus into the church of Sant'Andrea Catabarbara. Exploring how the Christian patron's identity was grafted onto the pre-existing structure, the pages to follow investigate how a building transformed into a church was crucial to setting forth the multiple facets of the donor's status.4The discussion establishes that the benefactor negotiated élite identity by converting the late antique basilica into a church as a late outgrowth of civic patronage in Rome. The sponsor in question, Valila, was a Romanized Goth who established Sant'Andrea Catabarbara and honoured Pope Simplicius (468-83) in the process.5Within the interior of Sant'Andrea Catabarbara, the juxtaposition between Christian mosaics and pre-existing pagan images produced a dissonant clash resulting from Valila's desire to conserve most of the structure's historic features. Conscious to preserve visible signs of the original patron, Valila kept an inscription inserted by the founder, Junius Bassus, and conserved the pagan inlaid marbles decorating the side walls.6Further, the interior decoration of Sant'Andrea Catabarbara included the surprising survival of a nude image of Hylas (Fig. 1), bringing classical discourses on gender and sexuality into a consideration of church architecture. Questions about the formation of individual identity through architectural sponsorship emerge. Specifically, did Valila's strategy of honouring an earlier founder contribute to the visual appearance of the early Christian church?...