The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• The Works of Edward Gibbon
• The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
• Chapter Xxii
• Chapter Xxiii
• Chapter Xxiv
• Chapter Xxv
• Chapter Xxvi
• Appendix Additional Notes By the Editor
• 1.: Legend of the Finding of the True Cross — ( P. 76 )
• 2.: St. George — ( P. 98 )
• 3.: Churches of Constantine At Jerusalem — ( P. 75 )
• 4.: The Tigris and Euphrates — ( P. 127 )
• 5.: Authorities — ( C. Xxv . Sqq. )
• 6.: Picts and Scots — ( P. 226, 227 )
• 7.: The Death of Count Theodosius — ( P. 236 )
• 8.: Mellobaudes — ( P. 236, 257 )
• 9.: List of Kings of Persia, From Sapor II. To Kobad — ( P. 242 )
• 10.: The Origin of the Huns — ( C. Xxvi .)
• 11.: The Sarmatian War of 378 — ( P. 324 , N. 112 )
• 12.: Chronology of the Pacification of the Goths, 379, 380 — ( P. 329 Sqq. )

3.

CHURCHES OF CONSTANTINE AT JERUSALEM — (P. 75)

In regard to Constantine’s Churches at Jerusalem it may be said, without entering upon the question as to the true positions of Golgotha and the Holy Sepulchre, that it is certain that these Churches — (1) the round Church of the Anastasis which contained the Sepulchre, and the (2) adjacent Basilica, dedicated to the Cross — stood on the site of the present Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Injured by the Persians (614 ) they were restored some years later, and a plan of the buildings drawn up, towards the end of the seventh century, by the pilgrim Arculfus is extant, and is of great importance for the topography. Some traces of the old buildings still remain. “The relative position of the Churches is the same; the circular Church of the Anastasis has preserved its form; the south wall of the Basilica can be traced from ‘Calvary’ eastward, and one of the large cisterns constructed by Constantine has been discovered” (Sir C. Wilson, in Smith’s Dict. of the Bible, new ed., 1893, p. 1654). Mr. Fergusson’s theory which identified the Church of the Resurrection with the mosque known as Kubbet-es-Sakhrah, the Dome of the Rock (within the so-called “Haram area”), is now quite exploded.

The Dome of the Rock has its own question, but has nothing to do with Constantine. Is it of Saracenic origin dating from the end of the seventh century — built perhaps by a Greek architect? or was it originally a Christian Church, and converted into a mosque? It has been identified by Professor Sepp with a Church of St. Sophia built by Justinian. Sir C. Wilson thinks that it stands on the site of St. Sophia, which was destroyed by the Persians; “that it was rebuilt with the old material by Abdul-Melik who covered it with a dome, and that it was again repaired and redecorated by El Mamûn” (ib., p. 1657).

The adjacent mosque el-Aksa occupies the site of the mosque of Omar. It was built by Abd al Malik, “out of the ruins of Justinian’s Church of St. Mary” (Wilson, ib.), which is fully described by Procopius; but there is a difference of opinion whether the Church was on the same site as the mosque or (so Fergusson and others) in the south-eastern corner of the “Haram area,” where there are vaults apparently of the Justinianean age.

For further details see Sir C. Wilson’s article Jerusalem, cited above; Mr. T. H. Lewis’ essay on the Church of Constantine at Jerusalem in the Palestine Pilgrims’ Text Society, 1891; Sepp, Die Felsenkuppell eine Justinianische Sophien-kirche; various papers in the Palestine Exploration Fund publications.