biblical names of Zion and Jerusalem had been largely forgotten; and Aelia Capitolina, with its colonnades, with its Forum surrounded by temples and municipal monuments, with its Capitol and its camp of legionaries, differed nowise from other Roman provincial cities, whose sole ambition it was to emulate the metropolis.
When Constantine made Christianity the State religion of the Empire, he determined that Jerusalem should give in its buildings striking evidence of the change.
The sites of Calvary and of the Holy Sepulchre had not disappeared by the beginning of the fourth century; and for more than ten years from 325 A.D. onwards Constantine lavished the skill of his builders and much treasure on giving to these sites a worthy covering. It was his aim to surpass the most ambitious architectural monuments of previous ages; and, from the vestiges which contemporary archaeology has been able to recover, the realization fell not far short of his ambition.
The impressive group known as the "Holy Sepulchre," consisting of a collection of separate edifices within a single enclosure, evoked universal enthusiasm and attempts at imitation throughout Christendom. It marked, however, no striking departure from the principles and details of classical architecture. The rotunda of the Holy Sepulchre was derived from the Pantheon, itself modelled on the mausoleums of the Hellenistic age; the basilica of the Martyrium was purely Roman; the porticos differed only in their additional decoration from the porticos and peristyles to be met with throughout Aelia Capitolina or any other Romanized city. At the same time, Christian symbolism, ritual requirements and liturgical developments began to effect certain adaptations in purely classical art.
The internal troubles of the Empire after the death of Constantine for a time diminished building activity in the Holy Places; and during this period only the Church of the Caenaculum was added (towards 345) to the original trilogy of Holy Sepulchre, Mt. of Olives and Bethlehem,
