Morehouse/Death's Dominion, 2. To Build Up

Chapter two moves on to examine how two seminal early fourth-century figures, Constantine and Damasus, helped determine the development of the veneration of the martyrs. Constantine was responsible for the construction of numerous church structures, and explicitly developed the basilica as a seat of Christian power. Many, if not all of these structures incorporated pre-existent martyr veneration, which Constantine sought to harness for his own purposes. Ultimately Constantine would design his own funerary monument in Constantinople and, through his translation of the relics of Stephen and Luke, lay the foundation for a trans-local understanding of the remains of the important dead. Damasus, the bishop of Rome, following Constantine, sought to deal with his own issues of control by presenting a unified image of the church though the inscriptions that he placed around the tombs of the martyrs.