The Early Christian basilica rises in a densely built-up area of the city lying between the hexagonal basin, the transverse channel, Via Portuensis, and Fossa Traiana. Its construction marks the final stage in a gradual process of transformation of pre-existing complexes built starting in the mid-1st century AD. During the 4th century AD, a residential-type building with mosaic and opus sectile floor was erected, later to be transformed with the construction of a spacious aula with mosaic floor, already likely to have been used for Christian worship during this phase, subdivided into three naves by two rows of eight columns.
Fragment of the mosaic floor of the residential building
Detail of the residential building’s opus sectile and mosaic floor
Detail of the frame of the aula’s floor mosaic
Detail of central depiction in the aula’s floor mosaic
Reconstruction of the residential building’s opus sectile and mosaic floor
(M. Maiorano
Preparations of opus sectile and mosaic floor of the residential building
Aula’s mosaics covered by a structure