7 - Benedict III, Nicholas I and Hadrian II, and the Continuing ‘Greek’ Presence in Rome

Summary

Spanning much of the third quarter of the century, the pontificates of Benedict III (855–858), Nicholas I (858–867) and Hadrian II (867–872) reveal a declining papal involvement in the patronage of architecture, though also considerable engagement with ecclesiastical issues of the day, including dramatically renewed contacts with Constantinople and the eastern Mediterranean in the aftermath of the definitive end of Byzantine Iconoclasm and the ‘Triumph of Orthodoxy’. In addition to the growing importance of the Roman secular aristocracy, whose domestic housing has been rediscovered in recent archaeology, evidence is surveyed for the continuing presence of a substantial Greek community in Rome, and for interest in the translation of Greek texts in the circle of the papal librarian, Anastasius. Among the most prominent survivals from these years is the tomb of St Cyril, the Byzantine missionary to the Slavs, in the lower church of San Clemente.