| Abstract: | Historians of religion, art, and archaeology often invoke theterm domus ecclesiae (o  o         ) as a technical category to denotea house or building that had been materially adapted for Christianritual during the ante-pacem period. Most employ the term inthe belief that it is genuinely pre-Constantinian, and thatChristians in this period described their cult spaces as renovatedhouses. This essay demonstrates the inaccuracy of both assumptions,and shows that the first attested literary use of the term datesno earlier than 313 CE, when Eusebius of Caesarea (d. 339) usedit in his writings to designate a church building without anyindication of its architectural form or history. Following adiscussion of the term's modern history and an analysis of theancient literary evidence, the essay concludes with a brieflook at the material evidence for domus ecclesiae, which, withone exception (the complex at Dura-Europos), also dates to thepost-Constantinian period. |
