Vedere e interpretare le pietre: Eusebio di Cesarea e la basilica di Tiro

Between 313 and 321 Eusebius of Caesarea wrote a panegyric about the reconstruction of the cathedral of Tire. Some descriptive elements of the text allow us to imagine what the shape of the church was. Eusebius, however, is more interested in using the building as a starting point to praise the Christian community and its bishop, to narrate some stages of the history of salvation, to establish a parallel with the Temple of Jerusalem and the celestial temple, to declare the fulfi llment of divine prophecies and to develop his own allegorical exegesis. As for the actual building, Eusebius describes it using the rhetorical model of the ekphrasis, in order to build a vivid image of the basilica in the reader’ s mind using only words.  ere is no random usage of the words that refer to space and time in Eusebius’ de- scription of the basilica; the author chooses them with care as they refl ect his theological agenda.