teenth. The patriarchate was exceedingly prosperous under Poppo
(1019-1045), who had been chancellor to Henry II. He moved his seat back
to Aquileia from Cividale, built a fine palace (of which the two
isolated pillars and the ruined walls to the south of the cathedral
remain) and the existing cathedral, using portions of an earlier one as
material.

As at Parenzo, excavations have revealed the plan of earlier buildings
upon and around the site of the cathedral. This was the Capitol of the
ancient city, and probably a street ran between the baptistery and the
cathedral. To the north lay the forum and the cattle-market, as
inscriptions prove. The discovery of drains proves that there were
dwelling-houses as well as temples near; but the wall of the original
city was just east of the cathedral, and beyond it a branch of the
Natisone flowed, affording additional protection. The river was
canalised and navigable for seven miles. The piers of a bridge still
remain near Monastero.

A large antique building of some kind, perhaps a prison or
courts-of-law, connected with the martyrdom of SS. Hermagoras and
Fortunatus, was used in the construction of the first cathedral, and
portions of imperial work are to be seen in the lower parts of the
eastern wall and the paving of the crypt. The baptistery, which rises to
the west, also is on the base of a heathen temple. In the year 348 a new
church was so far ready that a great meeting could be held in it, at
which the emperor's brother was present, Athanasius tells us. It was
finished in 381, when a council was held in it. The destruction wrought
by Attila appears to have been complete, for no inscriptions have been
found of his date, nor any Lombard objects, and at the time of the
Lombard invasion the patriarch fled to Grado with all the church
valuables, and moved his seat thither.

The foundations show that there were two basilicas side by side, with a
narthex common to both and a passage between them up to the transept. To
the south the narthex terminated in an apse nearly 20 ft. across, and
there was a hall, probably open to the sky, between the narthex and the
baptistery, with others to the north and south of it. The basilica to
the north of the present cathedral extended under the campanile and the
graveyard, and mosaics of its floor have been found on two levels,
sunken in part by the weight of the campanile. The lower mosaic has been
found over a space of more than 120 ft.,