Oratorio dei Quaranta Martiri is a ruined 8th century oratory located in the Roman Forum near the ruined church of Santa Maria Antiqua.
The dedication is to the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste.
(...) Martyrdom of the Forty
The fresco in the apse depict the torture and martyrdom of forty soldiers who were killed for their faith at Sebaste (Turkish Sivas) in Roman Armenia during the persecution of Diocletian in the early 4th century. The story is that they were driven naked onto a frozen lake in winter as the sun was setting, and left there all night with a heated bath-house standing on the shore. Only one of the forty denied his faith and was let into the bath, and those who had not died of exposure by sunrise were then killed. An additional detail was that a soldier on guard was so impressed by their fortitude that he declared himself a Christian and was immediately killed as well, thus preserving the round number of forty.
The fresco in the apse, fortunately fairly intact, depicts the martyrs standing on the ice with modesty aprons of either yellow or red (which they did not have in the legend). The apostate is shown entering the bath house to the right, and the replacement soldier is next to the door.
The conch above used to have a geometric design of rosettes in circles, but this has perished.
Crosses
The wall to the left of the apse has a very unusual depiction of what seemed to have been three hanging metal sculptures. These must have been contemporary late 8th century church decorations. One of the three has almost perished. The shared design of the other two involves a Greek cross in gold with a central circular medallion, within an enamelled gold ring having a snakeskin pattern. Golden chains connect the top and side arms and from these and the bottoms of the side arms hang other chains terminated by golden finials. The base of the cross is flanked by a pair of palm branches.
The surviving crosses differ in that the left hand medallion has a depiction of Christ, and that on the right is of Our Lady. The left hand ring is coloured as a rainbow, and the right hand one is in red. A reasonable surmise is that the lost far left hand cross had a medallion of St John the Baptist, and that the original set of three hanging items embellished a Deesis.
The crosses are on a white background. Below them are fragmentary representations of two lambs and a peacock, also in golden yellow.
Apotheosis of the Forty
The left hand wall has a large, badly perished fresco of the Forty Martyrs in glory. They are depicted as imperial court officials, in white robes edged with purple and holding hand-crosses. At the back centre is a bust of Christ. Interestingly, the faces are of individuals and it is possible that the models were members of the imperial governing establishment on the Palatine or the pope's courtiers or both.
There are scanty traces of a higher fresco register, originally six separate scenes which the excavators thought had depicted the legend of the Forty
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