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Roman Basilica

A basilica (Lat. from Gk. basilike, royal, scil. stoa, porch) is the large colonnaded building used by the Romans for the transaction of business and legal affairs; also the common type of the early Christian churches. The name is derived from the stoa Basileios, or king's portico, at Athens. In Rome itself the two most famous examples built under the Empire were the Ulpia, erected by Trajan in his forum, and that begun by Maxentius and finished by Constantine, unique for its immense vaulting of tunnel and groin vaults; for all other known basilicas appear to have had wooden roofs except the Ulpian, whose roof was of bronze. It is a common error to suppose that they were roofed only over their side aisles or porticoes with the central space open to the sky; this may, however, have been the case at Pompeii.

The Roman public basilica was therefore a sort of covered forum. The terra was, however, extended to other colonnaded halls and porticoes of similar plan, but connected with theatres, baths, temples, and even palaces and villas. The largest room in sumptuous houses, with a higher roofed central section with windows and two rows of columns forming lower side aisles (as in Domitian's palace on the Palatine), frequently served wealthy converts to Christianity in the earliest times as a place of worship.

Vitruvius says: "Basilicas ought to be built in the warmest quarters of the market places, in order that, in winter, the merchants assembling there may not be inconvenienced by bad weather"; and elsewhere he speaks of the tribunal projected like a hemicycle from the main building, so "that those who stand near the magistrates may not be disturbed by those doing business in the basilica." These buildings varied in proportions and arrangement. Vitruvius, who built one himself at Fanum, says that they should be oblong, their width being between one-third and one-half of their length, and divided into three parts by two rows of columns, the central part being three times as wide as the two sides, which are called porticoes. A second story is made over the porticoes by a second series of shorter columns forming a gallery with a marble parapet, which usually extends also across the short ends and was used for promenaders and spectators.

At one of the short ends a tribunal projects in the form of a semicircular or square apse: Here sits the judge, or pretor, surrounded by his assessors or jurymen; it is often partly screened off from the main body of the building by smaller columns and is on a higher level. On either side of it is a small room connected with it - cabinet or robing room. There are many variations from the three-aisled type described by Vitruvius. Some are halls with a single nave, without porticoes or galleries, as at Aquino and Palestrina; others - and these the most splendid - have as many as five aisles, with four rows of columns; e.g., the Basilicas Julia and Ulpia; others have two hemicycles, one at each end, as Trajan's Basilica Ulpia; others are virtually square in form, as at Otricoli; others-and these are the majority-have no upper galleries; others, finally, have heavy piers and vaults in place of colonnades and wooden roof, as the colossal Basilica of Constantine. The tribunal end appears to have had a solid wall, but on the other three sides the building was often open, with either a simple colonnade (Ulpia) or a mixed arcade with engaged columns and entablature (Julia) such as are familiar in the Coliseum. Some, however, were inclosed by walls on three sides, as the Ulpian, or on all sides, as at Pompeii.

For 500 years the Romans built basilicas (c.200 BC to 300 AD) as one of their most characteristic and sumptuous monumental expressions, alongside of their memorial arches, aqueducts, and thermae. Until 184 BC their commercial and judicial business had been mostly transacted in the open forum. But in that year the Basilica Porcia was built (burned in 52 BC) ; in 179 the Fulvia; in 169 the Sempronia; in 121 the Opimia; in 46 the Julia. Pliny calls the /Emilia and the Julia two of the four most superb monuments of Rome. They flanked the Forum on opposite sides, and their ruins have recently been studied with great care.

Everywhere that Roman colonies were established under the late republic and the Empire basilicas were built in connection with the fora. They were the necessary outward sign of the Roman law, the seat of justice as well as of trade. The earliest basilica in good preservation is that at Pompeii, which has excited the greater interest because it may represent the original Greek type; it has an open porch, five doors, three aisles, a portico across both ends, and a well preserved, raised, oblong tribunal at one' end. Other examples exist: in the Orient, at Palmyra; in Germany, at Treves.

As the only type of covered structure suitable for large gatherings, it was natural that both the type and the name of the basilica should be adopted for Christian churches. The arrangements suited the requirements of the Christian liturgy. The hemicycle became the apse; the bishop and presbyters sat upon the bema, where the judge and his assessors had been; in place of the altar of a pagan god, the tomb of a martyr or saint stood in front of the bema; the congregation could conveniently be arranged along the side porticoes or aisles-men on one side, women on the other (or, in the East, men below and women in the galleries). The main change at first was the omission of the cross colonnades across the short ends. Later an atrium was often added at the front, and in some cases a transverse hall or arm intersected the nave in front of the bema or apse. The most splendid examples of the early basilican type of church were the three vast five-aisled basilicas of the fourth century in Rome dedicated respectively to St. Peter, St. Paul (outside the walls), and St. John (at the Lateran), of these the first was demolished ; the second, burned in 1823, has been reconstructed with great splendor; the third, though standing, has been completely transformed by successive remodelings.