202 PROC. COTTESWOLD CLUB vol. xhi. (3) 



instead of " the Supreme Court " — for Bab is a gate in the 

 sense of Court, and Al is the Arabic equivalent of the 

 Hebrew El, " high " or " supreme," as in the name of the 

 Supreme Being. 



In Greece, we find this combination of the market and 

 the seat of justice in the Agora, which was at first a 

 market square in front of the King's Palace, gradually 

 developed into a set of porticoed buildings round a court, 

 or courts, with ample shaded ambulatories, the elevation 

 of one of which is shown in Plate IV., fig. 5. These 

 buildings included 



1. The market and shops. 



2. The town offices. 



3. A temple for worship. 



4. The Court of Justice and the prison. 



This Court was presided over by the second Archon, who 

 had to decide in matters connected with religion. As 

 during the monarchy this had been the duty of the king, 

 in his capacity of priest, the high magistrate on whom 

 the office devolved when the monarchy was aboli.shed, 

 was styled the " Archon Basileus," or King-Archon, and 

 the court-house itself was called the Stoa Basilcios. 



About two centuries before Christ the Romans borrowed 

 from the Greeks this combination of market and public 

 buildings, which the higher civilization of the (i reeks had 

 so developed, and with it the Greek name of the Law- 

 court, which they now termed the Basilica. At first the 

 building was simply a pillared j)ortico of two storeys — 

 that is, without side walls, if we may judge from the repre- 

 sentation of it on the coin of Lepidus, shown in Plate V., 

 fig. 2. As its use extended, however, to parts of the 

 Roman Empire where the climate made so much exposure 

 impossible, side walls were added, the whole now forming 

 a kind of cloister running round an unroofed or open 

 square. 



