969 



BASILICA. 



BASILICA. 



.76 



title ' Basilica repetitae prselectionis.' From that time the book was 

 commonly used as a code of jurisprudence in the Eastern Empire, 

 whilst it still retains its value in our own day, as a treatise explanatory 

 of Justinian's collection of law. 



The Basilica contains the code, digests, institutes, and novella; of 

 the ' Corpus Juris ; ' and in the latter divisions are inserted some of 

 the later edicts of Justinian himself, of the subsequent emperors 

 of Constantinople, and of Basil the Macedonian in particular ; and also 

 a few extracts from the fathers, and decrees of early councils of the 

 Church. 



The Greek translation of the Roman law was, in all probability, not 

 made expressly for this work, as the four books containing the insti- 

 tutions of Justinian are known to have been in existence in the Greek 

 language previous to the time of Basil the Macedonian. 



Hervetus first published, in Latin only, in 1557, four complete books 

 of the Basilica (lib. 45-48), and two books (28, 29) incomplete. A 

 splendid edition of the Basilica, accompanied by a Latin translation 

 and several valuable scholia, and prepared from a collation of various 

 manuscripts in the Vatican and the Bibliothcque du Roi, was published 

 at Paris by Fabrot, in 1647, 7 vols. fol., to which is prefixed a Report 

 to Pope Urban VIII. upon the history of the Basilica, by Joseph Maria 

 Suarez ; but this edition only contains thirty-three books complete, 

 and ten others incomplete. Reitz, in 1752, added four books (49-52), 

 following those of Hervetus ; but both editions together only contain 

 thirty-six books complete, and seven with considerable lacunae in them. 

 Cujacius undoubtedly possessed the Greek text of Book 53-59 inclusive ; 

 and the manuscript is possibly still extant, or it must have been lost a 

 long time ago. [CujAClus, Bioo. Drv.] A new edition has been pub- 

 lished since 1835, at Leipzig, by Professor Heimbach of Jena, in which 

 are comprehended the various readings obtained by the collation of 

 several manuscripts not examined by Fabrot. For a history of the 

 Basilica, see Heimbach's treatise ' De Basilicorum origine fontibus, 

 scholiis, atque nova editione adornanda ; ' see also ' The'mis ou Biblio- 

 theque du Juris Cousulte,' vols. viii., ix., and x., for some observations 

 upon the use made by Cujacius of the Basilica. Those readers of the 

 Post Justinianean Law who may be prosecuting inquiries into the 

 history and text of the Basilica, will do well to refer to Haubold's 

 ' Manuale Basiliconun,'-which, in addition to an accurate enumeration 

 of the books and titles, contains abundant references to parallel 

 passages, as well as to the works of modern civilians. 



BASI'LICA, from the Greek /SaeriAiK?), literally signifies a royal resi- 

 dence : but we have no account of any royal residence being specially 

 called by that name ; nor have we any description of Greek edifices 

 called Basilica:, which may be supposed to have furnished the model of 

 the Roman basilica. The name, indeed, is Greek, and it is highly 

 probable that the building itself was framed on a Greek model, though 

 the fact does not appear to be capable of direct proof. The building at 

 Athens, called the Ba.ai\tios STOO, or Royal Portico, seems to have 

 been pretty much like a Roman Basilica, as to the purposes for which 

 it was used. This edifice, which is mentioned by Demosthenes 

 (' Against Aristogeiton,' chap. 6), contained the court of the Archon 

 Basileus [ABOHON] ; and the Areopagus occasionally held their sittings 

 there. (See also Pausanias, i. 3.) 



The Romans gave the name of Basilica? to those public buildings 

 with spacious halls, often siirrounded with wide porticoes, many of 

 which were built at different times in the various fora of Rome. 

 They were usually called after the person who caused them to be built, 

 as the Basilica ^Emiliana, Porcia, &c. (Livy, xxxix. 44.) At the time 

 of the conflagration recorded in Livy (xxvi. 27), B.C. 210, there were no 

 basilica; then built. We read in the ' Bellum Alexandrinum ' (cap. 62) 

 that the basilica was used in the Spanish provinces at the date (B.C. 47) 

 to which that work refers. 



Copper Coin of Trajan, from the British Museum, representing on the reverse 

 the facade of the Basilica Ulpia. 



The principal feature of the Basilica was a large roofed building, 

 Supported on columns. The roof, which was called the tcstudo, rose 

 high above the other part of the structure, which consisted of two 

 galleries, called porticos, placed one above the other, and round the 

 internal sides' of the central building. The porticus was covered with 

 a lean-to roof, the upper part of which commenced below the capitals 

 of the columns which supported the testudo. The light was admitted 

 between the spaces formed by the under line of the architrave of the 

 tcatudo, the upper line of the lean-to roof, and the perpendicular lines 



of the columns. At the end of the central part of the interior a raised 

 platform formed the tribunal for a magistrate. The term testudo, as 

 its name implies, is strictly the roof of the central part ; but the term 

 is also extended to signify the whole of the central space, which corres- 

 ponds to what we call the nave of a church ; the porticoes correspond 

 to the aisles. 



The basilica was not only used as a hall for the administration of 

 justice, but afforded also convenient shelter to the merchants who 

 transacted business there. Vitruvius, who constructed a basilica at 

 the Julian colony at Fanum, informs us that it ought to be built " on 

 the warmest side of the forum, that those whose affairs called them 

 there might confer together without being incommoded by the weather." 

 " The breadth," he says, " is not to be made less than the third, nor 

 more than half, the length, unless the nature of the place opposes the 

 proportion, and obliges the symmetry to be different; but if the 

 basilica has too much length, chalcidica are made at the ends [CHAL- 

 CIDICUM], as in the basilica of Julia Aquiliana." (Newton's ' Trans- 

 lation.') 



The size and proportions of these edifices varied according to circum- 

 stances. The following proportions are given by Vitruvius for the 

 various parts of this structure. The columns of the basilica (by which 

 Vitruvius means the columns engaged in the wall) are to be made as 

 high as the porticus is broad ; the porticus is to be as wide as 

 the third part of the space in the middle. The columns of the upper 

 gallery must be one-fourth less than the lower. The pluteum (con- 

 tinued pedestal) must be made one-fourth less in height than the 

 upper columns, and be placed between the upper and lower columns, 

 that those who walk above may not be seen by the merchants ; from 

 which circumstance it would appear that the upper gallery was intended 

 for a purpose distinct from the uses of the lower gallery. It is 

 probable that in the upper gallery some kinds of handicraft were 

 carried on. 



The dimensions of the basilica built by Vitruvius at Fanum were as 

 follow : the testudo 120 Roman feet long, and 60 broad; the porticus 

 between the walls and columns of the testudo, 20 feet broad ; the 

 height of the columns of the testudo, including their capitals, 50 feet, 

 and the diameter 5 feet. Behind these were parastaticic, or small 

 piers, 20 feet high, 24 feet broad, and 1 foot thick, to sustain the 

 1. 2. 



1. Elevation of part of the basilica, showing the columns of the testudo above 



the lean-to roof of the porticus. 



2. Longitudinal section through the tcstudo. D, D, pluteum; E, E, columns of 



the testudo. 



11, Lower portico ; c, Upper ditto ; A, A, Parastaticje. 

 (Drawn according to the dimensions given by Vitruvius.) 



beams intended to bear the floor of the gallery. Over these were other 

 parastaticffi, 18 feet high, 2 feet broad, and 1 foot thick, which sup- 

 ported the lean-to roofs. The remaining space between the beams, which 

 were laid over the upper parastaticoo, and the architrave of the columns 

 of the testudo, was open to the light. In the basilica at Fanum, the 



