B A S 



that robbed a tumba or porticulus, was to be fined fifteen 

 folidi ; but he that robbtd a hafilica, thirty folidi. 



BASILICA, or Basilicus, m /Inalomy, the name of a 

 vein, arillng from the axillar)' branch, and running the whole 

 lenc^th of the arm. The bafihca is one of the veins opened 

 in bksding in the arm. See Vein. 



Basilica, in ArcbiteSure. This word, which hasfiic- 

 cellivcly received ver)- different acceptations, is derived from 

 ^a<ri?,-i/;, kincr, and oixcj, houfe : it means therefore, etymolo- 

 gically, royal houfe. Perhaps the halls of juftice acquired 

 this name in early antiquity, when the judging the people 

 might be regarded as the peculiar regal prerogative ; and 

 it was natural that they fliould retain this appellation, when 

 juilice was no longer adminillered by kings. Among the 

 public edifices compofed of a fingle building, the balilica 

 appears to have been one of the largeft. It was, among the 

 Romans, an a-rplo liall adjoining to the Fonim, in which the 

 magiftrates judged under cover ; which dilbnguilhed it 

 from the fora, where they held their fittings in the open air. 

 Here the tribunes and centumvirs adminillered juilice, and 

 the jurifco;ifulti and legifts in the pay of the republic, ad- 

 vifed thofe who came to confult them. Young orators de- 

 claimed in feparate apartments, and the porticos were oc- 

 cupied by merchants and traders. Ttuis thefe edifices were 

 at the fame time applied to the purpofes of commerce and 

 judicature. 



It is to be lamented that the antique bafilicas have fo en- 

 tirely periihed, that the conllruftion and difpofilion of them 

 are involved in great doubt and obfcurity. Vitruvius, the 

 only ancient architeft whofe writings have dcfcendtd to us, 

 gives the following defcription of the Roman baillica. 



" The bafilica fhould be adjoined to the forum on the 

 warmeft fide, that the merchants may confer together with- 

 out being incommoded by the weather. Tlie breadth is 

 not made lefs than the third, nor more than the half of the 

 length, unlefsthe nature of the place oppofes the proportion, 

 and obliges the fymmetry to be different. But if the bafi- 

 lica has too much length, chalcidic« are made at the ends, 

 as they are in the bafilica of Julia Aquiiiana. The columns 

 of the bafilica ^re made as high as the portico is broad. 

 The portico is the third part of the fpace in the middle ; the 

 upper columns are a fourth part lefs than the lower. The 

 pluteum, which is between the upper columns, fhould alfo 

 be made a fourth part lefs than the fame columns, that thofe 

 who walk in the floor above may not be feen by the mer- 

 chants below. The epiflilium, zophorus, and coronae, are 

 proportioned to the columns, in the manner explained in the 

 third book." 



The bafilica, however, which Vitnivius erected at the 

 colony of Julia of Fanum, did not conform to the foregoing 

 precepts. It is thus defcribed : " the middle telludo (aifle or 

 rave) is 120 feet long, and 60 feet broad ; the furrounding 

 portico between the walls and columns is 20 feet broad. 

 The columns, continued the whole height of the building, 

 are 50 feet, including the capitals, and 5 feet in diameter ; 

 having behind them pilafters 20 feet high, which fuflain the 

 beams that bear the floor of the upper porticos. Above 

 thefe pilaflers are others 1 8 feet high, which fupport the 

 ceihng of the upper porticos, whicli is laid lower than the 

 roof of the tefludo, the fpace between being left open in the 

 inteicolumniations for light. The columns in the breadth 

 of the telludo are four, including thofe of the angles ; and 

 in the length, of the fide next the forum, including the 

 fame angles, eight. On the other fide there are but fix, 

 the two in the middle being omitted, that they may not 

 obftrucl the view of the pronaus of the temple of Auguftus, 

 which is fituated in the middle of the lide wall of the b^ilica. 



B A S 



The tribunal in this bu'Iding is in the figure of a hemicycic, 

 extending in front 46 feet, and receffing in the centre of the 

 curvature 15 feet; fo that thofe who attend the magillrate 

 obflrutt not the merchants in the bafilica." 



From the preceding defcriptions it would appear, that the 

 ancient bafilica confiiled of a great nave in the middle, fur- 

 ro'jiided with only one range of porticos ; and it is thus 

 that it has been reprefcnted in the defigns of all who have 

 reftored it from the words of Vitruvius. However, the 

 fragments of the plan of Rome taken under Scptimius Se- 

 verus, which Hill exifl, fhew a part of the bafilica iEmiliana; 

 and in this authentic record we find two rows of columns 

 on each fide, which, fuppofing an exterior wall, would give 

 two ranges of porticos. But this valuable relic gives realon 

 to doubt, whether the bafilicas were furrounded with walls, 

 or whether their porticos, open on every fide, communicated 

 with the public places. The defcription of Vitruvius explains 

 nothing in t!iis particular ; but it may perhaps be inferred 

 from what he recommends relative to the warmth of the ex- 

 pofure, thnt they were not inclofed. 



Suppofing the entrance of the bafilica to be at one end, 

 the other was terminated by a hemicycle, in which was 

 placed the tribunal ; this circular end anfwers to the abfidium 

 of the Chriftian bafilica. The chalcidica mentioned by 

 Vitruvius have given rife to various conjeAures, which it 

 would be ufelefi to detail, as we have no data from which 

 any other inference can be drawn, than that they were fome 

 kind of apartments, feparated by a partition, at the ends of 

 bafilicas. 



Before the excavations made at Otricoli, and the difco- 

 veries which were the refult, we had only conjcfturcs on the 

 form and nature of the ancient bafilica ; uncertain veflige* 

 were all that remained of thofe of Rome, and the fituation 

 of the famous bafilicas, ^Emilia and Fulvia, was fought in 

 vain at Prxnefte. The m.onument of Otricoli, therefore, 

 ought to be very precious if we find in it a true bafilica, of 

 which the reader will be enabled to judge from the folio v/ing 

 defcription. 



To difcem the eflential charatler of a bafilica, it will be 

 ufeful previoufly to confider the difference between it and a 

 temple. The original form of a temple is an oblong cella 

 or body, furrounded with porticos ; and even v.here the la- 

 teral porticos were fupprelled, they were never deprived of 

 a pronaus or portico in front. In fhort, in the bafilica the 

 porticos were internal and external in the temple. Now the 

 edifice of Otricoli has no exterior colonade, neither pronaus 

 nor periilile. It is a fquare building, furrounded \vith a fimple 

 wall. In the middle the entrance is by a rnllic opening, with- 

 out any veili^e of decoration. The interior confiils of a 

 great hall, divided by porticos into three naves or aifle:. 

 The portico immediately oppofite the entrance is compofed 

 of three arches ; eight Corinthian columns form the remain- 

 ing three porticos ; the further end of the building is occu- 

 pied by a hemicycle or tribunal, on each fide of which is a 

 fmall apartment. The tribunal is afcended by feveral flcps ; 

 and round the interior of the edifice is continued a pe- 

 dellal, on which were ftatues which have been tranfported 

 to the Mufeum Vaticanum. The ceiling was probably of 

 wood, as there are no remains of a vault. No vcfliges lead 

 even to fufpedl that in the middle there might be a bafe 

 for a ftatue, or any thing that indicates a tem.ple. 



This monument is certainly deficient in many of the cha- 

 rafterillics of a bafilica ; its plan is an exadl fquare inflead 

 of an oblong, and the upper galleries are wanting. How- 

 ever, confidering to what variations thefe edifices were fub- 

 jeft, according to the riches, the fize of towns, and the di- 

 verfities of fituation ; and how much Vitruvius, tlie author 

 5Ba of 



