t the same name ([Greek: basileios stoa]) was given to the grand
structure erected by Herod the Great along the southern edge of the Temple
platform at Jerusalem, and this corresponded to the Vitruvian scheme of a
columned fabric, with nave and aisles and clerestory lighting.

Whether the Roman basilicas, with which we are chiefly concerned, were
derived directly from the Athenian example, or mediately from this through
structures of the same kind erected in the later Greek cities, is hard to
say. We should naturally look in that direction for the prototypes of the
Roman basilicas, but as a fact we are not informed of any very early
basilicas in these cities. The earliest we know of is the existing basilica
at Pompeii, that may date back into the 2nd century B.C., whereas basilicas
made their appearance at Rome nearly at the beginning of that century. The
first was erected by M. Porcius Cato, the censor, in 184 B.C., and was
called after his name Basilica Porcia. Cato had recently visited Athens and
had been struck by the beauty of the city, so that it is quite possible
that the importation was direct.

[Illustration: FIG. 2.--Plan of Basilica Julia, Rome.

(From Baedeker's _Central Italy_, by permission of Karl Baedeker.)]

[Illustration: FIG. 3.--Plan of Basilica Ulpia, from Capitoline plan of
Rome.]

Rome soon obtained other basilicas, of which the important Basilica
Fulvia-Aemilia came next in point of time, till by the age of Augustus
there were at least five in the immediate neighbourhood of the forum, the
latest and most extensive being the Basilica Julia, which ran parallel to
its southern side, and is shown in plan in fig. 2. The great Basilica Ulpia
was built by Trajan in connexion with his forum about A.D. 112, and a
fragment of the Capitoline plan of Rome gives the scheme of it (fig. 3),
while an attempted restoration of the interior by Canina is shown in fig.
4. The vaulted basilica of Maxentius or Constantine on the Via Sacra dates
from the beginning of the 4th century, and fig. 5 gives the section of it.
The number of public basilicas we read of at Rome alone amounts to about a
score, while many private basilicas, for business or recreation, must also
have existed, that in the palace of Domitian on the Palatine being the best
known. In provincial cities in Italy, and indeed all over the empire,
basilicas were almost universal, and in the case of Italy we have proof of
this as early as the date of the d