eath of Augustus, for Suetonius (_Aug_.
100) tells us that the body of that emperor, when it was brought from Nola
in Campania to Rome, rested "_in basilica cujusque oppidi._"

[Illustration: FIG. 4.--Interior view of Trajan's Basilica (_Basilica
Ulpia_), as restored by Canina.]

As regards existing examples, neither in the peninsula nor the provinces
can it be said that these give any adequate idea of the former abundance
and wide distribution of basilicas. Northern Africa contributes one or two
examples, and a plan is given of that at Timgad (fig. 6). The Gallic
basilicas, which must have been very numerous, are represented only by the
noble structure at Trier (Treves), which is now a single vast hall 180 ft.
long, 90 ft. wide and 100 ft. high, commanded at one end by a spacious
apse. There is reason to conjecture that this is the basilica erected by
Constantine, and some authorities believe that originally it had internal
colonnades. In England basilicas remain in part at Silchester (fig. 7),
Uriconium (Wroxeter), [v.03 p.0472] Chester (?) and Lincoln, while three
others are mentioned in inscriptions (_C.I.L._ vii. 287, 445, 965).

A comparison of the plans of existing basilicas shows considerable variety
in form. Some basilicas (Julia, Ulpia, Pompeii) have the central space
surrounded by galleries supported on columns or piers, according to the
normal scheme, and the newly excavated Basilica Aemilia, north of the Roman
forum, agrees with these. In some North African examples, in the palace
basilica of Domitian, and at Silchester, there are colonnades down the long
sides but not across the ends. Others (Trier [?], Timgad) have no interior
divisions. One (Maxentius) is entirely a vaulted structure and in form
resembles the great halls of the Roman Thermae. At Pompeii, Timgad and
Silchester, there are fixed tribunals, while vaulted apses that may have
contained tribunals occur in the basilica of Maxentius. In the Basilica
Julia there was no tribunal at all, though we know that the building was
regularly used for the centumviral court (Quint. xii. 5. 6), and the same
was the case in the Ulpia, for the semicircular projection at the end shown
on the Capitoline-plan, was not a vaulted apse and was evidently distinct
from the basilica.

[Illustration: FIG. 5.--Section of the Basilica of Maxentius or Constantine
(Temple of Peace).]

In view of the above it might be questioned whether it is safe to speak of
a normal form