were first expressly erected for Christian worship, in the
3rd or perhaps already in the 2nd century A.D. (Leclercq, _Manuel_, ch.
iii. "Les edifices chretiens avant la paix de l'eglise"), they probably
took the form of an oblong interior [v.03 p.0473] terminated by an apse.
After the time of Constantine, when the numbers of the faithful were
enormously increased, side aisles were added, and in this way the structure
came to assume an appearance similar to that of the civil basilica. A
striking confirmation of this view has recently come to light at S. Saba on
the Aventine at Rome, where a small and very early church, without aisles,
has been discovered beneath the floor of the present basilica.

There are, on the other hand, instances in which private basilicas in
palaces and mansions were handed over to the Christians for sacred uses. We
know that to have been the case with the basilicas of S. Croce in
Gerusalemme and S. Maria Maggiore at Rome, which originated in the halls of
the Sessorian and Liberian palaces respectively, granted by Constantine to
the Christians. We may adduce also as evidence of the same practice a
passage in bk. x. ch. 71 of the theological romance known as _The
Recognitions of Clement_, probably dating from the early half of the 3rd
century, in which we are told that Theophilus of Antioch, on his conversion
by St Peter, made over "the basilica of his house" for a church. But
however this may have been, with, perhaps, the single exception of S.
Croce, the existing Christian basilicas were erected from the ground for
their sacred purpose. At Rome the columns, friezes and other materials of
the desecrated temples and public buildings furnished abundant materials
for their construction. The decadence of art is plainly shown by the
absence of rudimentary architectural knowledge in these reconstructions.
Not only are columns of various heights and diameters made to do duty in
the same colonnade, but even different orders stand side by side (_e.g._
Ionic, Corinthian and Composite at S. Maria in Trastevere); while pilasters
assume a horizontal position and serve as entablatures, as at S. Lorenzo
fuori le Mura. There being no such quarry of ready-worked materials at
Ravenna, the noble basilicas of that city are free from these defects, and
exhibit greater unity of design and harmony of proportions.

[Illustration: FIG. 7.--Plan of Basilica adjoining the Forum of the Roman
city at Silchester, Hants. (From