steps. Six rows of stone benches for the presbyters, rising one
above another like the seats in a theatre, follow the curve on either
side--the whole being singularly plain and almost rude. The altar stands on
a platform; the sanctuary is divided from the nave by a screen of six
pillars. The walls of the apse are inlaid with plates of marble. The church
is 125 ft. by 75 ft. The narrow aisles are only 7 ft. in width.

[Illustration: FIG. 18.--Apse of Basilica, Torcello, with Bishop's throne
and seats for the clergy. (From a drawing by Lady Palgrave.)]

Another very remarkable basilica, less known than it deserves to be, is
that of Parenzo in Istria, _c._ A.D. 542. Few basilicas have sustained so
little alteration. From the annexed ground-plan (fig. 19) it will be seen
that it retains its _atrium_ and a baptistery, square without, octagonal
within, to the west of it. Nine pillars divide each aisle from the nave,
some of them borrowed from earlier buildings. The capitals are Byzantine.
The choir occupies the three easternmost bays. The apse, as at Torcello,
retains the bishop's throne and the bench for the presbyters apparently
unaltered. The mosaics are singularly gorgeous, and the apse walls, as at
Torcello, are inlaid with rich marble and mother-of-pearl. The dimensions
are small--121 ft. by 32 ft. (See _Kunstdenkmale des oesterreichischen
Kaiserreichs_, by Dr G. Heider and others.)

[Illustration: FIG. 19.--Ground-Plan of Cathedral of Parenzo, Istria.

_a_, Cloistered atrium. +, Narthex. _b_, Nave. _c_, _c_, Aisles. _d_,
Chorus cantorum. _e_, Altar. _f_, Bishop's throne. _g_, Baptistery. _h_,
Belfry. _i_, Chapel of St Andrew.]

In the Eastern church, though the erection of St Sophia at Constantinople
introduced a new type which almost entirely superseded the old one, the
basilican form, or as it was then termed _dromical_, from its shape being
that of a race-course (_dromos_), was originally as much the rule as in the
West. The earliest church of which we have any clear account, that of
Paulinus at Tyre, A.D. 313-322, described by Eusebius (_Hist. Eccl._ x. 4
s. 37), was evidently basilican, with galleries over the aisles, and had an
atrium in front. That erected by Constantine at Jerusalem, on the side of
the Holy Sepulchre, 333, followed the same plan (Euseb., _Vit. Const._ iii.
c. 29), as did the original churches of St Sophia and of the Apostles at
Constantinople. Both these buildings have entirely passed away, b