Expert: Maria - 9/30/2010

Question
Dear Maria,

Is it known by what name the ancient Romans called their first basilica?  I know that we call it “Basilica Porcia”.  But, what did a Roman living in the second century BC call it?  Was it just referred to as “The Basilica”?

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Rich


Answer
Dear Rich,

a Roman living in the second century BC would have said exactly “Basilica Porcia”, where the Latin feminine noun “basilica” (belonging to the 1st.declension) means just “basilica” which in Rome was  a public building used for a merchants' exchange and for the courts, while “the feminine  adjective “Porcia” agreed with “basilica” derives from the name of a Roman “gens” (patrician family), the “Gens Porcia”, whose the  most celebrated man was Marcus  Porcius Cato, aka Cato Censor or Cato Maior, the  severe censor who in 184 BC  built just the Basilica Porcia, the first known basilica in Rome built exactly  for judicial and business purposes .

The Latin  term “basilica”  derives from Greek ”basilikč stoá” (βασιλική  στοά, in ancient Greek letters) meaning “royal portico”, the tribunal chamber where the king  or  the chief magistrate used to administer justice, especially at Athens.

In Rome a “basilica” usually consisted of a rectangular hall, of considerable height, surrounded by one or two ambulatories, sometimes with galleries, and lighted by openings in the upper part of the side walls. The hall often ended in an apse or exedra.

Only later the term “basilica”, borrowed from Latin,  was used  in many languages to indicate a Christian church building of a similar design, having a nave with a semicircular apse and two or four side aisles.


Finally, with regard to the “basilica Porcia”, which stood a little west of the curia in the Roman Forum, it was burned in 52 BC. and probably totally destroyed, as there is no further mention of it.

Anyway, although there is nothing visible left of the Basilica Porcia, we know where it was (see below).

All the best,
Maria
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See at :http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/Plan_Rome_-_Basilica_Porcia.png&imgrefurl=http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Plan_Rome_-_Basilica_Porcia.png&h=900&w=1128&sz=202&tbnid=_MHsssLHqu55WM:&tbnh=120&tbnw=150&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbasilica%2BPorcia&zoom=1&q=basilica+Porcia&hl=en&usg=__9KaPlrV0puKGek8y-Y6Di_mSU4Y=&sa=X&ei=mNWkTM3aH9jU4wbj6JXLDQ&ved=0CDcQ9QEwBA