Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/430

414 the double aisles by rows of granite columns, 35 feet high. An upper row of columns in front of the galleries above the aisles supported a ceiling, covered with plates of gilt bronze. The total internal height was about 120 feet The walls were cased with white marble from Luna. It was paved with giallo antico and purple breccia. A side court, which enclosed the well-known memorial column to Trajan, was flanked by libraries, Bibliotheca Grceca and Latino, (Sidon. Apollinaris, Epigr., ix. 1C). FlQ. 4. Section of the Basilica of ConstantLue or Maxentius (Temple of Peace). The basilica of Maxentius (or of Constantine), usually known as the Temple of Peace, in the Forum at Rome, was on an entirely different plan from those already described. The internal colonnades were dispensed with, the central space being covered by a vast quadripartite brick vault, in three bays ; and the aisles were roofed with three huge barrel vaults, each 72 feet in span. Columns were only used for ornament. The tribunal was apsidal. Its width was 195 feet, but it was 100 feet shorter than Trajan s basilica. The ground-plan of a small but interesting basilica, of which the foundations remain at Otricofi (Ocriculutn), is given by Agincourt (pi. Ixxiii. No. 100). The nave is of four bays ; beyond the aisles there is an addi tional aisle of annexed buildings or chalcidica; the apse is internal. A good example of a provincial basilica remains at Treves. It is a plain hall, about 90 feet long, the walls being 100 feet high, without aisles, and it has an apsidal tribunal elevated considerably above the floor. Under the empire, when architectural magnificence reached an hitherto unparalleled height, basilicas formed a part of the plan of the palaces erected by the emperors and nobles of Rome (Vitruv., vi. 81). A beautiful example on a small scale, the Basilica Jovis, has been recently excavated in the ruins of the palace of the Caesars on the Palatine. Only the lower part of the walls remains, but the arrangements of the building are singularly perfect, even to the pierced marble cancelli, and throw the clearest light on the con struction of these halls. On the establishment of Christianity as the imperial religion, these vast halls furnished exactly what was wanted for the religious assemblies of the Christian community. The basilica was, in fact, a ready-made church, singularly adapted for its new purpose. The capacious nave accom modated the ordinary congregations, the galleries or aisles the females and the more dignified worshippers; while the raised tribunal formed the bema, or sanctuary, separated by lattice-work from the less sacred portion below, the bishop and his clergy occupying the semicircular apsis. The praetor s curule chair became the episcopal throne, the curved bench of his assessors the seat for the presbyters of the church. The inferior clergy, readers, and singers took the place of the advocates below the tribunal ; while on the site of the heathen altar rose the holy table of the Eucharistic feast, divided from the nave by its protecting lattice-work screen, from which were suspended curtains guarding the sacred mysteries from the intrusive gaze of the profane. The words of Ausonius to the Emperor Gratian, in which he speaks of &quot; the basilicas once full of business, but now of prayers for the emperor s preservation&quot; (Graf. Actio pro Consulatu], are a testimony to the general conversion of these civil basilicas into Christian churches. We know this to have been the case with the basilicas of St Cross (S. Crocc in Gerusalemme) and St Mary Major s at Rome, which were halls in the Sessorian and Liberian palaces respectively, granted by Constantine to the Christians. We may adduce also as evidence of the same practice a passage from the theological romance known as The Recognitions of Clement (bk. x. ch. 71), probably dating from the early half of the 3d century, in which we are told that Theophilus of Antioch, on his conversion by St Peter, made over &quot; the basilica of his house &quot; for a church. But however this may have been, with, perhaps, the single exception of St Cross, 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 know ledge 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 St Mary s in the Trastevere) ; while pilasters assume a horizontal position, and serve as entablatures, as at St Lawrence s. 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. In all cases, however, the type of the civil basilica, which had proved so suitable for the requirements of Christian congregations, was adhered to with remarkable uniformity. An early Christian basilica may be thus described in its main features : A porch supported on pillars (as at St Clement) gave admission inti&amp;gt; an open court or atrium, sur rounded by a colonnaded cloister (St Clement, Old St Peter s, St Ambrose at Milan, Parenzo). In the centre of the court stood a cistern or fountain (cantkarus, phiale), for drinking and ablutions. In close contiguity to the atrium, often to the west, was the baptistery, usually octagonal (Parenzo). The church was entered through a long narrow porch (narthex), beyond which penitents, or those under ecclesiastical censure, were forbidden to pass. The narthex was sometimes internal (St Agnes), sometimes an external portico (St Lawrence s, St Paul s). Three or four lofty door ways, according to the number of the aisles, set in marble cases, gave admission to the church. The doors themselves were of rich wood, elaborately carved with scriptural sub jects, or of bronze similarly adorned and often gilt. Magnificent curtains, frequently embroidered with sacred figures or scenes, closed the entrance, keeping out the heat of summer and the cold of winter. The interior consisted of a long and wide nave, often 80 feet across, terminating in a semicircular apse, with one or sometimes (St Paul s, Old St Peter s, St John Lateran) two aisles on each side, separated by colonnades of marble pillars supporting horizontal entablatures (Old St Peter s, St Mary Major s, St Lawrence s) or arches (St Paul s, St Agnes, St Clement, the two basilicas of St Apollinaris at Ravenna). Above the pillars the clerestory wall rose to a great height, pierced in its upper part by a range of plain round-headed win dows. The space between the windows and the colonnade (the later triforium-space) was usually decorated with a series of mosaic pictures in panels (Old St Peter s, St Paul s, St Mary Major s, St Apollinaris within the walls at Ravenna). The upper galleries of the secular basilicas were not usually adopted- in the West, but we have examples of this arrangement at St Agnes, St Lawrence s, and the Quattro Santi Coronati. They are much more frequent in the East. The colonnades sometimes extended quite to the end of 