Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/355

 Bk. IV. Ch. IV. BASILICAS. 323
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«°i « 'i P o e Even taking it as restored by those most desirous of making the best of it, it is difficult to understand how anything so bad could have been erected in such an age. It is extremely difficult to trace the origin of these basilicas, owing principally to the loss of ail the earlier examples. Their name is Greek, and they may probably be considered as derived from the Grecian Lesche, or j^erhaps as amplifications of the cellse of Greek temples, ajDpropriated to the pur- poses of justice rather than of religion; but till we know more of their earlier form and origin, it is use- less speciilating on this point. The greatest interest to us arises i-ather from the use to which their plan was afterwards applied, than from the source from which they themselves sprang. All the larger Christian churches in the early times Avere cojiies, more or less exact, of the basilicas of which that of Trajan is an example. The abundance of pillars suitable to such an erection, that were found everywhere in Rome, rendered their construction easy and cheap; and the wooden roof with which they were covered was P also as simple and as inexpensive a covering: as ,^,, ,^. Tm 207. Plan of Basilica at could well be designed. The very uses of the Chris- Pompeii, scale , ... ,. . "^ _,. . 100 It. to 1 in. tian basilicas at nrst were by no means dissimilar to those of their heathen originals, as they were in reality the assembly halls of the early Christian republic, before they became liturgical churches of the Catholic hierarchy. The more expensive construction of the bold vaults of the Maxentian basilica went far beyond the means of the early Church, established in a declining and abandoned capital, and this form therefore remained dormant for seven or eight centuries before it was revived by the mediaeval architects on an infinitely smaller scale, but adorned with a degree of appropriateness and taste to which the Romans were stran- gers. It was then used with a completeness and unity which entitle it to be considered as an entirely new style of architecture. ■• # Iff w -a Theatres. The theatre was by no means so essential a part of the economy of a Roman city as it was of a Grecian one. With the latter it was quite as indispensable as the temple ; mu in the semi-Greek city of Hercu- laneum there was one, and in Pompeii two, on a scale quite equal to those of Greece when compared with the importance of the town itself. In the capital there appears only to have been one, that of Marcellus, built during the reign of Augustus. It is very questionable whether what we now see — especially the outer arcades — belong to that age, or