Ancient Basilicas

Courts of justice in Rome were held in basilicas, and the edifices thus named were subsequently used as Christian churches.

The plan on which they were all constructed, no matter how great their size, was nearly uniform; and they were often characterized by great splendor.

They had a central nave much longer than wide: on each side of this nave was a row of columns, which separated it from the side-aisles.

At the end of the edifice farthest from the entrance was a circular arch, and behind it a semicircular space which was used as a court of law and justice; the central portion of the building being devoted to business, and often used as an exchange.

When Christianity supplanted heathenism in Rome, these basilicas were used as places of worship.

The heathen temples had not been built for the admission of large bodies of people, and had been polluted by sacrifices to heathen gods. The basilicas were free from this reproach: hence, from the beginning of the fourth to the eighth century, they were appropriated to the uses of divine worship.

The oldest basilica is St. John Lateran in Rome, built 289 B.C., which became the first Christian church in that city. In front of this church stands the obelisk of the Lateran, one hundred and fifty feet high, the oldest object in Rome, being referred by translations of hieroglyphics to the year 1740 B.C. It was brought from the Temple of the Sun at Heliopolis to Alexandria, by Constantine, and removed by his son to Rome, where it was used to ornament the Circus Maximus, and was removed to its present site by Fortana, for Sixtus V.