Basilica Emilia

Basilica Emilia Review

Once a great colonnaded hall, this served as a meeting place for merchants and a kind of community center of the 2nd century BC; it was later rebuilt in the 1st century AD by Augustus. The term "basilica" refers not strictly to the purpose of a church, but to a particular architectural form developed by the Romans. A rectangular hall flanked by colonnades, it could serve as a court of law or a center for business and commerce. Some Roman basilicas were later converted into churches, and the early models proved remarkably durable in the design of later Roman churches; there are 13th-century churches in the city that are fundamentally no different from many built during the 5th and 6th centuries AD.