Fodor's Expert Review Basilica Giulia

The Basilica Giulia owes its name to Julius Caesar, who ordered its construction; it was later completed by his adopted heir, Augustus. One of several such basilicas in the center of Rome, it was where the Centumviri, the hundred-or-so judges forming the civil court, met to hear cases. The open space between the Basilica Emilia and this basilica was the heart of the Forum proper—the prototype of Italy's Renaissance piazzas and the center of civic and social activity in ancient Rome.