BASILICA

(Gr. /?uo-i>£t>c, king.) In Architecture, properly the palace of a king; but it afterwards came to signify an apartment which was usually provided in the houses of persons of consequence, where a emblies were held for dispensing justice. The Gordian family in their magnificent country-house in the Via Pre nest in a had three basilica?, each upwards of a hundred feet long. There was usually a basilica attached to every market for summary settlement of disputes that might arise, and it was surrounded by shops and other conveniences for traders. The difference between the Roman and Grecian basilica is described by Vitruvius, to whose work the reader may refer. We have in the article Architecture (quod vide) given some account of the rise of the modern basilica for religious uses from the form of the more ancient one. Its form was that of a parallelogram, with a portico at each end, being covered by a roof supported by ranks of columns. Palladio applied the term to those buildings in the cities of Italy somewhat similar in use to our town-halls. [s. 150]