Absis

or Apse, R. ( ἁψὶς, a bow or vault). Any enclosure of semicircular form terminating a room, hall, . There was an abs is in the Basilica (q.v.), or court of justice, and it was in the semicircular rece thus formed that the judges’ seats were placed. Many temples also had an abs is attached to them, and there is one in particular of this description well known to all archæologists. This is the abs is of the temple of Venus at Rome, which was built by the emperor architect Hadrian. (See Apse.)