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Basilica Julia
About
Civil law-court basilica on the south side of the Forum, begun by Caesar in 54 BCE, dedicated unfinished in 46 BCE, completed by Augustus and rededicated in 12 CE to Gaius and Lucius Caesar after a fire. Marble-faced brick columns divided the hall into five aisles beneath a nave measuring 82 by 18 meters, rising three stories within a building 101 by 49 meters overall. It housed the centumviral court, whose inheritance cases could run for days; bored litigants and spectators scratched some eighty gaming boards into the steps and pavement, including an eight-by-eight grid for a game resembling checkers. Still hosting trials in 117 CE, the basilica would not burn again until 283 CE under Carinus.
What happened here
This is the town's indoor hall, and in winter it is where everyone goes. Court sits at one end on a raised platform, screened off with wooden partitions when the case is private. Around it, business goes on regardless — contracts witnessed, cargoes argued over, bankers at their tables, men sheltering from rain with nothing to do. The roof is carried on two storeys of columns, and the upper gallery is a good place to watch a trial without being counted as part of the crowd. Advocates are paid by reputation and perform accordingly; a good one draws an audience the way an actor does. Noise carries badly, which everyone complains about. Building one is the standard way for a rich citizen to be remembered.
In ancient writing
- Suetonius, Divus Augustus 29.4
Names the basilica between the temples of Castor and Saturn as Caesar's foundation, finished by Augustus, burned down and rebuilt on a larger plan.
Sources
Nearby
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