Julian Basilica

Basilica Iulia Corinthi

BasilicaAchaea · Ancient Corinth, GreeceBuilt 1 BCE

About

Roman civic basilica at the east end of the Corinthian forum, dedicated to the Julio-Claudian imperial family and raised on a podium more than four meters high during the building boom that followed the colony's refounding in the late 1st century BCE. It doubled as the seat of the imperial court of law for the province of Achaea and housed one of the largest known shrines to the imperial cult, with eleven or more over-life-size statues of the ruling family. On its south tribunal stood a colossal statue of Julius Caesar, the colony's founder, flanked by Augustus on the right and Tiberius on the left. First excavated in 1896 and fully cleared in the 1914-1915 seasons, the basilica was standing and in daily use by 117 CE.

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.