DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26747#0387
Chap. IY.
BASILICAS—THEATEES.
32;
and liglited by a clerestory like tlie cellse of Greek temples; as,
however, it had no peristyle, it may also have had
windows in the npper gallery, and the clerestory
windows were prohahly not conntersunk like those
in the Greek temples.
There is a small square huilding at Otricoli,
which is generally supposed to he a hasilica, hut its
ohject as well as its age is so uncertain that nothing
need he said of it here. In the works of Yitruvius,
too, there is a description of one huilt hy liim at Fano,
the restoration of which has occupied the ingenuity
of the admirers of that worst of architects. Even
taking it as restored by those most willing to make
the hest of it, it is clifficult to understand how
anything so had could have heen erected in such
an age.
It is extremely difficult to trace the origin of
these basilicas, owing principally to the loss of all
the earlier examples. Their name is Greek, and they
may prohahly he considered as the clescendants of the
Grecian Lesche, or perhaps as amplifications of the
cellse of Greek temples, appropriated to the purposes of justice rather
than of religion ; hut till we know more of their earlier form and their
antecedents, it is useless speculating on this point. The greatest in-
terest to us arises rather from the use to which their plan was after-
wards applied than from the source from which they themselves sprang.
All the earlier Christian churches were copies, more or less exact, of
the basilicas of which that of Trajan is an example. The abundance
of pillars, suitahle to such an erection, that were found everywhere in
Eome, rendered their construction easy and cheap; and the wooclen
roof with which they were covered was also as simple and as inex-
pensive a covering as could well he designed. The very uses of the
Christian basilicas at first were hy no means dissimilar to those of
their heathen originals, as they were in reality the assemhly halls of
the early Christian republic, hefore they hecame liturgical churches of
the catholic hierarchy.
The more extensive construction of the hold vaults of the Maxentian
basilica went far heyond the means of the early Church, estahlished in
a declining and ahandoned capital, and this form therefore remained
dormant for 7 or 8 centuries hefore it was revived hy the mediseval
architects on an infinitely smaller scale, hut adorned with a degree of
taste to which the Eomans were strangers. It was then used with a
completeness and unity which entitle it to he considered as an entirely
new style of architecture.
Theatres.
The theatre was hy no means so essential a part of the economy of
a Eoman city as it was of a Grecian one. With the latter it was quite
as indispensahle as the temple; and in the semi-Greek city of Iier-
Y 2
263. Plan of Basilica
at Pompeii.
Scale 100 ft. to lin.
BASILICAS—THEATEES.
32;
and liglited by a clerestory like tlie cellse of Greek temples; as,
however, it had no peristyle, it may also have had
windows in the npper gallery, and the clerestory
windows were prohahly not conntersunk like those
in the Greek temples.
There is a small square huilding at Otricoli,
which is generally supposed to he a hasilica, hut its
ohject as well as its age is so uncertain that nothing
need he said of it here. In the works of Yitruvius,
too, there is a description of one huilt hy liim at Fano,
the restoration of which has occupied the ingenuity
of the admirers of that worst of architects. Even
taking it as restored by those most willing to make
the hest of it, it is clifficult to understand how
anything so had could have heen erected in such
an age.
It is extremely difficult to trace the origin of
these basilicas, owing principally to the loss of all
the earlier examples. Their name is Greek, and they
may prohahly he considered as the clescendants of the
Grecian Lesche, or perhaps as amplifications of the
cellse of Greek temples, appropriated to the purposes of justice rather
than of religion ; hut till we know more of their earlier form and their
antecedents, it is useless speculating on this point. The greatest in-
terest to us arises rather from the use to which their plan was after-
wards applied than from the source from which they themselves sprang.
All the earlier Christian churches were copies, more or less exact, of
the basilicas of which that of Trajan is an example. The abundance
of pillars, suitahle to such an erection, that were found everywhere in
Eome, rendered their construction easy and cheap; and the wooclen
roof with which they were covered was also as simple and as inex-
pensive a covering as could well he designed. The very uses of the
Christian basilicas at first were hy no means dissimilar to those of
their heathen originals, as they were in reality the assemhly halls of
the early Christian republic, hefore they hecame liturgical churches of
the catholic hierarchy.
The more extensive construction of the hold vaults of the Maxentian
basilica went far heyond the means of the early Church, estahlished in
a declining and ahandoned capital, and this form therefore remained
dormant for 7 or 8 centuries hefore it was revived hy the mediseval
architects on an infinitely smaller scale, hut adorned with a degree of
taste to which the Eomans were strangers. It was then used with a
completeness and unity which entitle it to he considered as an entirely
new style of architecture.
Theatres.
The theatre was hy no means so essential a part of the economy of
a Eoman city as it was of a Grecian one. With the latter it was quite
as indispensahle as the temple; and in the semi-Greek city of Iier-
Y 2
263. Plan of Basilica
at Pompeii.
Scale 100 ft. to lin.