DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.44944#0110
72
BASILICA AEMILIA
earth (not on scaffolding) which accounts for their irregularity : and it
was only afterwards that the earth was cleared out from beneath.
See NS 1918, 30-52, for the original discovery ; and Mem. Am. Acad,
iv. 79-87, Strong and Jolliffe in JHS 1924, 65-111, and Carcopino, La
Basilique Pythagoricienne de la Porte Majeure, Paris, 1927, for a full
description, with references to the voluminous literature of the subject.
Bendinelli’s attempt in BC 1922, 85-126, to prove it to have been a tomb
can hardly be accepted. A fully illustrated official account is to be
expected.
Basilica Aemilia or Paulli : on the north side of the forum, between the
curia and the temple of Faustina. In 179 b.c. the censor M. Fulvius
Nobilior contracted for the building of a basilica ' post argentarias novas ’
(Liv. xl. 51). In 159 P. Cornelius Scipio Nasica, when censor, installed
a water clock in basilica Aemilia et Fulvia (Varro, LL vi. 4 ; cf. Censorin.
de die nat. 23. 7 ; Plin. NH vii. 215 : idque horologium sub tecto dicavit
a.u. dxcv). This use of the double name, Aemilia et Fulvia, would seem
to indicate that it was thus given in Varro’s source, and was a usual,
perhaps the official, designation of the building in the middle of the second
century b.c., and that it had not wholly dropped out of use in Varro’s
own time. If so, Fulvius’ colleague in the censorship of 179, M. Aemilius
Lepidus, must have had at least equal responsibility in its construction,
notwithstanding Livy’s statement, a hypothesis that is supported by
references to the later history of the basilica. In 78 b.c., the consul
M. Aemilius Lepidus decorated the building (here called basilica Aemilia)
with engraved shields or portraits of his ancestors (Plin. NH xxxv. 13),
and probably restored it somewhat; for a coin of his son Lepidus, triumvir
monetalis about 65 (Babeion i. p. 129, No. 25 ; BM Rep. i. 450. 3650-3) 1
represents it as a two-storied porticus on which shields are hung with
the legend M. Lepidus ref(ecta) s(enatus) c(onsulto). In 55 b.c., the
aedile L. Aemilius Paullus, brother of the triumvir (RE i. 564), undertook
to restore the basilica with money furnished by Caesar from Gaul (Plut.
Caes. 29 [where the earlier building is called Fulvia only] ; App. BC
ii. 26.; Cic. ad Att. iv. 16. 14). The theory that Paullus had almost
finished the building, when he decided to rebuild entirely and gave out a
new contract, does not seem correct (TF 67). The beauty of this restored
building is emphasised by Plutarch and Appian. Cicero says that Paullus
used.the ancient columns of the earlier structure. Nevertheless, he does
not seem to have completed the work, for in 34 b.c. his son L. Aemilius
Lepidus Paullus, when consul, finished and dedicated the building
(Cass. Dio xlix. 42).
In all references to the basilica after 54 b.c., except those cited above
from Varro, Pliny and Plutarch, it appears as basilica Paulli (Stat. Silv.
i. 1. 30 : regia Pauli), so that this, rather than basilica Aemilia, was
probably its ordinary name.
1 Restored by Trajan (Babeion, ii. p. 573, No. 7).
BASILICA AEMILIA
earth (not on scaffolding) which accounts for their irregularity : and it
was only afterwards that the earth was cleared out from beneath.
See NS 1918, 30-52, for the original discovery ; and Mem. Am. Acad,
iv. 79-87, Strong and Jolliffe in JHS 1924, 65-111, and Carcopino, La
Basilique Pythagoricienne de la Porte Majeure, Paris, 1927, for a full
description, with references to the voluminous literature of the subject.
Bendinelli’s attempt in BC 1922, 85-126, to prove it to have been a tomb
can hardly be accepted. A fully illustrated official account is to be
expected.
Basilica Aemilia or Paulli : on the north side of the forum, between the
curia and the temple of Faustina. In 179 b.c. the censor M. Fulvius
Nobilior contracted for the building of a basilica ' post argentarias novas ’
(Liv. xl. 51). In 159 P. Cornelius Scipio Nasica, when censor, installed
a water clock in basilica Aemilia et Fulvia (Varro, LL vi. 4 ; cf. Censorin.
de die nat. 23. 7 ; Plin. NH vii. 215 : idque horologium sub tecto dicavit
a.u. dxcv). This use of the double name, Aemilia et Fulvia, would seem
to indicate that it was thus given in Varro’s source, and was a usual,
perhaps the official, designation of the building in the middle of the second
century b.c., and that it had not wholly dropped out of use in Varro’s
own time. If so, Fulvius’ colleague in the censorship of 179, M. Aemilius
Lepidus, must have had at least equal responsibility in its construction,
notwithstanding Livy’s statement, a hypothesis that is supported by
references to the later history of the basilica. In 78 b.c., the consul
M. Aemilius Lepidus decorated the building (here called basilica Aemilia)
with engraved shields or portraits of his ancestors (Plin. NH xxxv. 13),
and probably restored it somewhat; for a coin of his son Lepidus, triumvir
monetalis about 65 (Babeion i. p. 129, No. 25 ; BM Rep. i. 450. 3650-3) 1
represents it as a two-storied porticus on which shields are hung with
the legend M. Lepidus ref(ecta) s(enatus) c(onsulto). In 55 b.c., the
aedile L. Aemilius Paullus, brother of the triumvir (RE i. 564), undertook
to restore the basilica with money furnished by Caesar from Gaul (Plut.
Caes. 29 [where the earlier building is called Fulvia only] ; App. BC
ii. 26.; Cic. ad Att. iv. 16. 14). The theory that Paullus had almost
finished the building, when he decided to rebuild entirely and gave out a
new contract, does not seem correct (TF 67). The beauty of this restored
building is emphasised by Plutarch and Appian. Cicero says that Paullus
used.the ancient columns of the earlier structure. Nevertheless, he does
not seem to have completed the work, for in 34 b.c. his son L. Aemilius
Lepidus Paullus, when consul, finished and dedicated the building
(Cass. Dio xlix. 42).
In all references to the basilica after 54 b.c., except those cited above
from Varro, Pliny and Plutarch, it appears as basilica Paulli (Stat. Silv.
i. 1. 30 : regia Pauli), so that this, rather than basilica Aemilia, was
probably its ordinary name.
1 Restored by Trajan (Babeion, ii. p. 573, No. 7).