Basilica Aemilia

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Basilica Aemilia

The Basilica Aemilia was a civil basilica

Basilica

The Latin word basilica , was originally used to describe a ancient Rome public building , usually located in the Forum of a Roman town. In Hellenistic cities, public basilicas appeared in the 2nd century BC....
in the Roman forum

Roman Forum

Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
. Today only the plan and some rebuilt elements can be seen. The Basilica was 100 meters (328 ft) long and about 30 meters (98 ft) wide. Along the sides were two orders of 16 arches, and it was accessed through one of three entrances.

new basilica was built on a site where once 5th century BC were the tabernae lanienae ("butcher shops") and later (4th century BC) the tabernae argentariae, which housed the city's bankers and after a fire were renamed tabernae novae ("new shops").

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The Basilica Aemilia was a civil basilica

Basilica

Roman Forum

Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
, Italy

Italy

History

Pre-existing building

The new basilica was built on a site where once 5th century BC were the tabernae lanienae ("butcher shops") and later (4th century BC) the tabernae argentariae, which housed the city's bankers and after a fire were renamed tabernae novae ("new shops"). The square had two facing rows of shops. A first basilica had been built behind the tabernae argentariae between 210 BC and 195-191 BC, date in which it is mentioned by Plautus

Plautus

Titus Maccius Plautus , commonly known as Plautus, was a Ancient Rome playwright. His comedy are among the earliest surviving intact works in Latin literature....
. Archaeological studies have shown that this building comprised three naves paved with tuff

Tuff

Tuff is a type of Rock consisting of consolidated volcanic ash ejected from vents during a volcanic eruption. Tuff is also sometimes called tufa, particularly when used as construction material....
from Monteverde, the back façade having a portico which opened to the Forum Piscatorium and the Macellum
Macellum

A macellum is an ancient Roman indoor Farmers' market building that sold mostly provisions . The building normally sat alongside the forum and basilica, providing a place in which a market could be held....
(the area later occupied by the Forum of Nerva).

The Basilica Fulvia-Aemilia

Romafororomanobasilicaemiliadisegnoricostruttivofaseaugustea

It was erected in 179 BC by censor

Censor (ancient Rome)

A Censor was a Magistratus of high rank in the ancient Roman Republic. This position was responsible for maintaining the census, supervising public morality, and overseeing certain aspects of the government's finances....
Marcus Fulvius Nobilior

Marcus Fulvius Nobilior

Marcus Fulvius Nobilior , Roman general, a member of one of the most important families of the patrician Fulvius gens.He started his political career as curule aedile in 195 BC....
with the name of Basilica Fulvia

Basilica Fulvia

The Basilica Fulvia was a basilica built in ancient Rome. According to Livy , the Censor s M. Aemilius Lepidus and Marcus Fulvius Nobilior had it built in 179 BC....
. After the latter's death, his colleague Marcus Aemilius Lepidus

Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (187 BC)

Marcus Aemilius Lepidus was a Roman consul, Pontifex Maximus and Censor .As a praetor he was governor of Sicily in 191 BC. He was elected consul in 187 BC....
completed it, and it was frequently restored and redecorated by the members of the Aemilian gens, giving the basilica its current name.

The 78 BC consul, homonymous of the preceding one, embellished it with the clipei ("shields"). This intervention is recalled in a coin from 61 BC by his son, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus

Marcus Aemilius Lepidus

Marcus Aemilius Lepidus may refer to:* Marcus Aemilius Lepidus , consul in 232 BC and 221 BC, and augur* Marcus Aemilius Lepidus , consul in 187 BC and 175 BC, Pontifex Maximus 180?152 BC, and censor...
(see images

Basilica Aemilia

The Basilica Aemilia was a civil basilica in the Roman forum, in Rome, Italy. Today only the plan and some rebuilt elements can be seen. The Basilica was 100 meters long and about 30 meters wide....
).

According to other scholars, however, the Basilica Aemilia formed a different edifice from the Basilica Fulvia.

The Basilica Paulli

A new edifice in substitution of the Basilica Fulvia was begun in 55 BC by Lucius Aemilius Paulus Lepidus, and inaugurated by his son in 34 BC. This edifice had similar lines to the preceding one; however with a reduced length and a second nave in lieu of the back portico.

The columns in the central nave, in African marble

Marble

Marble is a nonfoliated metamorphic rock resulting from the metamorphism of limestone, composed mostly of calcite . It is extensively used for Marble sculpture, as a architecture material, and in many other applications....
, had Corinthian capital

Capital (architecture)

In several traditions of architecture including Classical architecture, the capital forms the crowning member of a column or a pilaster. The capital projects on each side as it rises, in order to support the abacus and unite the form of the latter with the circular shaft of the column....
s and friezes with deeds from the history of Republican Rome. The columns in the second row were in cipolline marble and, finally, the external ones had Ionic capitals.

After a fire, Augustus in 14 BC heavily restored the edifice. In this occasion the tabernae which preceded it towards the Forum square and the portico were totally rebuilt. The latter was dedicated to the emperor's two grandsons (Porticus Gai et Luci): it had two orders of arcades with pilasters and Doric semi-columns. The two upper floors of the basilica (which, according to some scholars, were still unfinished at the time) were totally rebuilt. Over the upper order an attic

Attic

An attic is a space found directly below the pitched roof of a house or other building . As attics fill the space between the ceiling of the top floor of a building and the slanted roof, they are known for being awkwardly shaped spaces with exposed rafters and difficult-to-access corners....
was built, decorated with vegetable elements and statues of barbarians.

The basilica was restored again in AD 22. On its two-hundredth anniversary, the Basilica Aemilia was considered by Pliny

Pliny the Elder

Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was an ancient author, naturalist or natural philosopher and naval and military commander of some importance who wrote Natural History ....
to be one of the most beautiful buildings in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
. It was a place for business and, in the porticus of Gaius and Lucius

Lucius Caesar

Lucius Julius Caesar , most commonly known as Lucius Caesar, was the second son of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and Julia the Elder. He was born with the name Lucius Vipsanius Agrippa, but when he was adopted by his maternal grandfather Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus, his name was changed to Lucius Julius Caesar....
(the grandsons of Augustus) fronting the Roman Forum

Roman Forum

The Roman Forum , sometimes known by its original Latin name, is located between the Palatine hill and the Capitoline hill of the city of Rome. It is the central area around which the Ancient Rome developed....
, there were the Tabernae Novae (New Shops).

On the colored marble floor one still can see the green stains of bronze coins that melted when Rome was sacked by Alaric

Alaric I

Alaric I , was likely born about 370 on an Peuce Island at the mouth of the Danube. He was king of the Visigoths from 395–410 and the first Germanic peoples leader to take the city of Rome....
the Visigoth

Visigoth

The Visigoths were one of two main branches of the Goths, an East Germanic tribe, the Ostrogoths being the other. Together these tribes were among the barbarians who disturbed the late Roman Empire during the Migration Period....
in 410 AD.

Conspicuous remains of the basilica could still be seen in the Renaissance

Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe....
: they were however used for the Giraud-Torlonia Palace (also no longer existing).

Inside, there are several tabernae. The main hall or court is behind the shops.

Basilica Aemilia

History

Pre-existing building

The Basilica Fulvia-Aemilia

The Basilica Paulli

Gallery