The Basilica – Early Essays. Continuation

The word basilica means 'king's hall' and may have been first applied to the throne-room in Egypt or another of the Hellenistic monarchies of the Near East. But the expression need not amount to anything more technical than 'lordly' or 'splendid', and the basilica is a common enough type of building used for a variety of purposes in Rome, as elsewhere, from the second century вс. The architect Vitruvius, who erected a basilica at Fano, on the Adriatic coast, discusses the method of basilica construction. He stipulates as essential a lofty, rectangular hall, the breadth being not more than half nor less than a third of the length. Vitruvius's basilica had columns placed all-round the inside of the building to form an aisle or portico with a gallery on top and clerestory windows.

The main entrance was set in one of the long sides, exactly opposite the apse, within which the presiding magistrate occupied his elevated seat and the shrine, which in the imperial age sheltered the emperor's effigy, conferred an air of religious solemnity. The same architectural design served for a market or for a covered hall in which to take exercise during cold weather. The general plan could be modified according to the requirements of the site and it was just as easy to construct the entrance in the short side as in the long, when it was felt desirable to emphasize the sacred character of the east end.

Private houses of the ampler type were sometimes equipped with a basilica used for receptions, and, during the second and third centuries ad, members of religious cults took to holding their assemblies in specially constructed basilicas. One such building, the Basilica Crepereia, came to light in the seventeenth century and gained its name from the inscription recording that the chapel had been founded by Lucius Crepereius Rogatus, 'priest of the Sun-God and devotee of Pan'. It is described as a fair-sized shrine consisting of three aisles, the central aisle being wider than the other two. There was an altar, raised on a number of steps, and a decoration of mosaic, the wolf suckling Romulus and Remus as well as a figure which resembled Mars, brandishing a spear.

The best example of such cult basilicas is the one discovered in 1916 lying some 13 metres below the level of the railway-line from Rome to Naples, near the Porta Maggiore (fig. 52). This underground basilica, in a very good state of preservation, is now protected by a casing of concrete. An entrance-porch gives access to a rectangular room divided into three aisles by a double row of three columns and ending in a semicircular apse. It is richly embellished with unusual plasterwork representing Greek myths which have a bearing on the after-life.

52. Rome: underground basilica near the Porta Maggiore

The basilica, the aisled hall suitably adapted, might be said to represent what, according to the tastes and fashions of the time, seemed the most fitting architectural form for churches as for other public buildings. So when the emperor Constantine, whose reforming vigour was tempered with respect for established custom, decided on an energetic programme of church-building, he naturally adhered to the basilican style, which was both practically convenient and generally acceptable. In Joseph Bingham's words: 'The Basilicae which heretofore were wont to be filled with Men of Business were now thronged with Votaries praying for the Emperor's safety.

The first church established by Constantine in Rome was that of St John Lateran. A palace in that district, belonging to a senator named Plautius Lateranus, had been seized by Nero and added to the imperial property. The area duly came into Constantine's control on his marriage to Fausta, daughter of the emperor Maximian, and in 313 ad a Church council assembled 'in the house of Fausta of the Lateran'.

When Fausta died, Constantine presented the palace to Pope Silvester, and it remained the official residence of the popes until their departure from Rome to Avignon nearly a thousand years later. The basilica, 'Mother and Head of all the churches of Rome and the whole world', was established nearby on a site levelled and prepared when the barracks of the Horse Guards were demolished. Overthrown by Vandals and subsequently shattered by an earthquake, the church was rebuilt by Pope Sergius about 903-910 ad, at which time it acquired its dedication to John the Baptist.

During the seventeenth century the interior was completely transformed by Borromini and rather later a new facade on classical lines was designed by Alessandro Galilei. The long chancel represents a nineteenth- century addition, and until recently it was assumed that no traces of Constantine's original foundation were left; moreover the transepts seemed at variance with the conventional plan of a basilica. Recent excavations, however, continuing the scanty evidence of old drawings, have revealed the nature of Constantine's building. It consisted of a large hall, 76 metres in length and divided by columns into a central nave with two aisles north and south.

The columns of the nave were massive and topped, in all probability, with an architrave and clerestory windows. The inner aisles, much lower than the nave, were supported by columns of green marble set on substantial bases and continued for the whole length of the nave; thus the transepts are clearly an addition made in the course of the tenth-century overhaul. The outer aisles on each side may have been curtained off as places to which the catechumens might withdraw during those parts of the service in which they were not permitted to share. What is more certain is that these outer aisles were equipped with large window's and that they were cut short by the transverse walls of rectangular vestries or rooms used for administrative purposes. At the western end of the basilica projected a semicircular apse, its wall sturdily built of masonry with a brick facing. The bishop and clergy had their seats within the apse, and across the space that separated them from the congregation in the nave ran a silver gable, supported by columns.

Statues of silver, representing Christ enthroned among his Apostles and Christ triumphant after the Resurrection, were attached to this screen. They lent an air of magnificence to an interior which, by contrast with the plain external walls, seems to have been brilliantly decorated with mosaic, golden altars and an array of candlesticks fashioned in gold or silver. The Lateran basilica is thereby shown to have been typical of what was thought appropriate in the fourth century—a plain, unambitious structure, eminently serviceable and very soundly built along traditional lines with a wealth of light, colour and atmosphere within.

Not all the basilicas were set up directly under the emperor's patronage, but his example and the mood of optimism which his policy encouraged were an inducement to vigorous church-building. This unity of inspiration could however be moulded by the influence of local customs in architecture and liturgy alike. While Rome continued to favour the basilica, Milan showed a preference for variety which included several cross-shaped churches. Istria, around the head of the Adriatic, inclined towards an aisle less nave and at such places as Trier and Aquileia experiments were made with the double basilica.