Editing Basilica (section)

== Roman Republic ==
[[File:Giuliano da Sangallo Rilievo della Basilica Emilia 1480.jpg|thumb|Remains of the 2nd century BC Basilica Aemilia by [[Giuliano da Sangallo]] in the 15th century AD]]
Long, rectangular basilicas with internal [[peristyle]] became a quintessential element of Roman [[urbanism]], often forming the architectural background to the city forum and used for diverse purposes.<ref name=":18">{{Citation|last=Donati|first=Jamieson C.|title=The City in the Greek and Roman World|date=4 November 2014|url=http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199783304.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199783304-e-011|work=The Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Art and Architecture|editor-last=Marconi|editor-first=Clemente|edition=online|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199783304.013.011|isbn=978-0-19-978330-4}}</ref> Beginning with Cato in the early second century BC, politicians of the [[Roman Republic]] competed with one another by building basilicas bearing their names in the [[Forum Romanum]], the centre of [[History of Rome|ancient Rome]]. Outside the city, basilicas symbolised the influence of Rome and became a ubiquitous fixture of Roman {{Lang|la|[[Colonia (Roman)|coloniae]]}} of the late Republic from {{Circa|100 BC}}. The earliest surviving basilica is the basilica of [[Pompeii]], built 120 BC.<ref name=":18"/> Basilicas were the administrative and commercial centres of major Roman settlements: the "quintessential architectural expression of Roman administration".<ref name=":25"/> Adjoining it there were normally various offices and rooms housing the ''curia'' and a shrine for the [[tutela]].<ref name=":1">{{Citation|last=Darvill|first=Timothy|title=basilica|year=2009|url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199534043.001.0001/acref-9780199534043-e-400|work=The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology|publisher=Oxford University Press|language=en|doi=10.1093/acref/9780199534043.001.0001|isbn=978-0-19-953404-3}}</ref> Like [[Thermae|Roman public baths]], basilicas were commonly used as venues for the display of honorific statues and other sculptures, complementing the outdoor public spaces and thoroughfares.<ref name=":242"/>

Beside the Basilica Porcia on the ''Forum Romanum'', the [[Basilica Aemilia]] was built in 179 BC, and the [[Basilica Sempronia]] in 169 BC.<ref name=":2" /> In the Republic two types of basilica were built across Italy in the mid-2nd to early 1st centuries BC: either they were nearly square as at [[Fanum Fortunae]], designed by [[Vitruvius]], and [[Cosa]], with a 3:4 width-length ratio; or else they were more rectangular, as Pompeii's basilica, whose ratio is 3:7.<ref>Vitruvius, ''De architectura'', V:1.6–10</ref><ref name=":2"/>

The basilica at [[Ephesus]] is typical of the basilicas in the Roman East, which usually have a very elongated footprint and a ratio between 1:5 and 1:9, with open porticoes facing the ''[[agora]]'' (the Hellenic forum); this design was influenced by the existing tradition of long ''stoae'' in Hellenistic [[Asia (Roman province)|Asia]].<ref name=":2" /> Provinces in the west lacked this tradition, and the basilicas the Romans commissioned there were more typically Italian, with the central nave divided from the side-aisles by an internal colonnade in regular proportions.<ref name=":2"/>
[[File:Efes (Ephesos) - panoramio - Yağmur Aydın (7).jpg|thumb|Ruins of the Basilica-''stoa'' at Ephesus]]
[[File:Tunis Carthage Musée 2.jpg|thumb|Model of the Antonine basilica on [[Byrsa]] Hill, Carthage]]
[[File:Basílica Baelo 002.jpg|thumb|Ruins of the Trajanic basilica at [[Baelo Claudia]]]]
[[File:Leptis Magna, Al-Khums, Libya 4.jpg|thumb|Ruins of the Severan basilica at [[Leptis Magna]]]]
[[File:P1040656 (3).jpg|thumb|Ruins of the basilica at [[Volubilis]], 217/'8. (After [[anastylosis]])]]