on the site of the Basilica Sempronia, erected by Sempronius Gracchus,
B.C. 169 (Livy, xliv. 16). This was burned down, and rebuilt by Julius
Cæsar, and called Julia, after his daughter. It was destroyed by fire,
and rebuilt by Augustus (Dion Cassius, "Augustus"). It was again
destroyed by fire, and rebuilt A.D. 283. Suetonius tells us that
Caligula, "during three days successively, scattered money to a
prodigious amount among the people, from the top of the Julian
Basilica" ("Caligula," xxxvii.). It is shown on two pieces of the
marble plan.
In the "Mon. Ancyr.," Augustus says, "He rebuilt the Basilica Julia
between the Temples of Castor and Saturn." Thus we see that the Will
of Augustus, the marble plan, and the ruins, all three exactly agree.
The portico was dedicated to his grandsons, Lucius and Caius
(Suetonius, "Augustus," xxix.). It was the great court of appeal. (See
Pliny, Jr., "Letters," v. 21, vi. 33.)
The old pavement has been well exposed, and put in proper condition
for preservation; the remnants of frieze, and cornices, and columns
found in the diggings have been set up on brick pedestals,--an
innovation of Signor Rossa's. The old bits of pavement have been very
smoothly linked together by the laying of Venetian mosaic cement, and
the contrast between the modern and the antique is very apparent.