When the Palace of Augustus and the other edifices were burned down,
Domitian filled them in with earth, and on the top of the platform
built his palace. But some of the destroyed edifices were consecrated:
as he could not do away with them, he rebuilt them upon the higher
level, over their old sites. The basilica and chapel of the household
gods were both treated in this way. As this was the only basilica on
the Palatine, we may presume that it was the court of appeal unto
Cæsar himself. If so, on this site S. Paul appeared before Nero; but
not in this identical building, which was erected by Domitian, A.D.
81-96, after Paul's death, A.D. 64.
[Illustration: PLAN OF THE BASILICA ON THE PALATINE.]
The Basilica was the hall of justice, coming from a Greek word
signifying "the regal hall." It consisted of a tribunal, nave, and
aisles. The form was oblong; the middle was an open space, called
_testudo_, and which we now call the nave. On each side of this were
rows of pillars, which formed what we should call the aisles, and
which the ancients called _porticus_. The end of the testudo was
curved, and was called the _tribunal_, from causes being heard there.
A rail separating the tribunal from the body of the hall was called
_cancelli_, because it was of open work. Not far from the entrance was
a round stone in the pavement, on which the prisoner stood to be
tried. Between the judge's seat on the tribunal and the rails stood
the altar of Apollo. These halls were likewise used as places of
exchange by business men. Being the largest halls the Romans had, the
form of them was copied by the early Christians for their churches.
The tribunal was called the apse; in some churches it is still called
the tribunal. The judge's seat gave place to the bishop's throne; the
altar of Apollo to the communion table; the cancelli to the chancel;
and the fountain in the court in front to the holy-water basins; and
so the name was handed down and given to Christian churches, though
there is not a single church in Rome that was once a pagan basilica,
or hall of justice. Many of the so-called basilicas are not true
basilicas, for they have introduced the transept to give them the form
of a cross.