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exhibitions, after the construction , of amphitheatres hadbecome general.

PLATE I.

PLAN OF THE BASILICA BUILT BY VITRUVIUS AT FANUM.

The basilicae were spacious halls, built for the administrationof justice, and for merchants to assemble in during the winter.They were surrounded within by porticoes two ranges inheight; in the upper of which persons might walk unseenby those below.

A basilica, the plan of which is represented in this plate,is described by Vitruvius to have been built by him at Fanum:the mode of its construction was different from that generallyfollowed in structures of the same kind. The buildingsconnected with the basilica, excepting the pronaos of thetemple in one of its sides, are added from conjecture, foundedupon the remains of the forum of Trajan; on one side ofwhich the basilica was built, with the chalcidica andentrances at the ends.

On the side of the basilica opposite the forum wasthe pronaos of the temple of Augustus, containing thetribunal, or elevated stage, upon which the magistrates usedto sit and determine causes. The front of the tribunal wasmade receding, in a curved line, from the porticoes of thebasilica, so that the affairs of the magistracy might notinterfere with the business of the merchants.