부산대학교 도서관

Type of long, oblong hall in the ancient Roman world, usually with a high central space delimited by colonnades and illuminated by clerestory lighting. Larger examples may have first floor galleries and some had semicircular apses. Basilicas were often situated in or near the forum of a town or city and were versatile in form and function, serving social, economic and judicial purposes. The earliest examples are in Rome (2nd century bc). They are found throughout the Empire but are commonest in Italy, the western provinces and North Africa. The term also refers to Christian churches built in the form of the Roman basilica, especially those of the Early Christian era. The origins of the basilica are obscure, but the name clearly derives from the Greek, and the building may have been a development of the Greek Stoa, since Strabo (Geography V.iii.8) called the basilicas of Rome ...