BASIL II. (957-102.5). Byzantine Emperor from 976 to 1025. He was the son of Romanus II., and at his fathers death was only two years old. He and his brother Constantine became emperors in 976, but Constantine left the trovemnient to Basil, who was obliged to carry on almost incessant wars. He suppressed a formidable rerolt in Asia Minor in 979, recovered Calabria and Apulia in Italy, and had several conflicts with the Saracens in Sicily. For many years he waged war against the Bulgarians, whom he finally subdued in 1018. Basil, for this victory, won the surname of Bulgaroctonus, 'Slayer of Bulgarians.' His reign of almost half a century was a period of victory and expansion for the Byzantine Empire.
BASILE, ba'zel'. A villain in Beaumar-
ehais's Lc Bafbier de Seville and Le llaria(je de
Figaro.
BASILE, ba-sela, Giovan Batista, Count of
Torone (Seventeenth Century). An Italian author, born at Xaples. His literary productions in the Neapolitan dialect are most valuable. His Peiitameroiie overo lo cunto de licuiite, trattenemiento de li peecerille di Giav. Alesio Abbatutis (Naples, 1627; frequently reprinted), a collection of 50 folk-tales somewhat resembling the Decameron, is one of the most popular books of its kind, and has been translated into vari-
ous European languages. English translation by
J. E. Taylor (London, 1850).
BASIL’IAN ART. A term used to describe
the style of architecture and other arts fostered
by the monks of the Order of Saint Basil, espe-
cially in the Orient. It is described under
Monastic Art.
BASILIAN MONKS, or MONKS OF SAINT BA'SIL. An order founded by Saint Basil, Bishop of Caesarea. in 35S; it grew to large numbers before the death of the founder (379). They were numerous in Spain. Italy, and Sicily, and the greater portion of the monks of the
Greek Church are of the order. There are some
in the United States and Canada. There are also
Basilian nuns, who call JIaorina, the sister of
Basil, their founder. The records of the order
show that it furnished 14 Popes, many cardinals,
and nearly 12.000 martyrs. The rule of Basil is
the foundation of that of Benedict, the great
founder of Western monasticism.
BASILICA (Lat.. from Ok. ^ao-iXi/cji, lasil-
H-r. royal, scil. crroa, stoa. porch). The large col-
onnaded building used by the Romans as part
of their forums for the transaction of .business
and legal affairs; also the common type of the
early Christian churches. The name seems to
be Greek, but the earliest knovn examples are
Roman. 'itruvi>is (q.v.) says: "Basilicas ought
to be built in the warmest quarters of the market-
places, in order that, in winter, the merchants
assembling there may not be inconvenienced by
bad weather:" and elsewhere he sjx-aks of the
tribinal projected like a hemicycle from the
main building, so "that those who stand near the
magistrates may not be disturbed by those doing
business in the basilica." These buildings varied
in proportions and arrangement. Vitruvius. who
built one himself at Faniun. says that they
should be oblong, their width being between one-
third and one-half of their length, and divided
into three parts by two row.s of columns, the
central part being three times as wide as the
two sides, which are called porticoes. A second
story is made over the porticoes by a second
series of shorter columns forming a gallery with
a marble parajjet, which usually extends also
across the short ends, and was used for prom-
enaders and spectators. At one of the short ends
a tribunal projects in the form of a semi-
circular or square apse. Here sits the judge, or
pra?tor. surrounded by his assessors or jurymen:
it is often partly screened off from the main
body of the building by smaller columns, and
is on a higher level. On either side of it is a
small room connected with it — cabinets or robing-
rooms. There are many variations from the
three-aisled type described by Vitruvius. Some
are halls with a single nave, without porticoe>
or galleries, as at Aquino and Palestrina ; others
— and these tlie most splendid — have as many a^
five aisles, with four rows of columns ; e.g. the
Basilicas Julia and npia; others have two
hemicycles, one at each end, as Trajan's Basilica
Ulpia ; others are virtually square in form, as
at Otricoli ; others — and these are the majority
— have no upper galleries; others, finally, have
heavy piers and vaults in place of colonnades
and wooden roof, as the colossal Basilica of
Constantine. The tribunal end appears to have
had a solid wall, but on the other three sides
the building was open, with either a simple colon-
nade ( LTpia ) or a mixed arcade with engaged
columns and architrave (Julia) such as we are
familiar with in the Coliseiun. Some, however,
were inclosed by walls on all sides; this was the
case at Pompeii. For five himdred years the
Romans built basilicas (c.200 B.C. to a.d. 300)
as one of their most characteristic and sumptu-
ous monument.ll expressions, alongside of their
memorial arches, aqueducts and thermce. X'ntil
B.C. 184 their commercial and judicial Imsiness
had been mostly transacted in the open forum.
But in that year the Basilica Porcia was built
(burned in B.C. 52) ; in 179 the Fulvia : in 169 the
Sempronia; in 121 the Opimia; in 46 the Julia.
Pliny calls the -Emilia and the Julia two of the
four most superb monuments of Rome. They
flanked the Forum on opposite sides and their
ruins are recently being studied with great care.
Everywhere that Roman colonies were established
under the late Republic and the Empire, basilicas
were built in connection with the forums. They
were the necessary outward sign of the Roman
law. the seat of justice, as well as of trade. Tlie
earliest basilica in good preservation is that at
Pompeii, which has excited the greater interest
because it may represent the original Greek
type: it has an open porch, five do<irs. three
naves, a portico across both ends, and a well-
preserved, raised, oblong tribunal at one end.
Other examples exist: in the Orient, at Palmyra;
in Germany, at Treves. In Rome it.self the two
most famous examples built under the Empire
were the Ulpia, erected by Trajan in his forum,
and that begim by JIaxentius and finished by
Constantine. unique for its immense vaulting
of tunnel and groin vaults: for all other known
basilicas appear to have had wooden roofs. It is
a common error to sujipose that they were not
roofed at all over the central space, but only
over their side aisles or porticoes.
The Roman public basilica was therefore a sort of covered forum. The term was, however, extended to other colonnaded halls and porticoes
