called basilicas in the important palaces of imperial times: thus, the Villa Gordianorum, near Rome, contained, as we are told by Julius Capitolinus (Hist. Aug. Gordianus III. c. 32), three basilicas, each a hundred feet in length. These halls, no doubt, served many of the purposes of the great hall of a medieval house, were places where the clients and dependants could assemble, where the imagines" of the family were displayed, and where festive solemnities could be held.

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Perhaps the only example of a structure of this kind now existing is the basilica of the Sessorium, now the church of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, near the Lateran. This, though larger, in many respects resembles the basilica of the Bassi; each was an oblong space very lofty in proportion to its length or breadth, and lit by very large windows near the top; in both a portico of two storeys extended across the front. The sides of the Sessorian basilica were pierced by five large openings on the ground level, divided by piers, or rather masses of wall, while the walls of the other basilicas were unbroken.

The former was in its original state internally about 115 feet long by 72 wide, and 66 high; the latter is stated to have been about 62 feet long by 45 wide, and 68 high. These dimensions are given on the authority of Hübsch, Alt Christliche Kirchen, who states that he derives those of the Bassian basilica from Ciampini (Vet. Moni.). That author, however, gives no scale with his engraving of the building, and a comparison of the existing remains of the mosaics with the elevations of the interior of the building by Ciampini and Sangallo leads to the conclusion that it was in reality not more than 45 feet high.

The Sessorian basilica ends in a semi-circular apse, which, however, is not supposed to be of as early a date as the rest of the structure; in the other building under consideration the apse appears to have been part of the original building. The upper storey of each contained, in the first, five windows, about 27 feet high by 15 wide; in the latter, three, which would seem to have measured about 10 feet high by 6 wide. These great windows were no doubt originally fitted with marble slabs pierced with numerous apertures, which may or may not have been fitted with glass (vide Archæologia, vol. xl. "On the Churches of Rome earlier than the year 1150,” p. 195). In the Bassian basilica, where the walls were completely covered with marbles and glass of bright colours, it seems extremely probable that the windows were also made to contribute to the splendour of the apartment by being fitted with coloured glass.

The Sessorian basilica has undergone so many repairs that scarcely a trace of the original system of decoration can be found, but an accidental opening in the

LAMETA DE LAFACATA DISANTO AN DREA DALATO DIDENTRO TROMA TVTAPIANA LAVORATA TV TA DIPRI ETE FINE CIOE PORFIDO SERPENTINO MADREPERLA EDIPIV RAGIONI DI PRIETE FINE AVSO DIPROSPET IVA COSA MARAVIGLIOSA

PORTION OF THE BASSIAN BASILICA, FROM A DRAWING BY SANGALLO.
Published by the Society of Antiquaries of London, 1879.

W. GRIGGS, PHOTO-LITH, LONDON, S. E.

stones with which the great arches in the walls have been closed enabled me to ascertain that the surfaces had been covered with thin slabs of marble of various colours, arranged in patterns, and I have no doubt that the whole interior was, as in the Bassian basilica, covered with decoration of the same sort.

Seeing, then, that these two buildings exhibit so many points of resemblance in plan and in character, and that there is evidence that the Sessorian basilica was formed out of a portion of the palace so-called (vide Lib. Pontif. in vitâ San Silvestri), and that it was originally not a church, but a great hall, we may, I think, not hesitate to conclude that the Bassian basilica was also originally the great state apartment, hall, or basilica of a great patrician family, probably bearing the family name of Bassus. This attribution of the building will, I think, appear even more probable when the character of the decorations is considered.

De Rossi has shown that in the eighteenth century the convent of San Andrea was known as the "Massa Juliana," and that Juliana was the cognomen of several matrons ancestresses of the Anicii, Probi, and Bassi of the fourth century. Urlichs (Beschreibung von Rom. vol. iii. part 2, p. 216) states that fine ruins of a palace exist near San Antonio Abate but within the bounds of the Villa Negroni. Are these fragments of the palace of the Bassi ?

In Plate XXI. is given a reduced copy of Sangallo's drawing already mentioned ; the original measures 16 inches in length by 104 in width. It represents onehalf of one side of the interior of the Bassian basilica; from this it will be seen that each side was decorated by twenty-six pictures, or, if the spaces which are left blank once also contained pictures, by thirty-nine. But it is perhaps more probable that these were filled by slabs of precious marbles, and not with mosaics. Of the decoration of the wall at the entrance, or of that at the apse, we only know that in the latter was the inscription in which Junius Bassus is named, and that Ugonius (writing before 1588) seems to write of that part of the building when he mentions incrustations of stones of various colours worked in designs of diverse figures. (In capo se sale all' altar grande dove e dietro il presbiterio e la sedia di marmo episcopale è tutto incrostato di pietre di varii colori fatte a lavori a disegno di diverse figure, Bull. 1871, p. 14).

These fifty-two pictures may be divided into four classes, portrait-heads and masks, figures of animals, subjects historical or mythological or relating to the games of the circus, and, lastly, trophies of arms; originally there were, it would seem, sixteen of the first class, six or eight of the second, twenty or twenty-two of the third, and eight of the fourth. There remain in existence none of the first

or fourth class, two of the second, and two of the third, but Sangallo's sketch and Ciampini's engraving have preserved representations (not, it is to be feared, of very accurate character), of two portrait-heads, two masks, one animal figure, seven of the mythological or historical subjects, and two trophies. The heads crowned with laurel-wreaths no doubt portray Emperors, and if the whole series had been before us it would no doubt have materially aided us in an attempt to find an answer to the question-What was the leading idea in the selection and arrangement of these mosaic pictures? But, unfortunately, we know only two of them; one of these decidedly resembles Nero, but in that case, as Cav. de Rossi remarks, we might reasonably expect that the next effigy would represent either his predecessor or his successor, Claudius or Galba, while it bears no resemblance to either. The two, however, bear some resemblance to Titus and Domitian; both of whom belonged to the Gens Flavia; and De Rossi, thinking that the leading idea of these decorations was to do honour to the deeds of the Emperor Constantine, suggests that portraits of emperors or empresses of that family would be appropriately placed among them.

Of the other pictures of the third class perhaps the most important is that on the right-hand of the lower part of Sangallo's drawing; in this it will be seen two figures are shown standing on a pedestal and wearing cloaks and helmets, the foremost of whom is in the act of addressing a crowd of soldiers who parade before him one or more human heads on the points of lances. Dr. Bock has suggested (Christl. Kunstblätter, Freiburg, March, 1869) and De Rossi adopts the suggestion, that this represents Constantine's troops offering their congratulations to him after the defeat and death of Maxentius in 312. Both authors are so fully satisfied with the correctness of this attribution that it serves as the key by which the other scenes are explained.

The Senate, it appears (Bull. 1871, p. 49), instituted games to be celebrated in the circus on the 28th and 29th of each year in honour of the "evictio tyranni and the triumphant entry of Constantine into Rome, and it is thence inferred that the subjects marked with the letters S. C. have reference to the games then instituted; the other snbjects, as that of the car drawn by lions and the "carpentum on the lowest tier of compartments, may, De Rossi thinks, be explained, the first as alluding to the festive procession in which cars carrying images of the gods habitually formed a part, the second as an appendage to the state of a chief magistrate. The figure in the quadriga no doubt represents a victorious charioteer holding the palm of victory.

The figure in the biga De Rossi believes to represent Junius Bassus himself,