The last monument of the Forum on the south-west side is the Basilica; and the street by which we have entered separates it from the temple of Venus.  The construction of the edifice leaves no doubt as to its destination, which is, moreover, confirmed by the word Basilica or Basilaca, scratched here and there by loungers with the points of their knives, on the wall. Basilica—­derived from a Greek word which signifies king—­might be translated with sufficient exactness by royal court.  At Rome, these edifices were originally mere covered market-places sheltered from the rain and the sun.  At a later period, colonnades divided them in three, sometimes even into five naves, and the simple niche which, intended for the judges’ bench, was hollowed out at the foot of its monuments, finally developed into a vaulted semicircle.  At last, the early Christians finding themselves crowded in the old temples, chose the high courts of justice to therein celebrate the worship of the new God, and the Roman Basilica imposed its architecture and its proportions upon the Catholic Cathedral.  In the semicircle, then, where once the ancient magistracy held its justice seat, arose the high altar and the consecrated image of the crucified Saviour.

The Basilica of Pompeii presents to the Forum six pillars, between which five portals slid along grooves which are still visible.  A vestibule, or sort of chalcidicum extends between these five entrances and five others, indicated by two columns and four pillars.  The vestibule once crossed, the edifice appears in its truly Roman grandeur; at first glance the eye reconstructs the broad brick columns, regularly truncated in shape (they might be considered unfinished), which are still erect on their bases and which, crowned with Ionic volutes, were to form a monumental portico along the four sides of this majestic area paved with marble.  Half columns fixed in the lateral walls supported the gallery; they joined each other in the angles; the middle space must have been uncovered.  Fragments of statues and even of mounted figures proclaim the magnificence of this monument, at the extremity of which there rose, at the height of some six feet above the soil, a tribune adorned with half a dozen Corinthian columns and probably destined for the use of the duumvirs.  The middle columns stood more widely apart in order that the magistrates might, from their seats, command a view of the entire Basilica.  Under this tribune was concealed a mysterious cellar with barred windows.  Some antiquaries affirm that there was the place where prisoners were tortured.  They forget that in Rome, in the antique time, cases were adjudged publicly before the free people.