The Julian Basilica

The Julian Basilica

Early-20th-century explorations of the Roman Forum at Ancient Corinth revealed a massive early imperial building now known as the Julian Basilica. The structure stood on a podium over four meters high, and it dominated the east end of the forum in size, aspect, and function until its destruction in the 4th century A.D. Within it was one of the largest known shrines to the imperial cult and the likely site of the imperial court of law for the Roman province of Achaia. The basilica housed 11 or more large-scale statues most likely to members of the Julio-Claudian family (including Augustus, Augustus's heirs Gaius and Lucius, and arguably Divus Iulius, Germanicus, Nero Caesar, and Claudius), as well as an altar to Divus Augustus and dedications to the genius Augusti, the gens Augusta, and other family members. This richly illustrated volume provides a contextual study of this important building, the remains of which were first published by Saul Weinberg in 1960 (Corinth I.5). Scotton treats the architectural remains, Vanderpool the sculptural remains, and Roncaglia the epigraphical material, each providing extensive catalogues with new photos, in addition to color reconstructions of the basilica and its grand interior.

Corinth

The Southeast Building, the Twin Basilicas, the Mosaic House

This volume discusses the important, mainly Roman, buildings at the east end of the Corinthian Agora; the Julian Basilica and the Southeast Building, the South Basilica (immediately behind the South Stoa), and the Mosaic House adjoining it. The Southeast Building is described first in its present state, and then as it must have looked in its two main periods of use, soon after 44 B.C. and in the second quarter of the 1st century A.D. It was probably known in ancient times as the Tabularium or Library of Corinth. The adjoining Julian Basilica was, with the South Basilica, built about A.D. 40; the interior colonnades of both were rebuilt in marble in the Hadrianic period. These basilicas have a cryptoporticus on the ground floor and on the main floor an interior colonnade supporting a clerestory and three exedras. Detailed descriptions of each building are followed by a reconstruction of the pair and by a comparative discussion of floor plans. Finally, the Mosaic House is discussed and analysis of the mosaics date it about 200 A.D.