Basilica Julia

The Basilica Julia, was a large, ornate, public building used for meetings and other official business during the early Roman Empire. The building was initially dedicated in 46 BC by Julius Caesar, with building costs paid from the spoils of the Gallic War. The Basilica was completed by Augustus, who named the building after his adoptive father. The building burned shortly after its completion, but was repaired and rededicated in AD 12. The Basilica was again reconstructed by the Emperor Diocletian after the fire of AD 283.

The Basilica housed the civil law courts and tabernae (shops), and provided space for government offices and banking. In the first century, it also was used for sessions of the Centumviri (Court of the Hundred), who presided over matters of inheritance. In his Epistles, Pliny the Younger describes the scene as he pleaded for a woman whose 80-year-old husband had disinherited her within days of taking a new wife.

It was the favorite meeting place of the Roman people. This Basilica houses public meeting places and shops, but it is used mainly as a law court. On the pavement of the portico, there are diagrams of games scratched into the white marble.