Basilica, (Stoa basilike, or basileios) building type with a clearstoreyed nave, two or more lower lean-to aisles on each side of the nave with a high central space delimited by colonnades and illuminated by clerestory lighting  and an apse at the end of the nave, originaly for public functions, but later adapted  for Christian worship. Larger examples may have first floor galleries and some had semicircular apses.

Example: Constantinian basilica of San Pietro in Rome , which was the model for Christian churches for centuries.  Latter, to this composition of San Pietro church was adjoined  two aisles on each side of the nave, and a lateral transept between the apse and the nave; nartex is also adjoin in front of the nave and aisles, and atrium with a central fountain for ritual washing. Attached to the south transept were teo mausolea , both rotundas.

Name ‘basilica’  is derived from the Greek, and the building may have been a development of the Greek Stoa, since Strabo  called the basilicas of Rome stoai basilikai (‘royal stoas’). The Hypostyle Hall on Delosis the most often quoted Greek parallel to the Roman basilica, and precedents have also been sought in Hellenistic Egypt, where Ptolemaic throne rooms had longitudinal colonnades and clerestory lighting. Evidence for direct influence, however, is far from conclusive. The earliest basilicas were located beside the forum, the main business and political centre of the Roman city, just as many of the stoas in the Greek world were located near the agora. However, the Roman buildings were designed with interiors, so that, unlike the stoa, they were self-contained buildings that became a frame for activities and rituals to which the stoa was quite unsuited.

The basilica spread rapidly through Italy. One was built at Cosa in southern Etruria (mid-2nd century BC), and others followed at Pompeii (c. 120 BC; ), Ardea and Alba Fucens (both early 1st century BC). Most had one side opening on to the forum and functioned as covered extensions of the forum, providing, among other things, shelter in the winter for businessmen. The tribunals (raised platforms for the seat of the magistrate) of the basilicas at Pompeii and Alba Fucens show that magistrates soon moved from the forum into the basilica, and it became an important function of the basilica under the Empire to act as a law court, with the tribunal of the presiding magistrate usually placed opposite the entrance. At Rome certain basilicas were devoted to particular courts, for example under Trajan (reg AD 98–117) the Basilica Julia was usually reserved for the tribunal of the centumviri (college of 105 judges), which heard civil cases. Basilicas also became closely associated with the worship of the emperor and the imperial family.

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