[24] The first Roman Basilica was constructed in 231 B.C., by Marcus Portius Cato, and was called the Basilica Portia. Marcus Fulvis Nobilior built one, called the Fulvia, in 179 B.C.; Titus Sempronius, 169 B.C. Then followed a long line of these religio-judicial buildings, up to the Basilica Julia of Augustus, 29 B.C., and ending with the Ulpian Basilica of Trajan, A.D. 100.—Ricci, Arch. Ital. chap. ii.
[25] Dell' Architettura in Italia, vol. i. p. 174.
[26] A document, dated 739, in the archives of Monte Amiata, speaks of a certain Maestro Comacino, named Rodpert, who sold to Opportuno for 30 gold solidi, his property at Toscanella (then a Longobardic territory), consisting of a house and vineyard, a cloister, cistern, land, etc.
[27] Cattaneo, L' Architettura in Italia, p. 46.
[28] Gundiberga ... intra ticinensem Civitatem in honorem Beati Joannis Baptistae construxit.—Paul. Diac. lib. iv. cap. 4. This must not be confounded with the Baptistery which was built by Bishop Damiano in the same century.
[29] Several of the Lombard towers in Rome have this peculiar ornamentation.
[30] Antichità Romantiche d'Italia, da Difendente e Giuseppe Sacchi, p. 70, et seq.
[31] Felice quoque meæ sorori ejus tres annulos transmisi due cum jacintis, et unum cum albula.—Gregor. Epist. ad Teod. lib. xiv.
[32] Paulus Diaconus, Sto. Longo. lib. iv. cap. 20.
[33] Ibid. iv. 21.