Chapter V: (...) A Roman basilica presented an appearance very

similar to that of a modern parish church, consisting as it did of
a nave, and two aisles divided from it by a row of columns. At one
end a portion, elevated like a daïs and railed off like a chancel,
formed the _bema_ (the word had passed from the Greek into *the*
Syro-Chaldaic) or tribunal, where the judges sat *and* orators
pleaded.