The Basilica Fulvia was a basilica

Basilica

The Latin word basilica , was originally used to describe a Roman public building, usually located in the forum of a Roman town. Public basilicas began to appear in Hellenistic cities in the 2nd century BC.The term was also applied to buildings used for religious purposes...

 built in ancient Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

. According to Livy

Livy

Titus Livius — known as Livy in English — was a Roman historian who wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people. Ab Urbe Condita Libri, "Chapters from the Foundation of the City," covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome well before the traditional foundation in 753 BC...

 (40.51), the censor

Censor (ancient Rome)

The censor was an officer in ancient Rome who was responsible for maintaining the census, supervising public morality, and overseeing certain aspects of the government's finances....

s M. Aemilius Lepidus and M. Fulvius Nobilior

Marcus Fulvius Nobilior

Marcus Fulvius Nobilior , Roman general, a member of one of the most important families of the patrician Fulvius gens....

 (after whom it was named) had it built in 179 BC

179 BC

Year 179 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Flaccus and Fulvianus...

. It may be that there had been a previous building existing on the site from 210 BC

210 BC

Year 210 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Marcellus and Laevinus...

 which was incorporated (Plaut. Capt. 815, Curc. 472). In 78 BC

78 BC

Year 78 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Lepidus and Catulus...

, the consul

Consul

Consul was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Empire. The title was also used in other city states and also revived in modern states, notably in the First French Republic...

 M. Aemilius Lepidus incorporated the building into the Basilica Aemilia

Basilica Aemilia

The Basilica Aemilia was a civil basilica in the Roman forum, in Rome, Italy. Today only the plan and some rebuilt elements can be seen. The Basilica was 100 meters long and about 30 meters wide...

 (Plin. Nat. Hist. 35.13) and it was renamed the Basilica Fulvia et Aemilia or sometimes simply the Basilica Aemilia

Basilica Aemilia

The Basilica Aemilia was a civil basilica in the Roman forum, in Rome, Italy. Today only the plan and some rebuilt elements can be seen. The Basilica was 100 meters long and about 30 meters wide...

.

The Remains

The remains of the Basilica Aemilia
The Basilica Aemilia was first built in 179 BCE by the censors M. Aemilius Lepidus and M. Fulvius Nobilior. In the following centuries it was actively maintained and improved by the gens Aemilia. The first complete reconstruction took place in the years between 55 BCE and 34 BCE, which incorporated into the building the series of shops, the tabernae novae, that stood in front of the basilica. The building was destroyed by a fire in 14 BCE and was rebuild by Augustus. A last restoration happened after a fire in 410 CE, following the sacking of the town by the Visigoths of Alaric.