Basilica Porcia: the first named basilica in Rome, built by Cato as censor in 184 B.C. (Livy 39.44.7; Aur. Vict. De Vir. Ill. 47) against senatorial opposition (Plutarch Cato Mai. 19.2), the reason for which is difficult to understand. It was a small building covering the ground previously occupied by only four shops and two private (?) atria, the Atrium Maenium and Atrium Titium, in lautumiis (q.v.), therefore between the Clivus Argentarius and the Curia Hostilia, facing on the former. The tribuni plebis came to use it as their public station (Plutarch Cato Min. 5.1; see Tabula Valeria). It burned in the conflagration caused by the pyre of Clodius in 52 B.C. (Asconius in Milon. 29 [Stangl 32]) and was evidently then not rebuilt.

Coarelli 1985, 59-63.