Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/665

 rOMPEII. •wall •on its external front : they were further for- tilieJ at intervals with square towers, which in some parts occur regularly at about 100 yards from each other, in other parts are added much more spar- ingly. These towers seem to have been subsequent additions to tiie original walls, being of a difl'erent and less solid style of construction. The walls themseljres are very solidly built of large blocks of travertine, in horizontal courses, but presenting con- siderable irregularities of construction : the upper part is more regularly finished, and consists of ^^e- ■perino. But both walls and towers are in many places patched with coarser masonry and reticulated work; thus showing that they had been frequently repaired, and at distant intervals of time. The general plan of the city is veiy regular, and the greater part of the streets run in straight lines: but the principal line of street, which runs from the gate of Herculaneum to the Forum, is an exception, being irregular and crooked as well as very narrow. Though it nmst undoubtedly have been one of the chief thoroughfares of the city, and the line followed by the high road from Capua, Xeapolis, and Rome itself, it does not exceed 12 or 14 feet in width, including the raised trottoirs or footpaths on each side, so that the carriageway could only have ad- mitted the passage of one vehicle at a time. Some of the other streets are broader; but few of them exceed 20 feet in width, and the widest yet found is only about 30. They are uniformly paved with large polygonal blocks of hard lava or basalt, in the same manner as were the streets of ancient Rome, and the Via Appia, and other great highways in this part of Italy. The principal street, already noticed, was crossed, a little before it reached the Forum, by a long straight line of street which, passing by the temple of Fortune, led direct to the gate of Nola. In the angle formed by the two stood the public baths or Thermae, and between these and the temple of Fortune a short broad street led direct to the Forum, of which it seems to have formed the principal entrance. From the Forum two other parallel streets struck off in an easterly direction, which have been followed till they cross another main line of street that leads from the gate of Vesuvius directly across the city to the gate adjoining the theatres. This last line crosses the street already noticed, leading from the gate of Nola westward, and the two divide the whole city into four quarters, though of irregular size. Great part of the city (especially the SE. quarter) has not yet been explored, but recent excavations, by following the line of these main streets, have clearly shown its general plan, and the regularity with which the minor streets branched off at intervals in parallel lines. There is also little doubt that the part of the city already excavated is the most important, as it includes the Forum, with the public buildings ad- Joining to it, the theatres, amphitheatre, &c. The Forum was situated in the SW. quarter of the city, and was distant about 400 yards from the gate of Herculaneum. As was commonly the case in ancient times, it was surrounded by the principal public buildings, and was evidently the centre of the life and movement of the city. The extent of it was not, however, great; the actual open space (exclusive of the porticoes which surrounded it) did not exceed 160 yards in length by .35 in breadth, and a part of this space was occupied by the temple of Jupiter. It was surrounded on three sides by a Grecian-Doric prtico or colonnade, which appears POMPEII. 649 to have been surmounted by a gallery or upper story, though no part of this is now preserved. It would seem that this portico had replaced an older arcade on the eastern side of the Forum, a portion of which still remains, so that this alteration was not yet completed when the catastrophe took place. At the north end of the Forum, and projecting out into the open area, are the remains of an edifice which must have been much the most magnificent of any in the city. It is commonly known, with at least a plausible foundation, as the temple of Jupiter ; others dispute its being a temple at all, and have called it the Senaeulum, or place of meet- ing of the local senate. It was raised on a jwdivm or base of considerable elevation, and had a portico of six Corinthian columns in front, which, according to Sir W. Gell, are nearly as large as those in the portico of St. Paul's. From the state in which it was found it seems certain that this edifice (in common with most of the public buildings at Pom- peii) had been overthrown by the earthquake of 63, or, at least, so much damaged that it was necessary to restore, and in great part rebuild it, and that this process was still incomplete at the time of its final destruction. At the NE. angle of the Forum, ad- joining the temple of Jupiter, stood an arch which appears to have been of a triumphal character, though now deprived of all its ornaments: it was the principal entrance to the Forum, and the only one by ■which it was accessible to carriages of any description. On the E. side of the Forum were four edifices, all unquestionably of a public cha- racter, though we are much in doubt as to their objects and destination. The first (towards the N.) is generally known as the Pantheon, from its having contained an altar in the centre, with twelve pe- destals placed in a circle round it, which are sup- posed to have supported statues of the twelve chief gods. But no traces have been found of these, and the general plan and arrangement of the building are wholly unlike those of an ordinary temple. A more plausible conjecture is, that it was consecrated to Augustus, and contained a small temple or aedicula in honour of that emperor, while the court and surrounding edifices were appropriated to the service of his priests, the Augustales, who are men- tioned in many inscriptions as existing at Pompeii. Next to this building is one which is commonly regarded as the Curia or Senaeulum ; it had a portico of fluted columns of while marble, which ranged with those of the general portico that sur- rounded the Forum. South of this again is a build- ing which was certainly a temple, though it is injpossible now to say to what divinity it was consecrated; it is commonly called the Temple of iMercury, and is of small size and very irregular form. Between this and the street known as the Street of the Silversmiths, which issued from the Forum near its SE. angle, was a large building which, as we learn from an inscription still existing, was erected by a female priestess named Euinachia. It consists of a large and spacious area (abnut 130 feet by 65) surrounded by a colonnade, and having a raised platform at the end with a semicircular recess similar to that usually found in a Basilica. But though in this case the founder of the edifice is known, its purpose is still completely obscure. It is commonly called the Chalcidicum, but it is [jro- bable that that term (which is found in the in- scription above noticed) d<'>ignates only a part of the edifice, not the whole building.