Painting of Bacchus and Silenus. in the apartment of the priest in the Temple of Venus.

Having thus completed the circuit of the Forum, it only remains to mention a few less important matters. A portico, ,is we have often had occasion to mention, surrounds three sides of this space; we will now speak more particularly of its construction. The columns are twelve feet high, and two feet three inches and a half in diameter; they were set ar ostyle, about three and a half diameters, or eight feet six inches apart. It has been already mentioned as an objection to this width of intercolumniation, that, except where masses of stone of unusual size could be commanded, the architraves were necessarily either flat arches or beams of wood (b). Here the latter material was used, and a stone entablature (d) raised upon it, as represented in the annexed engraving. Above this there probably was a gallery; such at least, we learn from Vitruvius, was the general practice; and this gallery was usually appropriated to the use of those who had the management of the public revenue. The area of the Forum was adorned with pedestals, for the statues of those who merited or could procure this distinction. Some are of the proportion adapted to equestrian statues. They were all coated with white marble, ornamented with a Doric frieze; and appear to have been still in process of erection, to replace an older set of pedestals, at the time when Pompeii was destroyed. Some are inscribed with names, and on one of them may be read that of Pansa. At the south end is a small isolated arch, on which possibly the tutelary genius of the city might have been placed. Such was the construction of a Roman forum : the reader will not be at a loss to appreciate its combined utility and magnificence. Some surprise may be felt at the expense lavished so prodigally on public buildings in an inconsiderable town. But the Romans lived in public, and depended on the public for their amusements and pleasure. "A Roman citizen," says M. Simond, " went out early, and did not return home until the evening repast; he spent his day in the forum, at the baths, at the theatre every where, in short, except at his own home, where he slept in a small room, without windows, without a chimney, and almost without furniture." Architectural splendour therefore, both in places of public business and of public pleasure, was far more studied and of far greater importance than it now is; and money, both public and private, was lavished upon such purposes with a profuseness far more than commensurate, according to modern notions, with the objects to which it was directed. We may add, to explain the motives which induced individuals to bestow their money so freely in increasing the splendour of their city, that there was no surer road to power and influence, either in the capital, or in the smaller sphere of a provincial town, than by gratifying the taste of the people for splendour, either in public buildings or in the amusements of the stage or the amphitheatre.

View of the Forum, looking towards the North.

The architecture of Pompeii is not always in the best taste, yet there is much to admire in it, both for the design and the execution. The restoration of the Forum, which forms the frontispiece to this volume, will convey to the reader some idea at once of the artificial and natural beauties of that city.

Male Centaur and Bacchante.

Marble bas-relief fund in Pompeii, representing a warrior, and a black slave driving his biga.