Plate X - Pedestals in the Forum
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Each column of the Forum seems to have had a
pedestal advanced in its front, surmounted with the
statue, and recording the name of some magistrate or
worthy of Pompeii. These pedestals, of which eight yet
remain in their original positions, have, in some
instances, been the means of preserving entire the
white marble pavement on which they are placed. |
Over the central column is seen part of a staircase, and
the holes for the beams of the upper floor. Behind the first
column, on the left, is a recess, with the stone containing
the legal measures used in the market. Behind that, on the
left, is seen a Corinthian pilaster of the Temple of Venus,
sometimes called, on its first discovery, the House of the
Dwarfs and the Temple of Bacchus, from some paintings which
it contains. In the second and the fourth intercolumniations
may be observed the architraves of the Doric colonnade, the
ends of which were cut in an angle of forty-five from the
horizon, so as to render unnecessary the use of architraves
reaching from pillar to pillar.
This method has been adopted with success in some of the new
custom-houses at Naples. The whole of this entablature is
nearly five feet high, and has the holes for large beams
within. Above seems to have been a second order of Ionic
columns. The Canonico Iorio says, that the inscription of one
of those stones containing measures, seen in this view, is
now in the Museum.