Plate XXII - Roof of the thermae
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This view has little to recommend it as picturesque, but it gives, more perspicuously, the portico of the Temple of Fortune, and exhibits, in the clearest manner, the external appearance of the dome, or cone, which was erected over the circular piscina, or natatorium, of the baths, the inside view of which is given in plate XXVIII. |
This dome probably terminated in a point, which,
projecting above the soil, had been destroyed by time and the
labours of agriculture not long after the great eruption. The
window may have been of glass, and probably ground on one
side, so as to prevent the gratification of idle curiosity.
The interior seems to have been painted blue or black. The
circular top here shown must have always been known to the
labourer, but, being full of earth, it was probably
considered as nothing more than an old cistern. The wall on
the right, in the foreground, positively arose to the outer
surface of the soil ; and its summit remained after the
excavation, covered with the vegetable productions which a
very thin layer of earth permitted to grow upon it, as here
represented.
The window seen on the right, behind the cone, is that of the
frigidarium, which was glazed in four divisions fastened by a
copper bar in the form of a cross.