To the right and the left of the steps were pedestals that formerly sustained statues probably colossal.  Behind the pronaos could be recognized the place where the cella used to be.  Nothing remains of it now but the mosaic pavement and the walls.  Traces of columns enable us to reconstruct this sanctuary richly.  We can there raise—­and it has been done on paper—­two colonnades—­the first one of the Ionic order, supporting a gallery; the second of the Corinthian order, sustaining the light wooden platform of painted wood which no longer exists.  The walls, covered with stucco, still retain pretty decorative paintings.  Three small subterranean chambers, of very solid construction, perhaps contained the treasury and archives of the State, or something else entirely different—­why not those of the temple?  In those times the Church was rich; the Saviour had not ordained poverty as its portion.

[Illustration:  THE FORUM.]

What deity’s house is it that we are visiting now?  Jupiter’s, says common opinion, upon the strength of a colossal statue of which fragments have been found that might well have fitted the King of the Gods.  Others think it the temple of Venus, the Venus Physica (the beautiful in nature, say aesthetic philosophers) being the patroness of Pompeii.  We shall frequently, hereafter, meet with the name of this goddess.  Several detached limbs in stone and in bronze, which are not broken at the extremity as though they belonged to a statue, but are polished on all sides and cut in such a manner as to admit of being suspended, were found among the ruins; they were votive offerings.  Italy, in becoming Catholic, has retained these Pagan customs.  Besides her supreme God, she worships a host of demi-gods, to whom she dedicates her towns and consecrates her temples, where garlands of ex-voto offerings testify to the intercession of the priests and the gratitude of the true believers.

On the two sides of the temple of Jupiter—­such is the generally-accepted name—­rise arcades, as I have already remarked.  The one on the left is a vaulted entrance, which, being too low and standing too far forward, does not correspond with the other and deranges, one cannot exactly make out why, the symmetry of this part of the Forum.  The other arcade is evidently a triumphal portal.  Nothing remains of it now but the body of the work in brick, some niches and traces of pilasters; but it is easy to replace the marbles and the statues which must have adorned this monument in rather poor taste.  Such was the extremity of the Forum.

Four considerable edifices follow each other on the eastern side of this public square.  These are, going from south to north, the palace of Eumachia, the temple of Mercury, the Senate Chamber, and the Pantheon.

What is the Eumachia palace?  An inscription found at that place reads:  “Eumachia, in her name and in the name of her son, has erected to Concord and to august Piety, a Chalcidicum, a crypt and porticoes.”