You now know what the public exchange was in a Roman city; a spacious court surrounded by the most important monuments (three temples, the bourse, the tribunals, the prisons, etc.), inclosed on all sides (traces of the barred gates are still discernible at the entrances), adorned with statues, triumphal arches, and colonnades; a centre of business and pleasure; a place for sauntering and keeping appointments; the Corso, the Boulevard of ancient times, or in other words, the heart of the city.  Without any great effort of the imagination, all this scene revives again and becomes filled with a living, variegated throng,—­the portico and its two stories of columns along the edge of the reconstructed monuments; women crowd the upper galleries; loiterers drag their feet along the pavement; the long robes gather in harmonious folds; busy merchants hurry to the Chalcidicum; the statues look proudly down from their re-peopled pedestals; the noble language of the Romans resounds on all sides in scanned, sonorous measure; and the temple of Jupiter, seated at the end of the vista, as on a throne, and richly adorned with Corinthian elegance, glitters in all its splendor in the broad sunshine.

An air of pomp and grandeur—­a breath of Rome—­has swept over this collection of public edifices.  Let us descend from these heights and walk about through the little city.

[Footnote B:  For sitiat.]

III.

THE STREET.

     THE PLAN OF POMPEII.—­THE PRINCELY NAMES OF THE HOUSES.—­APPEARANCE
     OF THE STREETS, PAVEMENTS, SIDEWALKS, ETC.—­THE SHOPS AND THE
     SIGNS.—­THE PERFUMER, THE SURGEON, ETC.—­AN ANCIENT
     MANUFACTORY.—­BATHING ESTABLISHMENTS.—­WINE-SHOPS, DISREPUTABLE
     RESORTS.—­HANGING BALCONIES, FOUNTAINS.—­PUBLIC PLACARDS:  LET US
     NOMINATE BATTUR!  COMMIT NO NUISANCE!—­RELIGION ON THE STREET.

You have no need of me for this excursion.  Cast a glance at the plan, and you will be able to find your own way.  You will there see an oval inclosure, a wall pierced with several entrances designated by the names of the roads which ran from them, or rather of the cities at which these roads terminated—­Herculaneum, Nola, Stabiae, etc.  Two-thirds of the egg are still immaculate; you discover a black spot only on the extreme right, marking out the Amphitheatre.  All this white space shows you the part of Pompeii that has not yet been designated.  It is a hillside covered with vineyards, gardens, and orchards.  It is only on the left that you will find the lines marking the streets, the houses, the monuments, and the public squares.  The text gives us the fancied names attributed to the streets, namely:  the Street of Abundance, the Street of Twelve Gods, the Street of Mercury, the Street of Fortune, the Street of Fortunata, Modest Street, etc.  The names given to the houses are still more arbitrary.