$"70 Mr Forbes's Physical Notices of the Bay of Naples. 



of which was used for purification. The portico in the court was 

 supported on the three sides different from the pronaoSyhy a co- 

 lonnade of twenty-four granite pillars *, eight on each side ; and 

 on the fourth, besides the great columns of Cipollino, one au- 

 thor informs us that there were four small ones of that rare 

 stone the giallo antico or antique yellow marble f. Support- 

 ed by this splendid range was a frieze of the proiiaos, execu- 

 ted with arabesques, leaves, lions and griffins. Within these, 

 and close to the entrance of the cella, were formerly two other 

 great Cipollino columns, and their corresponding semi-columns 

 attached to the wall, the bases of which are seen in the ground 

 plan. The architecture of the pronaos, I think, may proba- 

 bly be referred to the period of Antoninus Pius, as it will recal 

 to the classical traveller a very similar specimen of art in the 

 temple of that emperor in the Roman forum, the pillars of 

 which are of the same marble, and commonly reputed to be 

 the largest known ; but those of Jupiter Serapis I suspect ex- 

 ceed them. The frieze almost precisely answers the above 

 description. In the cella was found the image of the divinity 

 already noticed. 



Some idea of the extreme richness of the temple may be 

 formed from the consideration, that beside each column of the 

 whole temple, (except the four small ones of giallo antico), was 

 placed a marble pedestal with a statue, many of which were 

 found, and must have amounted to 42 in all, the number of 

 pillars being 46. In the splendid French work the " Voyage 

 Pittoresque dans le Royaume de Naples,'' there is a beautifully 

 executed though somewhat fanciful view of the ruins of the 

 temple partly restored, and embellished with its original or- 

 naments. 



We learn from the historian Philostratus, who lived undet 

 the Emperor Severus, that the use of water, and especially of 

 mineral water, was one of the necessary rites in the Serapea 

 of the Greeks. Accordingly, there is a fountain in the very 

 atrium of the temple at Q, vvhich still overflows. But the most 

 important spring is a thermal and medicinal one just behind 



Breislak says that the granite appears to be that of Elba, 

 t Romanelliy ii. 137. For an account of the different ornamental stones 

 here naentioned, I may refer to my paper in this Journal, July 1828. 



