
80 ARCHITECTURE. 
Of the public buildings the amphitheatre is the most striking. It could — 
easily accommodate 12,000 men, and the rows of seats are made of volcanic 
tufa. Of the two theatres that lay near each other, one was covered and 
served as an odeon; the large one was in process of building. The steps of 
white marble were not all placed, and the wall work of the stage was not yet 
plastered. The forum was in the same incomplete state, and was to have 
had two colonnades one above the other. The pedestals of the statues, the 
equestrian also, were ready, but there were no statues. On the long side 
of the forum were three small buildings almost like basilicas, destined for 
the sessions of the municipality. On the opposite side was the euria with 
the archives, and a kind of pulpit standing in the open air. Here also was 
the comitium, where the magisterial electoral assemblies were held. 
The administration of public affairs must not go on without the close 
superintendence of the gods, and hence there was no want of temples in the 
vicinity of the forum. In the neighborhood, and only separated by the 
street from the comitium, lay a long court surrounded with walls, on the 
side of which ran a colonnade. In the midst of the court upon a lofty flight 
of steps a small temple, whose ground plan, pi. 16, fig. 37, shows that it was 
a prostylos hypeethros. This temple was dedicated to Jupiter, as the frag- 
ment of a very beautiful statue of Jupiter found in the vicinity leads us to 
suspect. Before the temple stands a large sacrificial altar. This temple 
was not fully restored, yet there were beautiful paintings on the wall. Upon ~ 
the opposite side of the forum were two small temples, one dedicated to 
Venus, the other to Fortuna. Both were of the Corinthian order, and we 
give the ground plan of the temple of Fortuna, pl. 16, jig. 28. Near the 
forum was the hospital of Augustus, in the court of which was a round or 
rather polygonal monopteros dedicated to Augustus. PU. 13, 7g. 10, shows the 
ground plan of this little temple. We must finally mention three temples, 
or rather chapels, which stood tolerably near one of the long sides of the 
forum. The most important is the temple of Aisculapius (pl. 16, fig. 31, 
shows the ground plan), which is hemmed in by other buildings, but has a 
porch with two columns towards the street. The temple itself is a Doric 
prostylos with four columns in front, and a fine sacrificial altar stands before 
it. The chapel of Isis (jig. 30) stands with the long side towards the street, 
from which it is separated by the walls of the porch. A colonnade of the 
Doric order surrounds the porch, in the corner of which stands a little 
building destined for the use of those who had charge of the temple, and 
who took care that no improper person penetrated to the mysteries of the 
goddess. Others suppose this small building to have been designed for 
beasts, as was the custom in all Egyptian temples. Here the Ibis might 
have been kept, a bird sacred to Isis. This bird is an important figure in 
two paintings representing the religious habits of the Egyptians, which 
were taken from the walls of this temple of Isis. The sacrificial offerings 
might have been kept there, which were brought and consumed upon the 
platform by the ibis, and with which a kind of augury was connected. In 
the court itself there were several altars, and the temple is a prostylos of 
four columns, and the middle space between the columns is the largest, as 
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