Pompeii, Its Life and Art. August 1840-1909 Mau
portico, which in other respects follows the Etruscan plan (p. 63), are continued in a colonnade which is carried completely around the cella.
In Plate II and Fig. 30 we give a view of the ruins as they are to-day; in Fig. 32 a view of the temple as it appeared before the earthquake of 63. The height and diameter of the Corinthian columns seen in the restoration can be calculated with approximate correctness; of the entablature and parts above nothing has been found except a large waterspout of terra cotta in the form of a lion's head.
The colonnade about the court was built of tufa, and coated with white stucco. It presents an odd mixture of styles, of which other examples also are found at Pompeii; a Doric entablature with triglyphs was placed upon Ionic columns having the four-sided capital known as Roman Ionic. Here, as in the earlier colonnade about the Forum, the stone blocks of the entablature were set upon beams; and in the blocks now in place we may see the sockets made to receive the ends of the joists of the second story floor. Evidently with the purpose of supporting this second story, which was probably of the Corinthian order, the Ionic columns below were made relatively short. No remains of an upper gallery, however, have been found; and it is quite possible that when the colonnade was restored, after the earthquake, the second story was omitted. The upper floor could be reached from the second story of the small colonnade north of the court, which was accessible by means of a stairway leading from the Forum.
Fig. 30.—View of the temple of Apollo, looking toward Vesuvius. At the left of the steps, the column on which was the sundial; in front of the steps, the altar.
When the restoration of the temple and its colonnade was undertaken, the feeling for the pure and simple forms of the Greek architecture was no longer present; the prevailing taste demanded gay and fantastic designs, with the use of brilliant colors. The Pompeians improved the opportunity afforded by the rebuilding to make the temple and its colonnade conform to the taste of the times.
First the projecting portions of the Ionic and Corinthian capitals were cut off; then shaft and capital alike were covered with a thick layer of stucco. New capitals were moulded in the stucco, of a shape in general resembling the Corinthian, and were painted in red, blue, and yellow; the lower part of the shaft, unfluted, was also painted yellow. The entablature, at least in the case of the colonnade, was in like manner covered with stucco and ornamented with reliefs in the same colors. All this gaudy stucco has now fallen off; and our illustration (Fig. 31) is taken from Mazois, who made the drawing soon after the court was excavated. The later capitals and stucco ornamentation of the temple itself had wholly disappeared before the excavations were made.
Fig. 31.—Section of the entablature of the temple of Apollo, showing the original form and the restoration after the earthquake.
The wall decoration of both the temple and the colonnade was originally in the first style; a remnant of it may still be seen in the cella. After 63 it was modernized. The walls of the temple both within and without were done over in stucco, so as to resemble ashlar work of white marble; apparently it was the intention to give the appearance of real marble. The walls of the colonnade were painted in the latest Pompeian style, in bright colors, on a white ground. The decorative designs, to judge from the remains and from sketches, were not of special interest. There was a series of pictures representing scenes from the Trojan War—the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon, the embassy of the Greeks to Achilles, the battle between Achilles and Hector (the subject of this, however, is doubtful), the dragging of Hector's body about the walls of Troy, Priam making entreaty for the body of Hector, and the rape of the Palladium—but they have long since perished and are known only from unsatisfactory drawings.
Long before this modernizing of the temple the west side of the court had undergone a complete transformation. The peculiar bend in the street at the northwest corner (shown in Plan II), the diagonal line with which the small colonnade north of the court ends, and the narrow, quite inaccessible space between the west wall of the court and the houses lying near it, cannot easily be explained as a part of an original plan, but must rather be the result of later changes. The north and south street which now ends abruptly at the northwest corner must originally have been continued through the west colonnade, the ends of which were left open; this colonnade was then a public thoroughfare, on which the windows of houses opened, and perhaps also doors.
We learn from an inscription that about the year 10 B.C. the city purchased from the residents whose property adjoined the colonnade, for the sum of 3000 sesterces (about $155), the right to build a wall in front of their windows; this explains how the narrow space between the wall on the north side of the court and the houses came to be cut off. The inscription reads: M. Holconius Rufus d[uum] v[ir] i[uri] d[icundo] tert[ium], C. Egnatius Postumus d. v. i. d. iter[um] ex d[ecurionum] d[ecreto] ius luminum opstruendorum 𐆘 ∞ ∞ ∞ redemerunt, parietemque privatum Col[oniae] Ven[eriae] Cor[neliae] usque ad tegulas faciundum coerarunt—'Marcus Holconius Rufus, duumvir with judiciary authority for the third time, and Gaius Egnatius Postumus, duumvir with judiciary authority for the second time, in accordance with a decree of the city council purchased for 3000 sesterces the right to shut off light (from adjoining buildings) and caused to be constructed a wall belonging to the colony of Pompeii to the height of the tiles,' that is, as high as the roofs of the houses.
The wall referred to was no doubt that on the west side of the court of the temple; when it was built the ends of the colonnade on that side must have been closed, so that this ceased to be a thoroughfare. Marcus Holconius was duumvir for the fourth time in the year 3–2 B.C.; as an interval of at least five years must intervene between two duumvirates, his third duumvirate must have been not far from 10 B.C.
The pedestal in the cella, on which the statue of Apollo stood, still remains, but no trace of the statue itself has been found.
Fig. 32.—Temple of Apollo, restored.
Near the foot of the steps in front is a large altar of travertine, having the same inscription on both sides: M. Porcius M. f., L. Sextilius L. f., Cn. Cornelius Cn. f., A. Cornelius A. f. IIII vir[i] d[e] d[ecurionum] s[ententia] f[aciundum] locar[unt]—'Marcus Porcius the son of Marcus, Lucius Sextilius the son of Lucius, Gnaeus Cornelius the son of Gnaeus, and Aulus Cornelius the son of Aulus, the Board of Four, in accordance with the vote of the city council let the contract (for building this altar).' The names of the four officials who erected the altar, the two duumvirs and two aediles (for the title see p. 12), appear without surnames; this points to a relatively early time, at the latest the age of Augustus.
At the left of the steps is an Ionic column with the inscription: L. Sepunius L. f. Sandilianus, M. Herennius A. f. Epidianus duovir[i] i[uri] d[icundo] d[e] s[ua] p[ecunia] f[aciundum] c[urarunt]—'Lucius Sepunius Sandilianus the son of Lucius, and Marcus Herennius Epidianus the son of Aulus, duumvirs with judiciary authority, caused (this) to be erected at their own expense.' Old sketches, made soon after the court was excavated, represent the column with a sundial on the top. The probability that a sundial belonging to the column was actually found is increased by the fact that these same men placed one on the circular bench in the Forum Triangulare. Here, in front of the temple of the Sun-god, such a dial would certainly have been in place. At the right of the steps are some blocks of lava containing holes, in which, undoubtedly, the supports of a votive offering were once set, but the holes give no clew to the size or character