nother advantage, too, is that, in the present case, the glorious
scenery around is not shut out, and that, unlike the inhabitants of the
Cimmerian ravines of modern cities, the ancient Pompeiians could
contemplate the clouds and the lamps of heaven; could see the moon rise
high behind Vesuvius, and the sun set in the sea, tremulous with an
atmosphere of golden vapor, between Inarime and Misenum.
We next saw the temples. Of the temples of Aesculapius little remains
but an altar of black stone, adorned with a cornice imitating the scales
of a serpent. His statue, in terra-cotta, was found in the cell. The
temple of Isis is more perfect. It is surrounded by a portico of fluted
columns, and in the area around it are two altars, and many ceppi for
statues; and a little chapel of white stucco, as hard as stone, of the
most exquisite proportion; its panels are adorned with figures in
bas-relief, slightly indicated, but of a workmanship the most delicate
and perfect that can be conceived.
They are Egyptian subjects, executed by a Greek artist, who has
harmonized all the unnatural extravagances of the original conception
into the supernatural loveliness of his country's genius. They scarcely
touch the ground with their feet, and their wind-uplifted robes seem in
the place of wings. The temple in the midst raised on a high platform,
and approached by steps, was decorated with exquisite paintings, some of
which we saw in the museum at Portici. It is small, of the same
materials as the chapel, with a pavement of mosaic, and fluted Ionic
columns of white stucco, so white that it dazzles you to look at it.
Thence through the other porticos and labyrinths of walls and columns
(for I can not hope to detail everything to you), we came to the Forum.
This is a large square, surrounded by lofty porticos of fluted columns,
some broken, some entire, their entablatures strewed under them. The
temple of Jupiter, of Venus, and another temple, the Tribunal, and the
Hall of Public Justice, with their forest of lofty columns, surround the
Forum. Two pedestals or altars of an enormous size (for, whether they
supported equestrian statues, or were the altars of the temple of Venus,
before which they stand, the guide could not tell), occupy the lower end
of the Forum. At the upper end, supported on an elevated platform,
stands the temple of Jupiter. Under the colonnade of its portico we sat
and pulled out our oranges, and figs, and bread, and med
|