ers' offices, and I cannot prove
the contrary. The two entrance doors are separated by two Corinthian
columns, between which is hollowed out a niche without a statue. The
capitals of these columns bear Caesarean eagles. Could this Pantheon have
been the temple of Augustus? Having passed the doors, one reaches an
area, in which extended, to the right and to the left, a spacious
portico surrounding a court, in the midst of which remain twelve
pedestals that, ranged in circular order, once, perhaps, sustained the
pillars of a circular temple or the statues of twelve gods. This, then,
was the Pantheon. However, at the extremity of the edifice, and directly
opposite to the entrance, three apartments open. The middle one formed a
chapel; three statues were found there representing Drusus and Livia,
the wife of Augustus, along with an arm holding a globe, and belonging,
no doubt, to the consecrated statue which must have stood upon the
pedestal at the end, a statue of the Emperor. Then this was the temple
of Augustus. The apartment to the left shows a niche and an altar, and
served, perhaps, for sacrifices; the room to the right offers a stone
bench arranged in the shape of a horse-shoe. It could not be one of
those triple beds (_triclinia_) which we shall find in the eating
saloons of the private houses; for the slope of these benches would have
forced the reclining guests to have their heads turned toward the wall
or their feet higher than their heads. Moreover, in the interior of this
bench runs a conduit evidently intended to afford passage to certain
liquids, perhaps to the blood of animals slaughtered in the place. This,
therefore, was neither a Pantheon nor a temple of Augustus, but a
slaughter-house (_macellum_.) In that case, the eleven apartments
abutting to the right on the long wall of the edifice would be the
stalls. But these rooms, in which the regular orifices made in the wall
were to hold the beams that sustained the second story, were adorned
with paintings which still exist, and which must have been quite
luxurious for those poor oxen. Let us interrogate these paintings and
those of all these walls; they will instruct us, perhaps, with reference
to the destination of the building. There are mythological and epic
pieces reproducing certain sacred subjects, of which we shall speak
further on. Others show us winged infants, little Cupids weaving
garlands, of which the ancients were so fond; some of the bacchanali