ttempt was to render them Corinthian, and,
to this end, they were covered with stucco and topped with capitals that
are not becoming to them. Against one of these columns still leans a
statue in the form of a Hermes. Around the court is cut a small kennel
to carry off the rain water, which was then caught in reservoirs. The
wall along the Forum was gaily decorated with handsome paintings; one of
these, probably on wood, was burned in the eruption, and the vacant
place where it belonged is visible. Behind the temple open rooms
formerly intended for the priests; handsome paintings were found there,
also--- among them a Bacchus, resting his elbow on the shoulder of old
Silenus, who is playing the lyre. Absorbed in this music, he forgets the
wine in his goblet, and lets it fall out upon a panther crouching at his
feet.

We now have only to visit the temple itself, the house of the goddess.
The steps that scaled the basement story were thirteen--an odd
number--so that in ascending the first step with the right foot, the
level of the sanctuary was also reached with the right foot. The temple
was _peripterous_, that is to say, entirely surrounded with open
columns with Corinthian capitals. The portico opened broadly, and a
mosaic of marbles, pleasingly adjusted, formed the pavement of the
_cella_, of which the painted walls represented simple panels, separated
here and there by plain pilasters. Our Lady of Pompeii dwelt there.

The last monument of the Forum on the south-west side is the Basilica;
and the street by which we have entered separates it from the temple of
Venus. The construction of the edifice leaves no doubt as to its
destination, which is, moreover, confirmed by the word _Basilica_ or
_Basilaca_, scratched here and there by loungers with the points of
their knives, on the wall. _Basilica_--derived from a Greek word which
signifies _king_--might be translated with sufficient exactness by
_royal court_. At Rome, these edifices were originally mere covered
market-places sheltered from the rain and the sun. At a later period,
colonnades divided them in three, sometimes even into five naves, and
the simple niche which, intended for the judges' bench, was hollowed out
at the foot of its monuments, finally developed into a vaulted
semicircle. At last, the early Christians finding themselves crowded in
the old temples, chose the high courts of justice to therein celebrate
the worship of the new God, and the Roman Basil