DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61617#0141
IOO
POMPEII
and hope of the emperor and the Roman people, as once Mar-
cellus was.
The room at the left of the imperial chapel, with a wide
entrance divided by two columns (6), was also consecrated to
the worship of the emperors. It contains a low altar (shown
on the plan) of peculiar shape. A slab of black stone rests on
two marble steps ; it has a raised rim about the edge with a
hole in one corner. Evidently this is an altar for drink offerings ;
in this room sacrificial meals were partaken of, at which the
long estrade at the right, like a counter, nearly three feet high,
was perhaps used as a serving table. Such meals had an im-
portant place among the functions of the Roman colleges of
priests, and some priesthood connected with the worship of the
emperors apparently had its place of meeting here ; but whether
this was the college of the Seviri Augustales, composed of
freedmen, or a more aristocratic priesthood modelled after the
Sodales Augustales at Rome, cannot be determined. The pur-
pose of the niche in the corner, with the platform in front of it
approached by steps, is unknown.
In this room, also, there are two pictures containing Cupids.
In one they are drinking wine and playing the lyre; in the
other they are represented as engaged in acts of worship —
both appropriate decorative subjects for a room intended for
sacrificial banquets.
The Macellum was entered from three sides. At the front,
facing the Forum, was a portico consisting of two orders of
white marble columns, one above the other, supporting a roof.
Fragments of the Ionic or Corinthian columns belonging to the
lower order, and of the well proportioned intermediate entabla-
ture, have been preserved. Statues stood at the foot of the
columns, as also at the ends of the party walls between the
shops at the rear of the portico, and beside the two columns
of the little vestibule at the entrance ; between the two doors
was a small shrine, and here, too, was a statue.
The difference in direction between the front of the Macellum
and the side of the Forum is concealed by increasing the depth
of the shops from south to north, so that the depth of the
portico remained the same. The room at the extreme right,
POMPEII
and hope of the emperor and the Roman people, as once Mar-
cellus was.
The room at the left of the imperial chapel, with a wide
entrance divided by two columns (6), was also consecrated to
the worship of the emperors. It contains a low altar (shown
on the plan) of peculiar shape. A slab of black stone rests on
two marble steps ; it has a raised rim about the edge with a
hole in one corner. Evidently this is an altar for drink offerings ;
in this room sacrificial meals were partaken of, at which the
long estrade at the right, like a counter, nearly three feet high,
was perhaps used as a serving table. Such meals had an im-
portant place among the functions of the Roman colleges of
priests, and some priesthood connected with the worship of the
emperors apparently had its place of meeting here ; but whether
this was the college of the Seviri Augustales, composed of
freedmen, or a more aristocratic priesthood modelled after the
Sodales Augustales at Rome, cannot be determined. The pur-
pose of the niche in the corner, with the platform in front of it
approached by steps, is unknown.
In this room, also, there are two pictures containing Cupids.
In one they are drinking wine and playing the lyre; in the
other they are represented as engaged in acts of worship —
both appropriate decorative subjects for a room intended for
sacrificial banquets.
The Macellum was entered from three sides. At the front,
facing the Forum, was a portico consisting of two orders of
white marble columns, one above the other, supporting a roof.
Fragments of the Ionic or Corinthian columns belonging to the
lower order, and of the well proportioned intermediate entabla-
ture, have been preserved. Statues stood at the foot of the
columns, as also at the ends of the party walls between the
shops at the rear of the portico, and beside the two columns
of the little vestibule at the entrance ; between the two doors
was a small shrine, and here, too, was a statue.
The difference in direction between the front of the Macellum
and the side of the Forum is concealed by increasing the depth
of the shops from south to north, so that the depth of the
portico remained the same. The room at the extreme right,