The open squares and public buildings of Pompeii were peopled with statues. The visitor who walked about the Forum in the years immediately preceding the eruption, saw on all sides the forms of the men of past generations who had rendered service to the city, as well as those of men of his own time.
Besides the five colossal images of emperors and members of the imperial families, places were provided in the Forum for between seventy and eighty life size equestrian statues; and behind each of these was room for a standing figure. Whether all the places were occupied cannot now be determined, but from the sepulchral inscription of Umbricius Scaurus ([p. 418]) it is clear that as late as the time of Claudius or Nero, there was yet room for another equestrian figure. Statues were placed also in the Forum Triangulare and occasionally at the sides of the streets.
In the portico of the Macellum were twenty-five statues; the sanctuary of the City Lares contained eight, while the portico of the Eumachia building furnished places for twenty-one. But only one of the hundreds of statues erected in honor of worthy citizens has been preserved, that of Holconius Rufus, the rebuilder of the Large Theatre; the figure was dressed in the uniform of a military tribune, and stood on Abbondanza Street near the Stabian Baths. With this should be classed the portrait statues in the temple of Fortuna ([p. 131]), and those of Octavia ([Fig. 38]), Marcellus ([Fig. 39]), and Eumachia.
The statue of Eumachia is an interesting example of the ordinary portrait sculpture of the Early Empire ([Fig. 255]). The pose is by no means ungraceful, the treatment of the drapery is modest and effective. The tranquil and thoughtful face is somewhat idealized, and without offensive emphasis of details. The statue is not a masterpiece; nevertheless, it gives us a pleasant impression of the lady whose generosity placed the fullers under obligation, and affords an insight into the artistic resources of the city.
A number of portrait statues belonging to sepulchral monuments were found when the tombs east of the Amphitheatre were excavated ([Chap. 51]). Most of them are of tufa covered with stucco; the rest are of fine-grained limestone. From the aesthetic point of view they are valueless.
Fig. 255.—Statue of the priestess Eumachia.
Sculptured portraits of a different type were set up in private houses. Relatives, freedmen, and even slaves sometimes placed at the rear of the atrium, near the entrance of the tablinum, a herm of the master of the house. At each side of the square pillar supporting the bust, there was usually an arm-like projection (seen on the herm of Cornelius Rufus, [Fig. 121]), on which garlands were hung upon birthdays and other anniversary occasions. Both the herm of Rufus and that of Vesonius Primus previously mentioned ([p. 396]) are of marble; the head belonging to the herm of Sorex ([p. 176]) is of bronze.
The most striking of the portrait herms is that of Lucius Caecilius Jucundus ([Fig. 256]), which was set up in duplicate, for the sake of symmetrical arrangement, in the atrium of his house on Stabian Street. The pillar is of marble; the dedication reads Genio L[ucii] nostri Felix l[ibertus],—'Felix, freedman, to the Genius of our Lucius.'