Pompeii, Its Life and Art

by August Mau

Fig. 26.—Interior of the Basilica, looking toward the tribunal, restored.

The tribunal at the rear is the most prominent and architecturally the most effective portion of the building. The base is treated in a bold, simple manner; upon it, at the front, stands a row of columns the lower portions of which show traces of latticework. The decoration of the walls, like that of the rest of the interior, imitates a veneering of colored marbles. The shape and comparatively narrow dimensions of the elevated room indicate that we have here a tribunal in the strict sense, a raised platform for the judge and his assistants; in the basilicas provided with apses the latter were large enough to make room both for the judicial body and for the litigants. Here the litigants stood on the floor in front of the tribunal, and when court was in session the general public must have been excluded from this part of the corridor. The arrangement in this respect was far from convenient, but seemingly convenience was sacrificed to aesthetic considerations; the builders wished to treat the projecting front of the tribunal as an ornament to the building.

Fig. 27.—Front of the tribunal—plan and elevation.

Under the tribunal was a vaulted chamber half below the level of the ground; two round holes, indicated on the plan, opened into it from above. It could hardly have been designed as a place for the confinement of prisoners; escape would have been easy by means of two windows in the rear, especially when help was rendered from the outside. More likely it was used, in connection with the business of the court, as a storeroom, in which writing materials and the like, or even documents, might be kept; they could easily have been passed up through the holes when needed. The second story of the tribunal was not as completely open to the main hall as the first. Its front, the remains of which have for the most part been recovered, was divided off by half-columns corresponding in number and arrangement with the columns of the first story, but each half-column was flanked by narrow pilasters, while a parapet of moderate height occupied the intervening spaces. It was built apparently with a view to architectural effect rather than practical use ([Fig. 27]).

At the right and the left of the tribunal are places for stairways. Each of these contains a landing on the same level with the floor of the tribunal, from which it was cut off by a door; the steps connecting with these landings, being of wood, have disappeared. In both stair rooms, however, flights of stone steps lead down to the vaulted chamber below, so that this could not have been accessible if there were wooden steps on both sides connecting the tribunal with the floor of the Basilica. Probably on one side the wooden steps led from the tribunal down to the floor, but on the other ascended from the corresponding landing to the second story, thus leaving the stairway to the lower room unobstructed on that side. At some later time the door at the left between the tribunal and the landing was walled up, perhaps because the gallery was no longer used; if still in use it could to all appearances have been reached only by a ladder.

The two open rooms at the rear on either side of the tribunal agree in their decoration with the entrance court except that the base with its border is higher, and the white surface above is moulded in stucco so as to give the appearance of slabs of white marble. They were no higher than the first division of the wall; the windows seen in [Fig. 27] above the broad entrances opened into the outer air. Perhaps they were used as waiting rooms for litigants.

Opposite the north entrance between two columns stood a curb like those over the mouths of cisterns; only the foundation stone with a circular opening is preserved. The remains of a lead pipe, which brought the water to it, show that it must have been connected with an aqueduct. At the further end of the main hall was an equestrian statue of which no trace has been found.

The arrangement of the roof is a problem of much difficulty. Without wearying the reader by presenting various possibilities, it will be sufficient for our purposes to suggest the explanation which, on the whole, has the most in its favor. As assumed in our restoration, the roof of the main hall was carried by the entablature of the twenty-eight large columns. Thus in general the arrangement corresponded fairly well with that of other basilicas except that, owing to the lack of a clerestory, the roof of the main hall was not much if any higher than that of the corridor. From the flat roof of the corridor, at least on the south side, the rain water flowed into the cistern near the front part of the building.