The five entrances opening from the Forum into the narrow court could be closed by latticed doors. Similar doors hung also on the wooden jambs of the north and south entrances. With such doors a complete safeguarding could not have been contemplated. Tradespeople using the Basilica must either have removed their wares at the close of business hours or have made the stalls sufficiently secure for protection. We can hardly doubt that ordinarily a night watchman was on duty about the building.

CHAPTER X
THE TEMPLE OF APOLLO

In some respects the study of the large temple on the west side of the Forum is especially satisfactory. The building had been completely restored after the earthquake of 63, and was in good order at the time of its destruction. Though ancient excavators removed many objects of value, including the statue of the divinity of the temple, much was left undisturbed, as the interesting series of statues in the court; in addition, a number of inscriptions have been recovered. On the whole, more complete information is at hand regarding this sanctuary than in reference to any other in Pompeii.

Fig. 28.—Corner of mosaic floor, cella of the temple of Apollo.

The identification of this as the temple of Apollo is certain. The accompanying illustration shows a corner of the floor laid over the greater part of the cella (3 on the plan); the parts along the inner walls were of white mosaic. This floor was composed of small, lozenge-shaped pieces of green and white marble and slate; of the two narrow stripes between the lozenge pattern and the bright mosaic fret along the border one is of slate, the other of red marble. In the slate stripe was an inscription. The letters were outlined by means of small holes filled with metal, every seven holes forming a vertical line, every four a horizontal. The inscription, which was in Oscan, stated that the quaestor O[ppius] Camp[anius], by order of the council and with money belonging to Apollo, had caused something to be made;[3] what this was cannot be determined, as the important word is missing, but apparently it was the floor. In the cella, moreover, stands a block of tufa, having the shape of half an egg; this is the Omphalos, the familiar symbol of Apollo. In the court on the first pilaster at the right as you enter a tripod is painted, too large for mere decoration, and explicable only as a symbol of the god. Lastly, in the design of the stucco ornamentation with which the entablature of the peristyle was adorned after the earthquake, the principal figures are griffins. The griffin was sacred to Apollo, and though it was often used as a purely decorative theme, in this case a reference to the divinity of the temple is unmistakable ([Fig. 31]).

Fig. 29.—Plan of the temple of Apollo.
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