Pompeii, Its Life and Art

by August Mau

The word pietas, in such connections, has no English equivalent, and is difficult to translate. It sums up in a single concept the qualities of filial affection, conscientious devotion, and obedience to duty which in the Roman view characterized the proper conduct of children toward their parents and grandparents. Here mother and son united in dedicating the building to personifications, or deifications, of the perfect harmony and the regard for elders that prevailed in the imperial family.

The reference of the dedication can only be to the relation between the Emperor Tiberius and his mother Livia; it cannot apply to Nero and Agrippina, for the reason that the walls of the building were decorated in the third Pompeian style, which in Nero's time was no longer in vogue. In 22 A.D., when Livia was very ill, the Senate voted to erect an altar to Pietas Augusta. In the following year Drusus, the son of Tiberius, gave expression to his regard for his grandmother by placing her likeness upon his coins, with the word Pietas.

On the coins of colonies also—of Saragossa and another the name of which is not known—the Pietas Augusta appears, apparently about the same time. Not long afterwards the harmonious relations between Tiberius and his mother gave place to mutual suspicion and hostility; the dedication therefore points to the earlier part of the reign of Tiberius, and in this period the building was no doubt erected. The statue of Concordia Augusta, a female figure with a gilded cornucopia, was found in the building; the head, which has not been preserved, probably bore the features of Livia. By this dedication the building of Eumachia, as the Macellum later, was placed under the protection of the imperial house.

While the parts are enumerated in the dedicatory inscription, neither the name of the building as a whole, nor the purpose, is mentioned. A hint of the latter, however, is found in another inscription. A broad niche (13) opens into the corridor at the rear, directly behind the largest apse. Here stood a marble statue of a beautiful woman ([Fig. 255]), now replaced by a cast; the original is in Naples. Upon the pedestal we read: Eumachiae L. f., sacerd[oti] publ[icae], fullones,—'Dedicated to Eumachia, daughter of Lucius Eumachius, a city priestess, by the fullers.'

This building, in which the fullers had set up, in a specially prominent place, a statue of the person who had erected it, must in some way have served the purposes of their trade. Clearly enough it was not a fullery; on the other hand, it was well adapted for a clothier's exchange, a bazaar for the sale of cloth and articles of clothing. Tables and other furniture for the convenience of dealers could be placed in the colonnade and the corridor; in the corridor, especially, goods exposed for sale in front of the open windows could be conveniently inspected by prospective buyers,—not only by those in the corridor itself, but also by those looking in from the colonnade. The small doors between the corridor and the colonnade could be securely closed, and the entrance from Abbondanza Street could be easily guarded; there was only a narrow door at the end of the passage opening into the corridor, and at the street entrance was a porter's room connected by doors both with the passage and with the street. This evidence of unusual precaution suggests that possibly the side entrance, from its close connection with the corridor, was intended especially for the conveyance of goods to and from the building, in order that the front entrance might be left for the exclusive use of purchasers and dealers.

On the assumption that the building was a cloth market, it is clear that the colonnade would naturally be open at all times, the corridor only during business hours; after business hours the corridor would be closed for the protection of the goods left there over night. The windows may have been closed with shutters as in the Oriental bazaars. Other peculiarities of arrangement also are cleared up by this explanation, but we cannot present them in detail. It is not possible, however, to make out what the purpose was of certain remains of masonry found on the south side of the court (18) which have now disappeared, or of two rectangular elevations at the rear (17), or, finally, of a large stone in the middle of the court in which a movable iron ring is fastened (15). Our information is so scanty that we are unable to determine in all particulars what the requirements of a fuller's exchange might have been.

At the time of the eruption men were still engaged in rebuilding the parts of the edifice that had suffered in the earthquake of 63. The front wall at the rear of the portico was finished and had received its veneering of marble; as shown by the existing remains, it conformed to the plan of the earlier structure. The columns and entablature of the portico had not yet been set in place; considerable portions of them were found in the area of the Forum. The wall at the rear of the court, with the three apses, had been rebuilt, and the workmen had begun to add the marble covering. The other walls had remained standing at the time of the earthquake; but the colonnade had been thrown down and was now in process of erection. The remains of the colonnade were removed in ancient times, probably soon after the destruction of the city; yet from the parts that remain, both of the old building and of the restorations, we can determine the architectural character with certainty. We give two reconstructions of the interior, one showing the front ([Fig. 48]), the other the rear ([Fig. 49]).

The colonnade and the portico were characterized by the same peculiarity of construction: they were in two stories, one above the other, but there was no upper floor corresponding with the intermediate entablature. In the case of the portico this is certain from the treatment of the wall at the rear, the ornamentation of which is carried without interruption high above the level of the entablature. If the appearance of this building alone had been taken into account, it would have been simpler and more effective to place at the front of the portico a single order of large columns the height of which should correspond with that of the façade; but as the colonnade about the Forum was in two stories, the front of the portico was made to conform to it. The columns below were of the Doric, those above of the Ionic, order. The material—whitish limestone—was the same as that used in the new colonnade of the Forum. Nevertheless, by the skilful handling of details a certain individuality was given to the columns; while in general appearance they harmonized with those about the Forum, the portico as a whole stood out by itself as something distinct and characteristic.

The columns of the portico were left unfluted, as were those of the new Forum colonnade, and were of the same height; but their proportions were more slender, their ornamental forms were slightly different, and they were set closer together. The pains and skill manifested in harmonizing the particular with the general architectural effect reflect much credit upon the Pompeian board of public works. Under the portico at the foot of each column was a statue, facing the front of the building; the pedestals, which still remain, assist in determining the places of the columns, of which only one was found in position. The spaces between the columns could be closed by latticed gates, as may be seen from traces of them remaining in the marble pavement at the south end of the portico; the pavement elsewhere has disappeared.