Fig. 48.—The building of Eumachia: front of the court, restored.
The wall at the rear of the portico, facing the Forum, was richly ornamented. The broad entrance in the middle (6) was bridged at the top by a lintel. At the ends are two large niches more than four feet above the pavement (5), both reached by flights of steps. Between each of these and the doorway is a large apsidal arched niche (4) extending down to the pavement. Lastly in the projecting portions of the wall are four smaller niches for statues. The whole façade was overlaid with various kinds of colored marbles.
None of the statues have been found, but the inscriptions belonging to the two that stood in the small niches at the left are extant and of special interest; the names of the persons represented, Aeneas and Romulus, are given, together with a short enumeration of their heroic deeds. These statues were evidently copies; the originals formed a part of a famous series in Rome.
Augustus set up in his Forum the statues of renowned Roman generals with inscriptions setting forth their services to the State; in this way, he said, the people might obtain a standard of comparison for himself and his successors. At the beginning of the series were Aeneas, the kings of Alba Longa, and Romulus. Not one of these statues has been preserved, but some of the inscriptions have been found in Rome, while others are known from copies discovered in Arezzo, where without doubt, as at Pompeii, they were set up with copies of the statues—a forcible illustration of the striving of the smaller cities to be like Rome. Two other statues, perhaps representing Julius Caesar and Augustus, stood in the niches at the right corresponding with those of Aeneas and Romulus; it is not probable that the rest of the series in Rome was duplicated here, because the remaining pedestals in the portico were all designed for figures of larger size.
The colonnade about the court was of marble. The front part, as one entered from the portico, was higher than that on the sides and rear ([Fig. 48]); it must have presented a fine architectural effect. The two series of Corinthian columns, one above the other, reached the height of 30 feet; the wall behind was diversified with niches and completely covered with marble. At the right and at the left one could pass down the sides under the colonnade, or through small doors into the corridor. The walls between the colonnade and the corridor, pierced with large windows, were decorated below with a dado of colored marbles and above with painting upon stucco, in the third style.
The two smaller apsidal niches at the rear were no higher than the colonnade, but the central apse projected above and terminated in a marble pediment ([Fig. 49]), fragments of which are still to be seen in the building. It was entered through three arched doorways, above which apparently there were windows. The image of Concordia Augusta, with the features of Livia, probably stood on the pedestal at the rear of the apse, while the statues of Tiberius and Drusus may have adorned the niches at the sides.
Fig. 49.—Rear of the court of the building of Eumachia, restored.