Fornacalia, R. A festival of bakers in honour of the goddess Fornax (oven-goddess). It took place in February, the day being given out by the curio maximus, who announced, in tablets which were placed in the forum, the part which each curia had to take in the festival. Those persons who did not know to which curia they belonged, performed the rites on the last day, called Stultorum feriæ (the feasts of fools).
Fornacula (dimin. of Fornax, q.v.). (1) A small furnace for smelting metals. (2) A small furnace for a bath-room.
Fornax, R. A furnace; an oven; a kiln for baking pottery: fornax calcaria, a lime-kiln; fornax æraria, a blast-furnace for smelting metals; fornax balnei, a hypocaust or bathfurnace; this was also called Fornacula (q.v.). Fornax is also the name of the goddess of ovens.
Fornix, R. A term having the same meaning as Arcus (q.v.). It also denotes (1) a triumphal arch (arcus triumphalis); (2) a vault or vaulted room; (3) a vaulted gate.
Forril. A kind of parchment, specially prepared for bookbinding.
Forulus, R. (dimin. of forus, a shelf). A cupboard, cabinet, or dwarf bookcase.
Fig. 329. Ground-plan of the Forum at Pompeii.
Forum, R. A large open space used by the Romans as a market; it answered to the Greek Agora (q.v.). Fig. [329] represents the forum civile of Pompeii, unquestionably one of the most complete examples bequeathed to us by antiquity. A is the principal entrance; B, a Corinthian temple; C, the public prison (carcer publicus); D is supposed to have been a horreum, or public granary; E, the temple of Venus, the guardian goddess of the city; F, the basilica; G, H, I, the curiæ, which were a kind of civil and commercial tribunals; K is a rectangular building which probably served the purpose of a shop for money-changers; L, a portico terminating in an absis; M, the temple of Mercury or Quirinus; N, a building with a large semicircular tribune, which probably formed the residence of the Augustales.
Forus. A synonym of Forum (q.v.). Forus aleatorius was the term applied to a dice-table.