about a century and a half before the destruction of the city, and belong to the older and more Grecian part of it. A large bronze brazier, with a bull in front, and bronze seats, similar to those we have seen in the other Thermæ, were discovered in one of the bath rooms (1858-61). We now again reach the Street of Stabiæ, and turn a short distance up it to the 1. On the wall of a house, at the corner of a small street on rt., the Vicolo dei Serpenti, are 2 enormous serpents before an altar, the well-known warning at Pompeii, as the cross is in modern Italy, to commit no nuisance. On the N. side of this small street are several recent excavations with some good paintings of the usual subject. One building was apparently a stable, with pictures of donkeys. Opposite the end of the street of the Holconii is a narrow street, called the Str. della Casina dell' Aquila. On the l. is The House of Elpidius Rufus, with a long raised pathway in front, approached by steps from the street, the outer wall painted with numerous inscriptions in red. A narrow prothyrum opens into an oblong atrium, surrounded by a portico of 16 Doric columns, having a fountain in the centre: into this atrium open several small chambers with elegantly painted walls, and on either side ale or wide open recesses enclosed by Ionic columns, in one of which on rt. is an altar dedicated to the Genius of their master Elpidius, and to the Lares, by two of his freedmen named Diadumenii: "GENIO M(agistri)__N(ostri) EL(pidio) LARIBUS DUO DIADUMIANI LIBERTI." At the farther end of the atrium a wide triclinium opens upon an extensive garden: adjoining is a room with paint ings of Apollo and the Muses. In one corner of the atrium is a narrow flight of steps, for in this quarter of the city most of the dwellings had upper floors. In the upper story, facing the street, and on the sides of the entrance, are rooms having each 2 narrow windows. Three human skeletons were discovered in this house, one having a handsome gold ring on the finger, with an intaglio of an Abundance on amethyst (1865). Beyond is atrium in which open 4 small rooms The House of Parnassus, from the with paintings, a tablinum and a small viridarium, having a fountain and basin. This building communicates with another, in which there is a wellpreserved bakehouse, with its ovens and troughs for kneading the dough. Upon an iron triangular stand here was found a bronze vase half filled with water, which was prevented from evaporating and hermetically closed by the oxidation of the copper. Continuing down the Street of Stabiæ, on the 1., forming a corner with the Street of the Amphitheatre, is The House of Apollo Citharædus, or of Popidius Secundus. The first name has been derived from a fine bronze statue of that divinity now in the Museum at Naples. From its atrium open 2 inner peristyles, surrounded by fluted Doric columns. In its exhedra are some good paintings representing Mars and Venus, Xerxes seated before his tent, and a Priestess, probably of Venus, with a large temple in the background. Besides the statue above noticed, several small bronzes were found decorating a fountain, a model of which, with these statuettes, has been erected in one of the halls in the Museum at Naples. Some good paintings exist also on the walls of the adjoining house opening on the street to the amphitheatre, of Bacchus and Ariadne, and of Orestes and Pylades before Iphigenia, from which the latter name has been also given to this house, although it appears to have belonged to the same owner, from the door of communication between (1854-71). Opposite the House of the Apollo Citharædus, and bordering the Via di Stabiæ, are several shops, the only one worthy of notice being at the corner of the Street of Isis, that of a baker, having a well-preserved oven with its iron door and water-cistern; within, as usual, | lum with a vaulted roof and pediment are several mill-stones. Just beyond the Street of Isis is the entrance on N. to over the door, covering the sacred well of lustral purification, to which there was a descent by a narrow flight of The Temple of Jupiter and Juno, called steps. It is covered with stucco ornaments, of figures of Isis and Harpoby Winckelmann of Esculapius and Hygeia. It is a diminutive but ancient with arabesques of dolphins, &c., all crates, of Mercury, Mars, and Jupiter, temple, of good proportions, standing on of inferior execution. Near it is an a low basement ascended by nine steps. altar, on which were found the burnt The cella contained the terracotta life-bones of victims. Other altars are sized statues of Esculapius and Hy-placed in different parts of the court. geia, or Jupiter and Juno, now in the In a niche of the wall facing the des Museum at Naples. In the centre of was a figure of the youthful Horus, or the court is a large altar, the frieze of Harpocrates, with the usual emblems which is composed of triglyphs with of infancy-the tress under the right volutes at the corners, bearing some resemblance to those on the Sarco-ear, and the finger on the lip. In another part was a figure of Isis phagus of Scipio Barbatus in the in purple drapery, partly gilt, holdVatican Museum (1766). Adjoining ing a bronze sistrum and a key. On is the House of the Sculptor, so called the south side of the enclosure from the various implements belonging to the sculptor's art found in it (1798). Turning back down the Street of Isis, leading to the Triangular Forum, we come on the 1. to and a kitchen for cooking what they were the chambers for the priests, were permitted to eat. In one of the sacrificial axe, with which he had cut rooms a skeleton was found holding a through two walls, to escape from the eruption, but perished before he could * The Iseon, or Temple of Isis. A penetrate the third. In a larger room small but very interesting building, behind the Ædes another skeleton was standing on a basement in the centre of a found with bones of chickens, eggcourt surrounded by a portico of Corin- shells, fish-bones, bread, wine, and a thian columns, 10 ft. high, with painted garland of flowers, as if he had been at shafts. The two which flank the en-dinner. Skeletons were also found in trance had attached to them the lustral other parts of the enclosure: showing basins, now in the Museum, and a that the hierophants of Isis did not wooden money-box. Over the entrance desert her fane, but remained to the was an inscription, now removed there last. The front of the basement, on also, recording the erection of the which the Edes stands, is broken in Edes Isidis, by Numerius Popidius the centre by a narrow projecting flight Celsinus, then of the age of six years, of steps, flanked by two altars, one for at his own cost, after it had been the votive offerings, the other probably thrown down by the earthquake of for the sacred fire. In front of the A.D. 63; and his elevation by the Decu- cella is a portico of six Corinthian rions to their own rank in acknowledg-columns, having at each angle a small ment of his liberality. The word Edes wing with a niche between two pilasters is here used to distinguish the building supporting a pediment. In these from a Temple, which was always a niches the Isiac tables of basalt, now in consecrated edifice, whereas the worship the Museum, were discovered. Behind of Isis had been forbidden by a decree the one on the 1. were secret steps and of the Roman Senate, in B.C. 57, and a side door leading to the cella. The exwas therefore only tolerated. The court terior of the building and the portico presents all the arrangements of the Isiac were covered with stucco ornaments of worship. In one corner is an ædicu- a very ordinary character. The interior gular Forum; it is terminated at the N. end by a pedestal, with the inscription M. Claudio, M. F. Marcello Patrono; and at the S. end by two altars and a circular building (1764). of the Sacrarium or cella is small and in the columns may still be seen fragshallow, the entire width being occupied ments of the iron bars, inserted between with a long hollow pedestal for statues, them to keep the people from presshaving two low doorways at the ending in. Parallel to the portico on near the secret stairs, by which the the E. side is a long low wall, extendpriests could enter unperceived, and ing nearly to the bottom of the triandeliver the oracles as if they proceeded from the statue of the goddess herself. Besides this principal statue, raised according to an inscription by L. Cæcilius Phoebus, several smaller ones of Venus, Bacchus, Osiris, and Priapus, were discovered in the cella or its precincts. The walls, also, were covered with pictures of the same character, many of which were of great interest as illustrating the Isiac mysteries. Fontana's aqueduct, which crosses the street of Stabiæ, ran under and in front of the Temple (1764-76). Adjoining the Isis Temple is The Tribunal, formerly called the Isiac Curia, and the School, an oblong open court, 79 ft. by 57 ft., surrounded on three sides by a portico of Doric columns, and having two small rooms at one end. The real destination of this building has been the subject of dispute; but it is at present generally supposed to have been the Tribunal alluded to in an inscription, and built by Holconius. In front of the portico is a stone pulpit, with a pedestal and a flight of steps behind, from which the judge is supposed to have ascended to his seat (1769). We now enter The Triangular Forum (Foro Triangulare) through a propylæum or vestibule of 8 Ionic columns, raised upon two steps, with a fountain in front of one of the columns. The Forum itself is an irregular triangle, surrounded on its W. side and its E. side, which are 300 ft. and 450 ft. long respectively, by a Doric colonnade, forming a portico of 90 columns; the third side had no portico, and appears to have been bordered with shops. The portico probably served as a sort of piazza for the frequenters of the theatres, to which there were 3 entrances; and At the southern end of this Forum is *The Greek Temple of Neptune or of Hercules, the most ancient building yet discovered, on one of the highest situations within the circuit of the walls, at a distance of 400 ft. from the old sealine, so that it must have formed a striking object from every part of the bay. Its high antiquity, generally attributed to the early Hellenic colonists in this part of Italy, is shown by the massive dimensions of its Doric columns, some fragments of which in tufa, with their capitals and bases in travertine, still remain; by the great depth and projection of the abacus; and by the general construction of the building, which more resembles that of the Temples of Pæstum. It is supposed to have been erected by the earliest colonists. From its ruined state it is difficult to define its exact plan; but it appears to have stood upon a basement of steps, and to have been 120 ft. long, exclusive of the steps, and 70 wide. It had a cella paved with mosaics, which from the remains of a cross-wall appears to have been divided into two, with separate entrances from the N. and S.: in the former is a circular pedestal, which may have served as a pedestal for a statue. The masonry was covered with stucco. In front of the steps is a curious enclosure, supposed to have contained the victims for the sacrifice, and at the side are the two altars with the remains of a smaller one between them (1767-69). Beyond this enclosure are the remains of a small Circular Temple of 8 Doric columns, which covered a puteal pro tected by a circular perforated altar. | outer wall, appear to have preserved Its use is doubtful, some supposing it in some measure from the fate which that it supplied the water used in the sacrifices; others that it was an expiatory altar marking the situation of a bidental, a spot on which a thunderbolt had fallen, and which was always held in peculiar sanctity. An Oscan inscription was found near it recording that Nitreb, for the second time Med-statues, and the marble lining. In spite dixtuticus, erected it. At the W. angle of the temple is a small Hemicycle, a semicircular seat of stone, facing the S., in which a sun-dial was discovered. It must have commanded a glorious view, extending from near la Cava to the extremity of the promontory of Cape Minerva, and to the island of Capri, and have been close to the sea-wall of the city; which will explain the non-continuation of the portico on this side of the Forum, which was closed by the walls. On the W. side of the Forum is the House of the Emperor Joseph II. of Austria, now refilled with earth. It appears to have been a large house of 3 stories, and so situated that the visitor commanded, as he entered from the street, a perspective view through the interior of the whole Sorrentine shore. The S. side appears to have opened upon a garden sloping gradually down to the shore (1767-69). On the opposite or E. side of the Triangular Forum are the two Theatres and the barracks. We pass first into * The Great Theatre, a large structure, placed on the S. slope of a hill of tufa, in which the seats were cut. Over one of the principal entrances stood the inscription now in the Museum, stating that it was erected by M. M. Holconius Rufus and Celer, ad decus Colonia. It was semicircular and open to the sky, and was lined in every part with white marble. The seats faced the S. and commanded a fine view over the plain of the Sarno and the mountains behind Stabiæ. The elevated position of the building, above the general level of the city, and the great height of the befell the houses in the plain. The upper part was not buried by the ashes, and even the stage was covered with so slight a deposit, that the citizens may, after the eruption, have removed all the scenic decorations, the furniture of the stage, the principal of these spoliations, the interior is still sufficiently perfect to explain itself far better than the most elaborate descrip tion. The general audience entered the theatre by an arched corridor on a level with the colonnade of the Triangular Forum, and descended thence into the cavea by six flights of stairs, which divided the seats into five wedge-shaped portions, called cunei. The doors of the corridor at the head of these stairs were called the vomitoria. Some of the seats still retain their numbers and divisions and show that the space allotted to each person was 1 ft. 3 in. By making this the basis of a calculation, the theatre might contain 5000 persons. A separate entrance and staircase led to the women's gallery, which was placed above the corridor we have described, and was divided into compartments like the boxes in a modern theatre. It appears also from the fragments of iron still visible in the coping, that they were protected from the gaze of the audience by a light screen of iron-work. Below, in what we should call the pit, a semicircular passage, bounded by a wall, called the præcinctio, separated the seats of the plebeians from the pri vileged ones reserved for the equestrian order, the Augustales, the tribunes, &c. These seats were entered by a separate passage, communicating with an area behind the scena. The level semicircular platform in front of the privileged seats was called the orchestra, and upon it were placed the bisellia, or bronze seats for the chief magistrates. On each side of the orchestra are raised seats, entered from the stage, supposed to have been appropriated to the person who provided the entertain ment. In the proscenium, or the wall theatre, but is different in form, the which supported the stage, are seven re- semicircle being cut off by straight cesses, in which probably the musicians walls from each end of the stage: and were stationed. The stage, or pulpitum, the style and execution of the work appears from the pedestals and niches, show an inferiority, which may possibly which remain, to have been decorated be explained by an inscription recordwith statues. It is a long and narrowing that it was erected by contract. It platform, quite disproportionate to the appears to have been permanently size of the theatre according to our roofed, the same inscription describing modern notions of stage effect; but it as the Theatrum tectum. The seats it must be remembered that the scenes of the audience were separated by a of a Roman theatre were very simple passage from the four tiers of benches and revolved upon a pivot, and that which held the bisellia. This passage the ancient drama was unassisted by was bounded on the side of the cavea those illusions of perspective which by a wall, the ends of which were constitute the art of the modern scene- ornamented with kneeling Herculean painter. The wall at the back of the figures which are supposed to have stage was called the scena; it has sustained lights. The parapet on the three doors, the central one circular stage side of the passage, forming and flanked by columns, the two side the back of the privileged seats, termiones rectangular. Behind it is the nated at each end in a griffon's leg. postscenium, containing the apartments The pavement of the orchestra is in for the actors. The exterior of the different coloured marbles. A band of upper wall of the cavea still retains grey and white marble runs directly the projecting stone rings for receiving across it, bearing in large bronze letters the poles of the velarium or awning, by which, on special occasions, the audience were protected from the heat of the sun. Several inscriptions, greatly mutilated, were found in different parts of this theatre, some of which are preserved in the neighbouring colonnade. From the remains of one in bronze letters on the first step of the orchestra, with a space in the middle for a statue, it appears that Holconius Rufus, son of Marcus Rufus, a duumvir, erected the theatre, a crypt, and the tribunals, and that the colony acknowledged his services by dedicating the statue to his honour. The metal letters have been removed, but the depressions in the marble which contained them are still visible (1764). Behind the theatre is a square reservoir, used for holding water to sprinkle the spectators with in hot weather. From the S.E. corner of the Great Theatre, behind the stage, a covered portico led into *The Small Theatre, or Odeum, which is supposed to have been used for musical performances. It is similar in its general arrangement to the larger M. Oculatius, M. F. Verus, II. Vir. pro. ludis. The inscription probably means that he presented the pavement to the theatre. In the corridor which runs round the back of the house to give access to the seats, several inscriptions in rude Oscan letters were found upon the plaster of the walls, the work probably of idlers who could not find seats. In the postscenium were found some fragments of a bisellium decorated with ivory bas-reliefs, and portions of its cloth cushion. This theatre is estimated to have held 1500 persons (1796). The geologist will be interested in examining here beneath the scena a portion of a mass of leucitic lava in situ, the only one of the original rock which formed the basis of the hill on which Pompeii stood. Close to the small theatre, and occupying the space between the great theatre and the city wall, is what is called The Soldiers or the Gladiators' Barracks, a large enclosure, 183 ft. long by 148 ft. wide, surrounded by a Doric |