FORUMThe center of civic life in any Roman town was its forum,
or public square, usually located at the city’s geographic center at the
intersection of the main north-south street, the cardo,and the main
east-west avenue, the decumanus (FIG. 10-42). The forum, however,
generally was closed to all but pedestrian traffic. Pompeii’s forum
(FIG. 10-12) lies in the southwest corner of the expanded Roman
city but at the heart of the original town. The forum probably took
on monumental form in the second century BCEwhen the Samnites,
inspired by Hellenistic architecture, erected two-story colonnades
on three sides of the long and narrow plaza. At the north end they
constructed a temple of Jupiter (FIG. 10-12,no. 2). When Pompeii
became a Roman colony in 80 BCE, the Romans converted the temple
into a Capitolium—a triple shrine of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, the
chief Roman gods. The temple is of standard Republican type, con-
structed of tufa covered with fine white stucco and combining an
Etruscan plan with Corinthian columns. It faces into the civic
square, dominating the area. This arrangement contrasts with the
siting of Greek temples (FIGS. 5-42and 5-43), which stood in iso-
lation and could be approached and viewed from all sides, like colos-
sal statues on giant stepped pedestals. The Roman forum, like the
Etrusco-Roman temple, has a chief side, a focus of attention.
The area within the porticos of the forum at Pompeii was
empty, except for statues portraying local dignitaries and, later,
Roman emperors. This is where the citizens conducted daily com-
merce and held festivities. All around the square, behind the colon-
nades, were secular and religious structures, including the town’s
administrative offices. Most noteworthy is the basilica (FIG. 10-12,
no. 3) at the southwest corner, the earliest well-preserved building of
its kind. Constructed during the late second century BCE, the basilica
housed the law court of Pompeii and also was used for other official
purposes. In plan it resembles the forum itself: long and narrow,
with two stories of internal columns dividing the space into a cen-
tral nave and flanking aisles.This scheme had a long afterlife in
architectural history and will be familiar to anyone who has ever
entered a church.
AMPHITHEATERShortly after the Romans took control of
Pompeii, two of the town’s wealthiest officials, Quinctius Valgus and
Marcus Porcius, used their own funds to erect a large amphitheater
(FIG. 10-13) at the southeastern end of town. It is the earliest
amphitheater known and could seat some 20,000 spectators—more
than the entire population of the town even a century and a half af-
ter its construction. The donors would have enjoyed choice reserved
seats in the new entertainment center. In fact, seating was assigned
by rank, both civic and military, so that the Roman social hierarchy
was on display at every event.
The word amphitheater means “double theater,” and Roman
amphitheaters closely resemble two Greek theaters put together.
Greek theaters were situated on natural hillsides (FIG. 5-71), but sup-
porting an amphitheater’s continuous elliptical cavea (seating area)
required building an artificial mountain. Only concrete, unknown to
the Greeks, could meet that requirement. In the Pompeii amphithe-
ater, a series of shallow concrete barrel vaults forms a giant retaining
wall that holds up the earthen mound and stone seats. Barrel vaultsP
liny the Elder, whose Natural History is one of the most impor-
tant sources for the history of Greek art, was among those who
tried to rescue others from danger when Mount Vesuvius erupted.
He was overcome by fumes the volcano spewed forth, and died. His
nephew, Pliny the Younger, a government official under the emperor
Trajan, left an account of the eruption and his uncle’s death:
[The volcanic cloud’s] general appearance can best be expressed as
being like a pine ...for it rose to a great height on a sort of trunk
and then split off into branches....Sometimes it looked white,
sometimes blotched and dirty, according to the amount of soil and
ashes it carried with it....The buildings were now shaking withviolent shocks, and seemed to be swaying to and fro as if they were
torn from their foundations. Outside, on the other hand, there was
the danger of falling pumice-stones, even though these were light
and porous....Elsewhere there was daylight, [but around Vesuvius,
people] were still in darkness, blacker and denser than any night
that ever was....When daylight returned on the 26th—two days
after the last day [my uncle] had been seen—his body was found
intact and uninjured, still fully clothed and looking more like sleep
than death.**Betty Radice, trans.,Pliny the Younger: Letters and Panegyricus,vol. 1 (Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1969), 427–433.An Eyewitness Account of the Eruption
of Mount VesuviusWRITTEN SOURCES10-13Aerial view of the amphitheater, Pompeii, Italy, ca. 70 bce.
Pompeii’s amphitheater is the oldest known. It is also an early example
of Roman concrete technology. In the arena, bloody gladiatorial
combats and wild animal hunts were staged for 20,000 spectators.Pompeii and the Cities of Vesuvius 245