They are gone--crushed by the
piling ashes long ago.
At last you will come down and go in at one of the gates through the
rough, thick wall, past the empty watch towers. You will tread the very
paving stones that men's feet trampled nineteen hundred years ago as
they fled from the volcano. You will climb a steep, narrow street. This
is the street the fishermen and sailors used in olden times when they
came in from the river or sea, carrying baskets of fish or leading mules
loaded with goods from their ships. This is the street where people
poured out to the sea on that terrible day of the eruption.
You will pass a ruined temple of Apollo with standing columns and lonely
altar and steps that lead to a room that is gone. A little farther on
you will come out into a large open paved space. It is the forum. This
used to be the busiest place in all Pompeii. At certain hours of the day
it was filled with little tables and with merchants calling out and with
gentlemen and slaves buying good's. But now it is empty and very still.
Around the sides a few beautiful columns are yet standing with carved
marble at the top connecting them. But others lie broken, and most of
them are gone entirely. This is all that is left of the porches where
men used to walk and talk of business and war and politics and gossip.
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