Near the upper end of the Forum, on the north side of Insula VII. vii, is another altar, above which is a stucco relief representing a sacrifice; at the sides of the relief are pilasters, and over it a gable, in which an eagle is seen. This indicates that the shrine was dedicated to Jupiter. The largest of the street altars, of tufa, stands free in a vaulted niche on the north side of Insula VIII. ii, but no traces of painting are to be seen near it (Fig. 107). Various divinities are painted on the outside of houses. The largest picture of this kind is at the corner of Abbondanza Street, on the east side of Insula VIII. iii. It contains figures of the twelve gods, distinguished by their attributes--Vesta, Diana, Apollo, Ceres, Minerva, Jupiter, Juno, Vulcan, Venus Pompeiana, Mars, Neptune, and Mercury. Underneath are the two serpents, facing each other, on either side of a painted altar; near the altar are other figures that cannot be plainly distinguished, probably of men offering sacrifice. This is not a shrine--there is no place for the offerings. The owner of the property (house of the Boar), desired to place his household under the protection of these gods, perhaps also to preserve the corner from defilement. We often find roughly sketched figures of single gods, to the guardian care of whom the master of a house wished to commit his interests--most frequently Mercury, the patron divinity of traders, and Bacchus; but also Jupiter, Minerva, and Hercules. [Illustration: Fig. 107.--Large street altar.] Sometimes merely a pair of serpents are painted on a wall, in order to give a religious association to the place, as a means of protection. In one case (east side of Insula VII. xi. 12) an explicit warning was painted on the plaster beside them: _Otiosis locus hic non est; discede, morator_,--'No place for loafers here; move along!' CHAPTER XXXII _THE DEFENCES OF THE CITY_ From the military point of view, Pompeii at the time of the eruption did not possess a system of defences. For many years previously the city wall had been kept in repair only as a convenience in matters of civil administration, and the gates had long since lost all appearance of preparedness to resist attack. The fortifications are not, however, without interest. They form a massive and conspicuous portion of the ruins, and as a survival from an earlier period they have recorded many evidences of the successive changes through which the city passed.