The front of the Porta Marina has the appearance of a tower projecting from the wall. The gateway consists simply of two vaulted entrances, of unequal width; one for vehicles, the other, at the left, for pedestrians. Both were closed by doors. In the niche at the right of the wider passage the lower part of a terra cotta statue of Minerva was found. There was no vantage court, no inner passage; but in the early years of the Roman colony the steep lower end of the Via Marina for a distance of 70 feet was covered with a vaulted roof, which still remains. Opening into this corridor on the right is a long narrow room, which formed a part of the foundations of the court of the temple of Venus Pompeiana, and is now used as a Museum. This gate in its present form could hardly have been intended for defence; it was adapted rather for administrative purposes, and must have been built--probably in the place of an earlier structure--in a period when the possibility of war seemed remote. Such a time, as previously remarked, was the second century B.C., particularly the latter half, after the destruction of Carthage. [Illustration: Fig. 113.--Herculaneum Gate, looking down the Street of Tombs. The corners of the entrances are opus mixtum, a course of brick-shaped blocks of stone alternating with three courses of bricks.] A still more peaceful aspect is presented by the Herculaneum Gate. The style of masonry--rubble work with _opus mixtum_ at the corners--points to the end of the Republic, rather than to the Empire, as the period of construction. Here we find three vaulted passages, the middle one for vehicles, those on either side for pedestrians. The vaulting over the middle part of the gate has disappeared; but according to appearances a vantage court was left here, in the middle passage, if not in those at the sides; at the inner end of this court the gates were placed. The greater part of the structure served no purpose of utility; it was obviously designed as a monumental entrance to the city. PART II THE HOUSES CHAPTER XXXIII _THE POMPEIAN HOUSE_ Our chief sources of information regarding the domestic architecture of ancient Italy are two,--the treatise of Vitruvius, and the remains found at Pompeii. The Pompeian houses present many variations from the plan described by the Roman architect; yet in essential particulars there is no disagreement, and it is not difficult to form a clear conception of their arrangements.