The fourth period covers the earlier decades of the Roman colony, from
80 B.C. to near the end of the Republic. According to inscriptions
which are still extant, soon after the year 80 a wealthy colonist,
Gaius Quinctius Valgus, when duumvir with Marcus Porcius as colleague,
built the Small Theatre, and afterwards, when quinquennial duumvir
with the same colleague, the Amphitheatre also. Both structures have
the quasi-reticulate facing (Fig. 11); and several other buildings in
which the same style of masonry is found without doubt belong to the
same period--the Baths near the Forum, the temple of Zeus Milichius,
a building just inside the Porta Marina, and apparently the hall at
the southeast corner of the Forum, which we shall identify as the
Comitium; with these should be included also the original temple of
Isis, which was destroyed by the earthquake of 63 A.D. Few houses
dating from this period have been discovered; the provision made by
the preceding period in this respect had been so generous that new
houses were not needed.
From the aesthetic point of view the fourth period falls far below
that just preceding; the exhaustion of resources and the decline of
taste due to the long and terrible war are unmistakable. Theatre,
Amphitheatre, and Baths were alike built for immediate use, with crude
and scanty ornamentation; and where richer ornament was applied, as in
the case of the temple of Isis, it could not for a moment be compared
with that of the Tufa Period in beauty and finish.
[Illustration: Fig. 11.--Quasi-reticulate facing, with brick corner,
at the entrance of the Small Theatre.]
The wall decoration of the fourth period is of the second Pompeian
style, which came into vogue just after the founding of the colony,
and which we shall call the Architectural Style; for in part, as the
first style, it imitated a veneering of marble, not however with the
help of slabs or panels modelled in stucco, but by the use of color
only, laid on walls finished to a plane surface; in part it made use
of architectural designs which were painted either correctly or with
at least some regard for proper proportions.
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