In style and construction this colonnade belongs to the Tufa Period (p. 40). While the forms are not those of the classical period, they nevertheless manifest Greek feeling. The low ratio in the proportions of the Doric columns, of which the height is equal to five diameters, well accords with their use as a support for an upper gallery; elsewhere in pre-Roman Pompeii more slender proportions are preferred, even for the Doric style. The shaft is well shaped, with a moderate swelling (_entasis_). Only the upper part is fluted; as the sharp edges of the flutings near the bottom might easily be marred, the divisions of the surface on the lower third of the shaft were left flat. The architrave is relatively low, the result of an interesting peculiarity in the method of construction. Blocks of tufa long enough to span the intercolumniations were too weak to sustain the weight of the rest of the entablature. To meet this difficulty a line of thick planks was placed in old Italic fashion above the capitals of the columns, and on these were laid short tufa blocks. Thus in our illustration (Fig. 14), while the upper of the two bands of the architrave is seen to be of stone, the lower shows the modern timber supplied in the place of the ancient. That the planks were in reality no thicker than has been assumed in the reconstruction is proved beyond question by the later colonnade on the west side, which, although entirely of stone, corresponds throughout in its proportions with the older one; the architrave is equally narrow, and is likewise divided into two parts. [Illustration: Fig. 14.--Remnant of the colonnade of Popidius, at the south end of the Forum.]