The colonnade of Popidius may have stood for more than a century; the necessity of making thoroughgoing repairs no doubt became urgent. In the meantime, however, the taste of the Pompeians had undergone a change, and instead of repairing the old colonnade they began to replace it by a new one, a part of which is shown in Fig. 15. Better material, the whitish limestone, was used, and the construction was more substantial; the blocks of the entablature were fitted together so as to form a flat arch. Though the new colonnade followed closely the proportions of the old, effective details, such as the fluting of the columns, and the triglyphs with the guttae underneath, were omitted. The refined sense of form characteristic of the earlier time was no longer manifest; all is coarse and inartistic, the swelling on the shafts of the columns, for example, being carried too high. [Illustration: Fig. 15.--Part of the new colonnade, near the southwest corner of the Forum.] The new colonnade had a second story of the Ionic order, of the columns of which (though not of the entablature) considerable fragments have been found. The stylobate on which the columns rested was renewed in limestone, and about the same time the Forum was paved and the ledge over the gutter was laid with flags of the same material. This second remodelling of the Forum commenced in the early years of the Empire, the pavement having been laid before the pedestal of the monument to Augustus was built. It was never carried to completion. On the west side the new colonnade was almost finished when the earthquake of the year 63 threw it nearly all down. At the time of the eruption only the columns at the south end of this side, which had safely passed through the earthquake, were still standing with their entablature; they are shown in Fig. 15. The area was then strewn with blocks, which the stonecutters were engaged in making ready for the rebuilding. The Forum of Pompeii, as of other ancient cities, was first of all a market place. Early in the morning the country folk gathered here with the products of the farm; here all day long tradespeople of every sort exhibited their wares. In later times the pressure of business led to the erection of separate buildings around the Forum to relieve the congestion; such were the Macellum, used as a provision market; the Eumachia building, erected to accommodate the clothing trade; the Basilica and the market house west of the temple of Jupiter, devoted to other branches of trade. Yet in a literal sense the Forum always remained the business centre of the city.