The Macellum in its present form was at the time of the eruption by no means an ancient building. While finished and no doubt in use at the time of the earthquake of 63, it had been built not many years before, in the reign of Claudius or of Nero, in the place of an older structure which dated from the pre-Roman period. The earlier Macellum, of which scanty but indubitable traces remain, could not have contained a chapel for the worship of the emperors; this was probably introduced into the plan of the structure at the time of the rebuilding. The most reasonable supposition is that the chapel was built in honor of Claudius, and that his statue with the globe as a symbol of world sovereignty stood on the pedestal at the rear, while in the niches at the left were his wife Agrippina and adopted son Nero. We can hardly doubt that Claudius was worshipped in Pompeii during his lifetime; it is known from inscriptions that even before the death of Claudius Nero was honored with the services of a special priest. That Octavia and Marcellus, another mother with a son who was heir to the throne, should be placed opposite Agrippina and Nero, was quite natural. Claudius, who through his mother Antonia was the grandson of Octavia, had great pride in this relationship, through which alone he was connected with the family of Augustus; and from Octavia, Agrippina and Nero also were descended, the former as a daughter of Germanicus, Claudius's brother, and the latter through his father Gnaeus Domitius, who was a son of the older daughter of Octavia, also called Antonia. This thought was suggested by the grouping of Octavia and Marcellus with Agrippina and Nero: Octavia's descendants are now on the throne, as Augustus intended that they should be; and Nero is the pride and hope of the emperor and the Roman people, as once Marcellus was. The room at the left of the imperial chapel, with a wide entrance divided by two columns (6), was also consecrated to the worship of the emperors. It contains a low altar (shown on the plan) of peculiar shape. A slab of black stone rests on two marble steps; it has a raised rim about the edge with a hole in one corner. Evidently this is an altar for drink offerings; in this room sacrificial meals were partaken of, at which the long estrade at the right, like a counter, nearly three feet high, was perhaps used as a serving table. Such meals had an important place among the functions of the Roman colleges of priests, and some priesthood connected with the worship of the emperors apparently had its place of meeting here; but whether this was the college of the Seviri Augustales, composed of freedmen, or a more aristocratic priesthood modelled after the Sodales Augustales at Rome, cannot be determined. The purpose of the niche in the corner, with the platform in front of it approached by steps, is unknown.