Mount Vesuvius Pompeii

Not far from the Mensa Ponderaria of the market used to control the units of measure of the Roman system, there is a rectangular building whose front is formed by brick pillars. This is now used as a deposit for archaeologi’cal materials, but it was probably a horrea, a shop selling special food-stuffs, possibly grain. The tempie closes the huge square of the Forum to the north and was built in the second century B.C., in the Samnite age. Dedicated to the trio Juno, Minerva and Jupiter, it had a pronaos or vestible of twelve Corinthian columns, six at the front and three on each side. On the inside, the cella had a mixed floor composed of a marble mosaic. A marble head of Jupiter was found in the cella, and is now kept in the National Museum.