What is a Chalcidicum?  Long and grave have been the discussions on this subject among the savans.  They have agreed, however, on one point, that it should be a species of structure invented at Chalcis, a city of Eubea.

However that may be, this much-despoiled palace presents a vast open gallery, which was, certainly, the portico mentioned above.  Around the portico ran a closed gallery along three sides, and that must have been the crypt.  Upon the fourth side—­that is to say, before the entry that fronts the Forum—­stood forth a sort of porch, a large exterior vestibule:  that was probably the Chalcidicum.

The edifice is curious.  Behind the vestibule are two walls, not parallel, one of which follows the alignment of the Forum, and the other that of the interior portico.  The space between this double wall is utilized and some shops hide themselves in its recesses.  Thus the irregularity of the plan is not merely corrected—­it is turned to useful account.  The ancients were shrewd fellows.  This portico rested on fifty-eight columns, surrounding a court-yard.  In the court-yard, a large movable stone, in good preservation, with the ring that served to lift it, covered a cistern.  At the extremity of the portico, in a hemicycle, stood a headless statue—­perhaps the Piety or Concord to which the entire edifice was dedicated.  Behind the hemicycle a sort of square niche buried itself in the wall between two doors, one of which, painted on the wall for the sake of symmetry, is a useful and curious document.  It is separated into three long and narrow panels and is provided with a ring that should have served to move it.  Doors are nowhere to be seen now in Pompeii, because they were of wood, and consequently were consumed by the fire; hence, this painted representation has filled the savants with delight; they now know that the ancients shut themselves in at home by processes exactly like our own.

Between, the two doors, in the square niche, the statue of Eumachia, or, at least, a moulded model of that statue, is still erect upon its pedestal.  It is of a female of tall stature, who looks sad and ill.  An inscription informs us that the statue was erected in her honor by the fullers.  These artisans formed quite a respectable corporation at Pompeii, and we shall presently visit the manufactory where they worked.  Everything is now explained:  the edifice of Eumachia must have been the Palace of Industry of that city and period.  This is the Pompeian Merchants’ Exchange, where transactions took place in the portico, and in winter, in the crypt.  The tribunal of commerce sat in the hemicycle, at the foot of the statue of Concord, raised there to appease quarrels between the merchants.  In the court-yard, the huge blocks of stone still standing were the tables on which their goods were spread.  The cistern and the large vats yielded the conveniences to wash them.  In fine, the Chalcidicum was the smaller Exchange, and the niches still seen there must have been the stands of the auctioneers.  But what was there in common between this market, this fullers’ counter, and the melancholy priestess?