lled Basilica. The Temple of Neptune (for in this instance at least
the popular appellation chances to be the correct one), in all probability
co-eval with the first Greek foundation of the city, formed the central
point of the life of Poseidonia during the 1400 years of its existence as
a Hellenic, a Samnite, and finally a Roman city. In its simple grandeur
and its perfect proportions this wonderful temple possesses only one rival
outside Greece itself: the Temple of Concord at Girgenti, which the poet
Goethe compared to a god, after designating the building before us as a
giant. Superiority in grace is therefore a disputed point between the two
great structures of Poseidonia and Agrigentum, yet in every other respect
the temple of the Lucanian Plain surpasses its Sicilian rival.

To-day, after more than a score of centuries of exposure to the salt winds
and to the burning sunshine of the south, the walls and pillars of these
great buildings have been calcined to a glorious shade of tawny yellow,
fit to delight the soul of every artist, whether he views their Titanic
but graceful forms outlined against the deep blue of sky and sea on the
western horizon, or against the equally lovely background of grey and
violet mountains to the east. But it was not always thus. The porous local
travertine that gave their building material to the Greeks of the sixth
century before Christ was once carefully stuccoed, and, in the manner of
Hellenic art, painted in the most brilliant hues of azure and vermilion,
so that it becomes hard for us to realise the original effect of such
gorgeous masses standing erect in a landscape that is itself fraught with
glowing colour. But better to appreciate the magnificence before us, let
us give a brief technical description of the greatest of the temples in
the choice words of an eminent French antiquary.

"The largest and most elegant, and likewise the oldest of the Temples of
Paestum, is that commonly known by the name of the Temple of Neptune. This
building shares, together with the Temple of Theseus at Athens, the honour
of being the best preserved monument of the Doric order in existence, and
the impression of grandeur that it gives to the spectator rivals even the
first sight of the Parthenon itself. In front of the building is a
platform in the midst of which can be seen the hollow space that formerly
held the altar of sacrifice, for according to the practice of the Greek
religion, these rites