This building, the most impressive on the eastern side of the Forum, was built by Eumachia, priestess of Venus belonging to a very rich family from Pompeii, to worship the emperor. The statues of the richest and most important people in Pompeii were exhibited below the portico in front of the entrance and two elogia of Romulus and Aeneas, that is two inscriptions with the list of good deeds performed by them, were placed at the sides of the large entrance, below the niches that can still be seen today. The rich marble frame of the entrance with scrolls of acanthus filled with animals was found in the Forum and was mistakenly relocated here when it actually belonged to the adjacent Temple of Genius Augusti.
The interior consisted of a portico with three wings. In the short eastern side there are three exedras; the central one is larger and contained a statue of Concordia Augusta, now at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples. There was a covered corridor behind this portico, also with three wings, at the centre of which there was the statue of Eumachia, the copy of which is now on display as the original is at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples.
Nothing remained from the rich multi-coloured marble decoration; just like other buildings of the Forum, this was ruined soon after the eruption.
Date of excavation: 1814; 1817; 1836.