Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/669

 roMrEii. only of inferior rooms, a kind of garrets, probably sprvinj^ for the sleeping-rooms of slaves, and in some cases of the females of the family. From the mode of destruction of the city the upper stories have indeed been almost uniformly totally destroyed; but this circumstance itself, as well as the few traces which occasionally remain, seems to prove that they were built wholly of wood, and could never liave formed an important part of the houses. It is only on the W. side of the city, where the ground slopes steeply towards the sea, that houses are found which consisted of three stories or more. Externally the houses had little or nothing of an ornamental character; not a single instance has been found of a portico before a private house; and towartls the street they presented either dead walls, with here and there a few small and scanty openings as windows, or ranges of shops, for the most part liiw and mean in character, even when they occupied (as was often the case) the front of dwellings of a superior description. The interior of the houses of the more wealthy class was arranged apparently on the same model as those at Rome; its disposition is given in detail in the Dictionary of Antiquities under the article Domus where a plan is given of the House of Pansa, one of the most exten- sive and complete of those found at Pompeii. In this case the single house w-ith its gaixien and appurtenances, including as usual several shops, occupied the whole of an insula or the space bounded by four streets or alleys: but this was unusual; in most cases each jresw/a comprised several houses even where they were of a better description, and must have been the residence of persons of some wealth. Among the most remarkable of these may be men- tioned the dwellings known as the House of Sallust, that of the Tragic Poet, of Castor and Pollux, of the Labyrinth, &c. The work of Dr. Overbeck (above cited) gives a very interesting series of these houses, selected so as to afford examples of every description of house, from the humblest dwell- ing, consisting of only two rooms, to the richly de- corated and spacious mansions of Sallust and Pansa. The .style of decoration of these houses presents a very general uniformity of character. The walls are almost invariably ornamented with paintings the POMPEII. 6.53 atrium and peristyle being decorated with columns; but these are composed only of a soft and coarse stone (volcanic tufo) covered with stucco. The prodigal use of marble, both for columns and slabs to encrust the walls, which had become so general at Rome under the first emperors, apparently not having yet found its way to Pompeii. The flixn-s are generally enriched with mosaics, some of which possess a very high degree of merit as works of art. The most beautiful yet discovered adorned the house known as the House of the Faun, from a bronze statue of a dancing Faun which was also found in it. The illustrations to Cell's Pompeiana (2nd series. Loud. 1835) will convey to the reader a suf- ficient idea of the number and variety of the artistic decorations of the private houses at Pompeii ; though several of the most richly ornamented have been discovered since the date of its publication. Outside the gate leading to Herculaneum, in a kind of suburb, stands a house of a different de- scription, being a suburban villa of considerable extent, and adapted to have been the abode of a person of considerable wealth. From the greater space at conunand this villa comprises much that is not found in the houses within the town ; among others a large court or garden (Xystus), a complete suite of private baths, &c. The remains of this villa are of much value and interest for compai ison with the numerous ruins which occur elsewhere of similar buildings, often on a much more extensive scale, but in a far less perfect state of preservation; as well as for assisting us to understand the de- scriptions given by Pliny and Vitruvius of similar structures, with their numerous appurtenances. (For the details of their arrangements the reader is re- ferred to the article Villa, in the Dictionary of Antiquities, and to the work on Pompeii, Lond. 1832, vol. ii. ch. 11.) Between this villa and the gate ot the city are the remains of another villa, said to be on a larger scale and more richly decorated than the one just described; but its ruins, which were excavated in 1764, were filled up again, and are not now visible. It has been called, though without the .slightest authority, the Villa of Cicero. The one still extant is commonly known as the Villa of Arrius Diomedes, but for no other reason than that STREET OF TllK TU.M