Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/204

 140 General History oj Europe 218. The New Luxury at Rome. The original atrium was in the finer houses converted into a large and stately reception hall, where the master of the house could display statues, paintings, and other works of art seized in eastern cities. One of the Roman conquerors of Mace- donia entered Rome on HD his return with two hun- dred and fifty wagon- ii ii rfl <MKfcfr^-_ _ wtt* loads of Greek statues and paintings. The finest Roman resi- dences were sometimes supplied with running water and sanitary con- veniences. Some of them had a system of heating by means of tile pipes conducting into the dif- ferent rooms the heat from a furnace, very different from the old charcoal brazier on which the Romans had formerly depended. 219. Influence of the Art and Literature of Greece on Rome. The cultivated Romans nat- urally admired the beau- tiful Greek works of art, which some of their artists sought to imitate and copy. The Greek theater became popular, too, and Roman playwrights, like Plautus and Terence, adapted Greek comedies to the taste of Roman audiences, who laughed heartily at the old Greek jokes. The Romans had formerly done little to educate their children in any systematic way. Now schools began to appear, frequently PLAN OF A ROMAN HOUSE WITH PERISTYLE The earliest Roman house had consisted of a single room, the atrium (A), with the pool for the rain water (B). Then a small alcove, or lean-to, was erected at the rear (C), as a room for the master of the house. Later the bedrooms on each side of the atrium were added. Finally, under the influence of Greek life, the garden court (D), with its surround- ing colonnaded porch (peristyle) and a foun- tain in the middle, was built at the rear. Then a dining room, sitting room, and bedrooms were added, which opened on this court, and, being without windows, they were lighted from the court through the doors. In town houses it was quite easy to partition off a shop, or even a whole row of shops, along the front or side of the house, as in the Hellenistic house. The houses of Pompeii (see 262 and Plate III, facing page 168) were almost all built in this way