In each corner of the colonnade is a round fountain basin (indicated on the plan), at each side an oblong basin, all of marble. Jets fell into them from statuettes standing on pedestals beside the columns; there were two figures for each side basin, one each for those at the corners. The two statuettes at the inner end of the colonnade (Fig. 162) are of bronze; they represent a boy with a duck, from the bill of which the water spurted. The rest are of marble, and not of special interest. Among them are a Bacchus and two satyrs. The water pipes were so well preserved that it has been found possible to place them in repair, and they are now ready for use. There were also two fountains in the garden.

Near the middle of the garden is a round, marble table. Three others stand under the colonnade, one of which, at the right near the inner end, is particularly elegant. The three feet are carved to represent lions' claws; the heads above are well executed, and there are traces of yellow color on the manes. On two pillars in the garden are double busts, the subjects of which are taken from the bacchic cycle. One represents Bacchus and a bacchante (Fig. 257), the other Bacchus and Ariadne; there are traces of painting on the hair, beard, and eyes.

The wall paintings of this house are the most remarkable yet discovered at Pompeii. Although the decoration of which they form a part is throughout of the fourth style, they fall into two groups, an earlier and a later, distinguished by differences in composition and handling that are easily perceived.

The earlier paintings are found in the atrium (c), the alae (h, i), and the large room at the end of the peristyle (q). At the time when they were painted the left ala (h) was connected with the room behind it (n) by a door, and had a large window opening on the peristyle like that in the other ala (seen in Fig. 160). Afterwards both window and door were walled up and the ala was turned into a wardrobe. After this change had been made, as the remains of the masonry show, the earthquake of 63 threw down a part of the wall between the ala and the peristyle. The earlier paintings, then, must have been placed upon the walls before the year 63, in the reign of Claudius or the earlier part of the reign of Nero.

The later pictures are on the walls of the fauces (b), the large apartment at the left of the atrium (e), the colonnade of the peristyle (l), the two dining rooms opening on the peristyle (n, p), and the small peristyle (s) with the adjoining rooms (t, u); to the same class belongs also the painting of the Genius with the Lares in the side atrium (v), which, aside from this, contains no pictures. The remaining rooms present nothing of interest.

The paintings of the first group are characterized by refinement in the choice of subjects, fertility in the composition, firmness of touch in the drawing, and exquisite finish in even the smallest details. The colors used are simple and harmonious, violent contrasts being avoided. A number of these pictures show the hand of a true artist, whose work has been found in no other house, and the system of decoration is the most effective of its kind in Pompeii.

The decoration of the walls painted after the earthquake is not unlike that found in other houses upon walls of the fourth style. The designs are sketchy and without painstaking in the handling of details; the lines are coarse, the colors sometimes crude. The pictures in the panels are by different painters, some of whom were not without skill, yet none far above the average. One of the decorators had a fondness for representing mythological death scenes, manifesting a taste little short of barbarous.

The contrast between the earlier and the later decoration is so marked that it seems impossible to explain except on the assumption of a change of owners. We may well believe that about the middle of the first century this was the home of a family of culture and standing, who secured for the decoration of it the best artist that could be obtained, bringing him perhaps from Rome or from a Greek city. But within a score of years afterwards the house passed into the hands of the Vettii, freedmen, perhaps, whose taste in matters of art was far inferior to that of the former occupants, and a number of rooms were redecorated.

The excellent preservation of a large part of both the earlier and the later decoration gives the house the appearance of an art gallery. To describe fully and interpret all the paintings would require a small volume. The limitations of space make it possible to present here only the more important; we commence with those in the large room at the right of the peristyle, which are the most interesting of the entire series.

This apartment (q) may have been used either as a dining room or as a sitting room. The scheme of decoration is indicated in Fig. 163, which presents the division of the end wall; the side walls had five large panels instead of three.

The ground of the base is black. The stripe separating the base from the main part of the wall is red, except the small sections (4, 4), which have a black ground; the vertical stripes between the panels are black, and the same color forms the background of the border above. The ground of the panels is cinnabar red. The painting in the central panel (1) has not been preserved; in those at the sides (2) are floating figures. The upper division of the wall (6) is filled with an architectural framework upon a white background, against which many figures, skilfully disposed, stand out with unusual distinctness.

The floating figures in the side panels differ from those found elsewhere in the choice of subjects. Here instead of satyrs and bacchantes we find gods and heroes. In one panel is Poseidon with a female figure, perhaps Amymone; in another, Apollo with Daphne. Bacchus and Ariadne also appear, and Perseus with Andromeda.

The figures in the upper part of the wall at the end of the room belong to the bacchic cycle,—Silenus, satyrs, and bacchantes. Of those at the sides, one, near the right-hand corner, represents a poet with a roll of papyrus against his chin, the open manuscript case, scrinium, at his feet; opposite him sits a maiden clothed in white, drinking in his words. A comic mask on the left wall seems to suggest a writer of comedy, and the scene reminds one of the letter of Glycera to Menander, in Alciphron: "What is Athens without Menander, what Menander without Glycera? Without me, who make ready your masks, who lay out your costume, and then stand behind the scenes pressing my finger tips into the palms of my hands till the applause breaks forth. Then all a-trembling I breathe again, and enfold you, godlike poet, in my arms."

The figures in which we are specially interested, however, are not those in the upper or middle division of the wall, but those in the black stripes (3), nine and ten inches wide, under the panels, in the narrow sections (4) and in the corresponding sections of the base.

In the narrow sections on the end walls (4), and all but four of the others, were Psyches gathering flowers. Only a part of the scenes are preserved; in each are three figures, grouped with a pleasing variety and rendered with singular delicacy of touch. In one, the Psyches are sprightly children (Fig. 164); in another, young girls; and in a third we see a lady sitting at ease and plucking the flowers close at hand, while two maids gather the blossoms beyond her reach.

The two narrow sections nearest the middle panel of each side wall contained mythological scenes, of which three are preserved. The subjects are taken from the cycle of myths relating to Apollo and Artemis. In one of the pictures both the divinities appear. Apollo has just slain the Python, which lies coiled about the Omphalos, the sacred symbol of the god as the giver of oracles at Delphi. His bow and quiver are hanging upon a column in the background, and he moves forward with vigorous step singing the Paean with an accompaniment upon the cithara. At the right, Artemis, with a quiver and long hunting spear, leans upon a pillar looking at her brother. Nearer the Omphalos are a priest and a female attendant, with a bull intended for sacrifice; the relation of these to the rest of the scene is not clear (Plate VIII.).

The companion picture takes us to a sanctuary dedicated to Artemis. At the left a gilt bronze image of the goddess, in hunting costume, stands upon a pillar, to the side of which a bow, quiver, and boar's head are fastened. On one side of the round altar in the middle is a white hind, sacred to the goddess; on the other, moving toward it with a sword in the uplifted right hand, is a kingly figure, the face turned with a wild and threatening look toward a frightened attendant; another attendant, back of the hind, seems not yet to have noticed the sacrilegious intruder. The composition is full of dramatic power; the subject can be none other than the slaying of the hind of Artemis by the impious Agamemnon (Plate VIII.).

The third of these small paintings presents a scene not infrequently met with on Pompeian walls, Orestes and Pylades at Tauris in the presence of King Thoas, and of Iphigenia, who is now a priestess of Artemis. The conception is akin to that of the painting in the house of the Citharist (Fig. 182), but the picture is partially obliterated.

The long stripe below the panels is preserved in more than half its length, on the end wall (3), on that at the right, and on the short sections of the front wall; there is also a fragment on the left side. It contains a series of charming pictures representing Cupids and Psyches. Some of the little creatures are engaged in sports, others are celebrating a festival, while others still are busying themselves with the manifold work of everyday life. The execution is less careful than in the small mythological pictures; yet the figures are so full of life, their movements are so purposeful, and their bearing so suggestive that we seem to catch the expression of the tiny faces. The Cupids and Psyches, whether playing the part of children or of men and women in elegant attire, whether garland makers or vinedressers or smiths, are always Cupids and Psyches still; we instinctively recognize them as such, not by reason of outward attributes so much as by their bearing. Prosaic daily toil has nowhere been more happily idealized.

Among the most attractive groups are those of the flower dealers, at the end of the right wall near the entrance. First we see the gardener leading to market a goat laden with roses; his little son trudges along behind the animal, carrying a basket of roses suspended from a stick on the left shoulder. Next is the dealer, who stands behind a broad marble table covered with garlands; he is handing two to a youth who already has several, while a Psyche near by is placing the garlands in a basket. Beyond these, workmen are making garlands, which hang in profusion from a wooden frame. At the extreme left is a lady asking the price. One of the workmen holds up two fingers, signifying two asses. The price of a wreath is given in a graffito as three asses (p. 497).

In the following scene Cupids appear as makers and sellers of oil (Fig. 165). At the right is the oil press. It stands upon a square stone, the upper surface of which contains a semicircular incision to catch the oil and carry it to a round vessel standing in front. The two sides, each with a broad vertical opening, are securely fastened by a crosspiece at the top. The ends of four horizontal boards are fitted to the openings, in which they move up and down. The olives are placed under the lowest board; in the spaces between the others, and between the upper board and the crosspiece, thick wooden wedges are driven. As the workmen drive in the wedges with heavy mallets, the pressure upon the olives is increased, and the oil is forced out. The arrangement may be more plainly seen in Fig. 166, from a wall painting at Herculaneum, in which a similar press appears.

At the left of the press is a large kettle resting on a tripod. The oil is being stirred as it is heated; a similar kettle appears in the scene in a shop presented in the other part of the picture. Further on are two figures beside a deep vessel, but the process represented is not clear.

The central figure of the group at the left is the lady who has come to make a purchase. A cushioned seat has been placed for her, with a footstool; the maid stands motionless behind, a large fan resting on the right shoulder. The proprietor holds in his right hand a spoon containing a sample which he has just taken from the jar under his arm; the lady seems to be testing the quality on the back of her wrist. The article sold is doubtless the fine perfumed oil, not the common variety.

Hardly less animated are the scenes in which Cupids take the place of goldsmiths (Fig. 167). At the right is the furnace, adorned with the head of Hephaestus, the patron divinity of workers in metals. In front is a Cupid with a blowpipe and pincers. Behind it another is working with a graver's tool upon a large gold vessel. The pose, suggesting at the same time exertion and perfect steadiness, is rendered with remarkable skill.

Next is a figure at a small anvil; then the counter for the sale of jewellery, which is displayed in three open drawers. Behind the case containing the drawers a large and a smaller pair of scales are seen.

The first two figures in the other half of the picture represent a lady purchaser, seated, and the proprietor, who weighs out an object with a small pair of scales. The left hands of both point to the balance; they are deeply interested in the weighing. Lastly, we see two figures at an anvil. Nothing could be more natural than the pose of the one at the left, holding the metal upon the anvil for his companion to strike, yet drawing back as far as possible in order to avoid the sparks.

The processes of the fullery also are illustrated,—treading the clothes in vats, carding, inspection of the cloth to see if the work is properly done, and folding the finished garments for delivery to the owners.

Three of the pictures—two on the end wall and one on the left side—relate to wine.

The first is a vintage scene (Fig. 168), of which only a part is distinct. At the left is a Cupid gathering grapes, from vines trained to run from tree to tree. The press is worked on a different principle from the one shown in Fig. 165. Here two Cupids are turning a windlass by means of long levers. The windlass is connected by a pulley with a press beam above; as the end of this is gradually lowered, the pressure upon the grapes underneath is increased.

In the last of this series, upon the left wall, Cupids appear as wine dealers; the part of the picture that has been preserved is shown in Fig. 169. The rustic bearing of the seller, at the left, is in pleasing contrast with the free and graceful carriage of the well-bred buyer, to whom he is handing a sample of the wine in a cup. At the right two servants are drawing another sample from an amphora; one tips the amphora so cautiously that the other, who is holding the bowl, presses the neck gently with his left hand in order to make the slender stream flow faster.

Rapidity of movement reaches a climax in the middle picture of the right wall, which represents the games of the Circus. The scene is laid in the country; each goal is marked by three trees. Antelopes take the place of horses, and the groups are conceived with wonderful realism. The tiny, fluttering garments of the drivers display the colors of the four parties,—green, red, white, and blue.

Two of the pictures on the end wall are so damaged that it is not easy to make out the details. One of them, like that just described, presents a purely Roman subject—the festival of Vesta (Fig. 170). Cupids and Psyches are reclining at ease about a serving table in the shape of a deep platter with two handles, on which drinking vessels are seen; in the background are two asses, sacred to Vesta (p. 98). Some, at least, of the Cupid pictures could not have been taken from Greek originals.

In the atrium also there was a black stripe containing Cupids similar to those already described, but the figures are not so well preserved. The most interesting scene represents a sacrifice to Fortuna. Cupids appear also riding and driving. Some are mounted on goats and engaged in a contest. One stands on a crab, guiding the ungainly creature with reins and plying the whip; another is similarly mounted on a lobster. A few are in chariots, the chariot in one case being drawn by two dolphins.

In each division of the wall of the atrium near the bottom is the half-length figure of a child, painted on a dark red ground. The children are busied with vessels of all kinds, apparently intended for sacrifice. The seriousness of their task, the importance which they attach to their helpfulness, is finely expressed in the faces, which are individualized in the manner of a true artist.

The direction of the owner's tastes is perhaps indicated by a painting in the peristyle, at the middle of the wall under the colonnade at the left. It contains a portrait, probably of an author; near by is a manuscript case with rolls of papyrus.

The decorative effect of the other room, p, is more harmonious. The divisions of the wall space, the relation of the three principal paintings to the decorative design, and the distribution of ornament are indicated in our illustration (Plate IX); but no reproduction can do justice to the richness of the coloring.

The painting in the middle panel at the right brings before us Bacchus with his train as they come upon the sleeping Ariadne. On the left wall opposite is Daedalus, pointing out the wooden cow that he has made to Pasiphae, who hands to him a golden arm band. The subject of the third picture is here met with for the first time at Pompeii—the punishment of Ixion.

The tragedy of the scene (Fig. 171) is plainly suggested, but not forced upon the beholder; we see, at the left, only half of the ever revolving wheel to which the wretched victim is bound. The other figures are more prominent and, with one exception, convey no suggestion of pain or sympathy in either pose or expression of face. Nearest the wheel is Hephaestus, who has just fastened Ixion upon it; his pincers, hammer, and anvil are lying upon the ground in the corner. In front of him is Hermes, who, in obedience to the command of Zeus, brought the offender to the place of punishment.

A sad-faced female figure with veiled head sits in the foreground—a personification of the spirit of one who has died, a shade introduced to indicate that the place of punishment is the Underworld. The left hand is involuntarily raised with the shock that the thought of the victim's suffering brings; the face has been thought by some to resemble that often given to the Madonna.

The two figures at the right of the picture are of the upper world, not directly connected with the main action, yet well conceived and skilfully introduced. Nearer the foreground Hera sits enthroned, her sceptre in her left hand; behind her stands Iris, faithful messenger, who points out to her the well deserved fate of him who dared to offer an affront to the queen of heaven.

CHAPTER XLII
THREE HOUSES OF UNUSUAL PLAN

In the houses described in the preceding chapters the distribution of the rooms is characterized by a certain regularity, which makes it possible to indicate the arrangements by reference to an ideal or normal plan. A wide departure, however, is occasionally noted; and by way of illustration three houses of unusual plan will be briefly presented here, first a house without an atrium, then one having an atrium but no compluvium, and, lastly, a large establishment built on terraces at different levels.

I. The House of Acceptus and Euhodia

Sometimes a few rooms of a large house were cut off from the atrium and used as a separate dwelling; the original plan in such cases is easily determined. The number of houses built without an atrium in the beginning is exceedingly small. Among the pleasantest was the modest dwelling of Acceptus and Euhodia, on the south side of the double Insula in the eighth Region (VIII. v.-vi. 39); the names are taken from a couple of election notices painted on the front, in which they appear together.

From the street one passed directly under a colonnade (Fig. 172, a) in two stories, facing a small garden (b), from which it was separated by a low wall. At one end of the garden was an open-air triclinium (k), which still remains. The rest of the plot, used as a flower garden, was profusely ornamented; five heads of herms, a frog and other objects of marble were found in it, besides a couple of alabaster basins and five statuettes of Egyptian divinities made of glazed pottery. In the corner of the colonnade, between the garden and the entrance, is a small hearth, conveniently placed for serving the open-air triclinium; in the opposite corner at the left the excavators found the remains of a cupboard, together with vessels of bronze, glass, and clay. At the further end of the colonnade one passed into another small garden (g).

A bedroom (d) opened on the colonnade near the entrance. A corridor (e) led to the kitchen (c) behind it. Beyond the corridor is the dining room (f). Another sleeping room (i) with places for two beds is entered through a kind of anteroom (h) at the rear of the house.

The rooms of the second story corresponded closely with those underneath, and were entered from the second story of the colonnade; the stairs, partly of wood, started in the kitchen. The appearance of the house as one looked from the garden at the right toward the colonnade may be inferred from our restoration, which gives a longitudinal section (Fig. 173); the letters under the section refer to the rooms as they are indicated in the plan.

The house was decorated in the fourth style. On the south wall of the kitchen there is a painting of Fortuna, with the usual attributes, a cornucopia and a rudder resting on a ball. The Genius and the Lares nowhere appear, and as a lotus blossom is painted on the forehead of the goddess, who is thus conceived of as a form of Isis, we may suppose that Acceptus and his wife were adherents of the Egyptian cult. Besides the statuettes of Egyptian divinities there was found in the garden the foot of a marble table with a Greek inscription "of Serapion," an Egyptian name. Acceptus and Euhodia may have come from Alexandria and thence have introduced into Pompeii this type of house, so unlike the native form. The Latin name of Acceptus does not stand in the way of this explanation, for he was probably a freedman, who in Egypt may have had a Roman master.

II. A House without a Compluvium

The accompanying plan (Fig. 174) shows the arrangement of a small house on the north side of Nola Street in the fifth Region (V. v. 2). The problem of lighting the atrium (e), the roof of which sloped toward the back, was met in a simple way.

At the rear a light court (f) was constructed, which furnished light and air by means of broad windows, not only to the atrium, but also to the adjoining room g and indirectly to the dining room k, which had a window opening on g.

This arrangement, however, is in part the result of later changes. Originally the room marked g belonged to the court, f, and the house consisted of two parts, separated by a narrow area. The kitchen was then in the low room (i) above which was a correspondingly low chamber, the height of the two rooms being only equal to that of the dining room (k). In later times, however, the hearth was moved to the corner of the atrium (1), the smoke being let out through a small window in the wall. A stairway, partly of wood, led to the upper rooms at the front of the house. Along the street ran a stone bench, protected by a roof projecting over it.

The water from the roofs fell into the light court f, and was collected in a cistern. We give a transverse section across f and g (Fig. 175), showing the arrangement of the roofs, doors, and window at the rear.

On the wall of g is scratched the inscription, Fures foras, frugi intro,—'Let thieves keep out, let honest folk come in!'

III. The House of the Emperor Joseph II

A good example of a house extended over terraces at different levels may be seen on the edge of the hill west of the Forum Triangulare (VIII. ii. 39), that of the Emperor Joseph II, casa dell' Imperatore Giuseppe II. The name was given in commemoration of a visit of this emperor to Pompeii, in 1769, when a special excavation in his honor was made in a part of the house.

The uppermost of the three terraces on which the house is built (Fig. 176, 1) is at the level of the street (Vico della Regina, Plan VI), the lowest (3) in part occupies the place of the old city wall; the middle terrace is adjusted to the intervening slope. The arrangement of the stairways between the terraces and the distribution of the rooms may be more easily understood from an inspection of the plan in connection with the key below than from description.

There was a second story over a part of the rooms on the upper terrace, as indicated by the stairways at e and n and in the corner of u, but the extent of it is not easy to determine. The traces of the upper rooms of the middle terrace, however, are clearly seen, and their arrangement is indicated on the plan (4); the height of θ and κ, which were in one story, was equal to that of the smaller rooms with the chambers above.

• 1. Upper terrace at the level of the street.
  • a. Fauces.
  • b. Atrium.
  • c. House chapel.
  • g, h. Alae, with a wardrobe (i) at the rear of h.
  • u. Room with two stairways, leading up to second floor and down to middle terrace.
  • w. Middle room opening on a colonnade (y) which faces the rear of the terrace (z).
  • x, v. Dining rooms, opening on the colonnade.
• 2. Middle terrace.
  • α. Corridor, entered from stairway in u above.
  • β. Corridor.
  • γ, δ. Low vaulted rooms.
  • ε. Stairway leading to lower terrace.
  • η. Middle room.
  • θ. Dining room, with a window opening on the terrace at the rear.
  • κ. Small dining room.
  • ι, λ, ζ. Sleeping rooms.
• 3. Lower terrace.
  • 1. Corridor leading down from the foot of the stairway in ε.
  • 3, 4. Bakery.
  • 6-8. Bath. (6. Tepidarium. 7. Caldarium. 8. Frigidarium.)
• 4. Upper rooms of the middle terrace.
  • I. Excavated room used as a cellar.
  • II, III. Rooms over ι, λ.
  • VI. Room over ζ, connected with V (over γ, δ) by a gallery over the stairway ε, and with η by a ladder or stairway.

The front of the house, the large Tuscan atrium with the adjoining rooms, dates from the Tufa Period; the atrium was originally one of the most richly decorated at Pompeii. The rooms back of the atrium opening toward the rear, and those of the middle and lower terraces, are a later addition, built after the city wall at this point had been removed, perhaps not long before the end of the Republic; traces of the second style of decoration are found in one of the lowest rooms, the tepidarium of the bath. Remains of the first style are found in the fauces, but the greater part of the house is decorated in the last style.

One of the small rooms (c) opening on the atrium, originally a bedroom, was in later times turned into a house chapel. In the right wall is a small niche, on the back of which a Genius of the ordinary type is painted. Near him and also offering a libation is a female figure with the attributes of Juno, a diadem, and a sceptre. The two figures represent the Genii of the master and mistress of the house (p. 270). Under the niche, and at the sides are iron nails, driven into the plaster to hold wreaths and garlands.

The principal room of the middle story (2. η, under z) takes the place of an atrium; it is lighted by a door and two windows opening upon a terrace (μ). Connected with it are two dining rooms (θ, κ), considerably higher than the other apartments of this story, and three sleeping rooms (ι, λ, ζ). A dark corridor (β) separated these rooms from the solid earth at the rear, and furnished access, by means of ladders, to two low upper rooms (over ι and λ; see 4. II, III), perhaps used as storerooms. From β one could also reach, in the same way, an oblong chamber excavated in the earth (I), designed originally as a cistern, but used as a cellar at the time of the eruption. Of the remaining upper rooms one (IV) was built on the solid ground at the side of the stairway leading from the upper floor (α); the other two (V, over γ, δ and VI, over ζ) were connected by a gallery or bridge over the stairway leading to the lower floor (ε); this gallery could be reached also by a ladder or wooden stairway in the large middle room (η). The outermost room (VI) was perhaps a washroom; there is a rectangular basin in one corner.

The lower floor was given up to a bath (frigidarium, 8; tepidarium, 6; caldarium, 7) and to a bakery (3, 4).

In the vaulted ceiling of the frigidarium (8) and one of the rooms of the bakery (3) is a round hole for ventilation, opening upon the terrace above through a kind of chimney. The hollow walls of the caldarium (7) are carried to the crown of the vault, at the middle of which is a similar opening for the vent. The places of the three openings in the floor of the terrace are seen in the plan (2, μ).

At one end of the larger room of the bakery (3) is the oven; at the other two rectangular basins of masonry. In the corner near the basins was found the skeleton of a man who at the time of the eruption had taken refuge in this room and probably died of hunger. The appearance of the room at the time of excavation is shown in a sketch published by Mazois (Fig. 177).

The door near the corner, seen in the illustration, led outside the city. The proprietor of the house perhaps had a special permit enabling him to leave or enter the city at any time without surveillance; none of the other houses along the edge of the city have a private entrance of this kind.

CHAPTER XLIII
OTHER NOTEWORTHY HOUSES

The houses accorded a detailed description in the previous chapters are few in comparison with the number of those worthy of special study. He alone who has wandered day after day among the ruins, returning again and again to explore the parts of the city which are rarely seen by the hasty visitor, can realize what a wealth of interesting material lies behind the barren walls lining the streets on either side.

The location of the houses mentioned incidentally is given in Plan VI, at the end of the volume. Such are, the house of Caecilius Jucundus, on Stabian Street (V. i. 26), the tablinum of which contains one of the most beautiful specimens of wall decoration yet discovered, in the third style; the house of Lucretius, on the same street (IX. iii. 5), with a little garden behind the tablinum adorned with quaint sculptures; the house of the Hunt on Nola Street (VII. iv. 48), so named from the large hunting scene on the wall at the rear of the garden; and further down on Nola Street (IX. vii. 6) the extensive house with three atriums and a large peristyle, excavated in 1879, eighteen centuries after the destruction of the city, and hence called the house of the Centenary, casa del Centenario.

In the same block with the house of the Hunt, opposite that of the Faun, is the house of the Sculptured Capitals, casa dei Capitelli Figurati (VII. iv. 57). It received its name from the figures carved in the tufa capitals of the pilasters at the entrance, one of which is shown in Fig. 178; the stucco with which the surface was coated has now fallen off. Such figures are not infrequently met with in pilaster capitals of the Tufa Period, the subjects being always taken, as here, from the bacchic cycle; the satyr at the left is well rendered. The plan of the house is simple, like that of other houses of moderate size dating from the pre-Roman time.

Near the west end of Nola Street is the house of Pansa, which occupies the whole of the sixth Insula of Region VI. Although of approximately the same size as the house of the Faun, and built in the same period, it contained fewer large rooms; its proportions were less impressive, its finish less elegant. The walls present many evidences of repairs and alterations, but of the wall decoration nothing remains.