The plan (Fig. 179) is of interest on account of its regularity. It well illustrates the extent to which, at Pompeii, rooms not required for household purposes were utilized as shops and small separate dwellings, which were rented to tenants, and doubtless formed an important source of income.

The vestibule and fauces have been mentioned previously (p. 249). The living rooms are grouped about a single atrium (2) and a large peristyle (9). A colonnade at the rear of the house faces the garden, which, as indicated by the appearance of the ground at the time of excavation, was used for vegetables. Opening on the colonnade is the gardener's room (a).

In the front were shops, one of which (35) was connected with the house and served as the proprietor's place of business; another (33) was used as a salesroom for the bakery, which occupied the rooms numbered 28-34. On the same side of the house were three small two-story dwellings, one of which (22-23) contained windows opening into an adjoining room (12) of the house and into the peristyle; it was doubtless occupied by some one connected with the household. The dwellings on the other street (A, B, C) were larger. Fiorelli thought that this Insula belonged to Alleius Nigidius Maius (p. 489); the name of Pansa was given to it from an election notice painted on the front.

There is a remarkable group of houses near the north end of Mercury Street. The first in importance is the house of Castor and Pollux (VI. ix. 6), which is so named from the figures of the Dioscuri, holding their horses by the bridle, painted on the walls of the principal fauces. Between the two atriums, one of which is of the Corinthian type, lies a large peristyle; and behind the Corinthian atrium is a garden with a colonnade in front. The decoration of the house is especially effective; that of the larger tablinum was by one of the best artists who worked at Pompeii. The paintings in the two central panels of this room are often mentioned; on the right wall, the recognition of Achilles among the daughters of Lycomedes; on the left, the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon. The representation of Venus Pompeiana shown in Fig. 4 is from the peristyle.

Beyond the house of Castor and Pollux is that of the Centaur (VI. ix. 3), which received its name from a painting in which Hercules, Deianira, and Nessus appear; the end of a bedroom in this house is shown in Fig. 122. The rest of the insula belongs to the large house of Meleager, named from a picture representing Meleager and Atalanta. The walls contained numerous mythological pictures, part of which were transferred to the Naples Museum; those left on the walls have suffered from exposure to the weather.

The house of Apollo also (VI. vii. 23), on the opposite side of the street, is noteworthy on account of its decoration, in the last style; the god appears in a series of paintings. Two houses in the next insula, on the south, have in their gardens fountain niches veneered with bright mosaics, the casa della Fontana Grande (VI. viii. 22) and the casa della Fontana Piccola (VI. viii. 23).

At the middle of the tenth Insula, in the same Region, is the house of the Anchor (VI. x. 7), so called from an anchor outlined in the black and white mosaic of the fauces. The peristyle here presents an interesting peculiarity of construction. The level of the street at the rear of the house was below that of Mercury Street. Instead of filling up the lot so as to raise the garden to the height of the front part, the builder constructed a kind of basement under the colonnade of the peristyle, the floor of which was thus adjusted to the level of the floors in the front rooms; the garden and the floor of the basement were on the same level as the street at the rear. The colonnade was higher on the north than on the other three sides (Fig. 180). The effect of the whole was far from unpleasing. Whether the projections seen in the niches below, at the level of the garden, are pedestals or small altars cannot be determined. The niches at the front end were made larger, and were three in number. In the middle niche was a diminutive temple; the other two had the form of an apse, and contained fountain figures.

Houses were sometimes enlarged at the expense of neighboring dwellings, which, in some cases, were destroyed to the foundations, in others remodelled or incorporated with slight change. An example is the house of the Citharist, which fills the greater part of the fourth Insula in Region I, on the east side of Stabian Street. A bronze statue of Apollo playing the cithara, found in the middle peristyle (Fig. 181, 17), gave its name to the house. It is apparently a faithful copy of a Greek masterpiece at Sparta, and is now in the Naples Museum. The house is sometimes referred to as that of Popidius Secundus.

There are two atriums (6, 47) and three peristyles (17, 32, 56). A large part of the house, the west atrium (6), with the connecting rooms and the two peristyles, 17 and 32, was built in the Tufa Period, in the place of several older houses. The rooms east of the two peristyles, and the north atrium (47) and peristyle (56), with the adjoining rooms, were added in Roman times, probably near the end of the Republic; the house was afterwards decorated in the second style. Remains of the third and fourth styles also are found in some parts of the house. The better apartments are grouped about the peristyles; the rooms about the atriums were turned over to the slaves or used for domestic purposes.

In the large room (35) opening on the south peristyle were two paintings of unusual merit, both of which were transferred to the Naples Museum. The subject of one was the finding of the deserted Ariadne by Bacchus; in the other Orestes and Pylades appear as captives before Thoas, the king of Tauris (Fig. 182).

At the right of the picture sits Thoas, looking at the captives, his sword lying across his knees, his hands resting upon the end of his sceptre. Behind him stands a guard with a long spear in the right hand. Another guard with two spears stands behind Orestes and Pylades, whose hands are bound. Orestes, upon whose head is a wreath of laurel, looks downward, an expression of sadness and resignation upon his finely chiselled features. Pylades is not without anxiety, but is alert and hopeful. Between the two groups is an altar on which incense is burning. In the background Iphigenia is seen moving slowly forward; the head is entirely obliterated. It is unfortunate that the painting is so badly preserved. The faces of the two youths are individualized with remarkable skill, and the picture here used as the centre of a decorative framework of the fourth style is evidently a copy of a masterpiece.

On the south side of Abbondanza Street, opposite the Stabian Baths, is the house of Cornelius Rufus (VIII. iv. 15), a view of the interior of which has already been given. The name of the proprietor is known from the dedication on the herm (seen in Fig. 121), C. Cornelio Rufo; the carved table supports behind the impluvium are among the finest yet discovered.

In the same block is the house of Marcus Holconius (VIII. iv. 4), a good example of a house completely restored and decorated after the earthquake of 63. The right ala was fitted up with shelves, on which at the time of the eruption were kitchen vessels of bronze, iron, and terra cotta. The colonnade about the peristyle was in two stories. From the columns at the front six jets of water, at a height of about four feet, fell forward into the gutter; and there was an equal number at the rear. There was also a little fountain in the exedra at the rear of the peristyle.

CHAPTER XLIV
ROMAN VILLAS.—THE VILLA OF DIOMEDES

Two classes of villas were distinguished by the Romans,—the country seat, villa pseudourbana, and the farmhouse, villa rustica. The former was a city house, adapted to rural conditions; the arrangements of the latter were determined by the requirements of farm life.

The country seats manifested a greater diversity of plan than the city residences. They were relatively larger, containing spacious colonnades and gardens; as the proprietor was unrestricted in regard to space, not being confined to the limits of a lot, fuller opportunity was afforded for the display of individual taste in the arrangement of rooms. We can understand from the letters of Pliny the Younger, describing his two villas at Laurentum and Tifernum Tiberinum (now Città di Castello), and from the remains of the villa of Hadrian at Tivoli, how far individuality might assert itself in the planning and building of a country home.

The main entrance of a country seat, according to Vitruvius, should lead directly to a peristyle; one or more atriums might be placed further back. The living rooms would be grouped about the central spaces in the way that would best suit the configuration of the ground and meet the wishes of the owner. In farmhouses there would naturally be a court near the entrance; and the hearth, as we have seen, down to the latest times, was placed in the room that corresponded with the atrium of the city house. In most parts of Italy a large farmhouse would contain appliances for making wine and oil.

The arrangement of the two types of country house in the vicinity of Pompeii may be briefly illustrated by reference to an example of each, the villa of Diomedes and the farmhouse recently excavated at Boscoreale.

The location of the villa of Diomedes, beyond the last group of tombs at the left of the road leading from the Herculaneum Gate, is indicated in Plan V. An extensive establishment similar in character, the so-called villa of Cicero, lies nearer the Gate on the same side of the road; on the right there is a third villa, of which only a small part has been uncovered. The three seem to have belonged to a series of country seats situated on the ridge that extends back from Pompeii in the direction of Vesuvius. The villa of Diomedes, excavated in 1771-74, received its name from the tomb of Marcus Arrius Diomedes, facing the entrance, on the opposite side of the Street of Tombs (Plan V, 42).

The front of the villa forms a sharp angle with the street. The orientation of the building was determined by an abrupt descent in the ground, which runs across the middle and divides it into two parts. The front part, the rooms of which are numbered on the plan (Fig. 183), is a few feet above the level of the street at the entrance. The rear portion, as may be seen from our section (Fig. 184), is considerably lower; on the plan the rooms of this portion are designated by letters. From traces of the second style of decoration found in two of the rooms, and from the character of the masonry, we infer that the villa was built in Roman times, but before the reign of Augustus.

In front of the door was a narrow porch (Fig. 184). The door opened directly into the peristyle (3 on the plan), in the middle of which was a garden. At the left is a small triangular court (17) containing a swimming tank (ζ) and a hearth (ε) on which a kettle and several pots were found; the Romans partook of warm refreshments after a bath. The wall back of the swimming tank was in part decorated with a garden scene, not unlike those in the frigidariums of the two older public baths. Over the tank was a roof supported by two columns, and on the other two sides of the court there was a low but well proportioned colonnade.

The arrangements of the bath were unusually complete, comprising an apodyterium (19), a tepidarium (20), and a caldarium (21), from which the tepidarium was warmed by means of an opening in the wall; the caldarium had a hollow floor and walls, and was heated from the kitchen (22). In the tepidarium were found four panes of glass about 10½ inches square, together with the remains of the wooden frame in which they were set. The caldarium, like those of the public baths, had a bath basin and a semicircular niche for the labrum.

A small oven stands on one end of the hearth in the kitchen, and a stone table is built against the wall on the long side. The room in the corner (23) was used as a reservoir for water, which was brought into it by means of a feed pipe and thence distributed through smaller pipes leading to the bath rooms and other parts of the house.

At the left of the peristyle is a passage (15) leading to a garden which has not yet been excavated. The only apartment of special interest in this portion of the house is the semicircular sleeping room (14) built out into the garden. It faced the south, and had three large windows; it was separated from the rest of the house by an anteroom, procoeton (13), at one end of which is a small division (β) designed for the bed of an attendant. In the semicircular room are an alcove for a bed (γ) and a stationary wash bowl of masonry (δ). The plan is similar to that of a bedroom in Pliny's villa at Laurentum. Another sleeping room (9) was provided with both a large and a small door (p. 261).

The large room (8) at the rear of the peristyle may be loosely called a tablinum; it could be closed at the rear. Back of the tablinum was originally a colonnade (26), which was later turned into a corridor, with rooms at either end; the original form is assumed in our restoration. Beyond the colonnade was a broad terrace (28) extending to the edge of the garden. It commanded a magnificent view of Stabiae, the coast in the direction of Sorrento, and the Bay. Connected with it was an unroofed promenade over the colonnade (e, f, g, h) surrounding the large garden below. A rectangular room (27, indicated on the plan but not in the restoration) was afterwards built on the terrace.

Members of the family could pass into the lower portion of the villa by means of a stairway, at b; the slaves could use a long corridor (a), which was more directly connected with the domestic apartments. The flat roof of the quadrangular colonnade (e, f, g, h) was carried on the outside by a wall, on the inside by square pillars (Fig. 184). The rooms (i, k) opening into the front of the colonnade were vaulted, and the decoration, in the last style, is well preserved; the ceiling of the corner rooms (l, m) is flat, and the decoration of one of them (l) is noteworthy; green and red stars are painted on a white ground. In the narrow space between i and c a cistern was built, from which water could be drawn by means of a faucet in front.

At the opposite corners of the colonnade were two airy garden rooms (n, o). Outside of the left arm (e, f) was a broad walk (u), at the upper end of which were steps leading to the garden above.

The garden enclosed by the colonnade was planted with trees, charred remains of which were found at the time of excavation. In the middle was a fish pond (r), in which was a fountain. Back of it was a platform, over which vines were trained on a framework supported by six columns, making a pleasant arbor in which meals were doubtless often served.

The door at the rear of the garden led into the fields. Near it were found the skeletons of two men. One of them had a large key, doubtless the key of this door; he wore a gold ring on his finger, and was carrying a considerable sum of money—ten gold and eighty-eight silver coins. He was probably the master of the house who had started out, accompanied by a single slave, in order to find means of escape.

The floor of the three sides of the colonnade was a few feet higher than that of the front. Underneath was a wine cellar, lighted by small windows in the wall on the side of the garden; it contained a large number of amphorae.

At the time of the eruption many members of the family took refuge in the cellar. Here were found the skeletons of eighteen adults and two children: at the time of excavation the impressions of their bodies, and in some instances traces of the clothing, could be seen in the hardened ashes. Among the women was one adorned with two necklaces and two arm bands, besides four gold rings and two of silver. The victims were suffocated by the damp ashes that drifted in through the small windows. According to the report of the excavations, fourteen skeletons of men were found in other parts of the house, together with the skeletons of a dog and a goat.

KEY TO PLAN IV

• A. Court.
  • 1, 5. Cistern curbs.
  • 2. Wash basin of masonry.
  • 3. Lead reservoir from which water was conducted to the reservoir in the kitchen supplying the bath.
  • 4. Steps leading to the reservoir.
• B. Kitchen.
  • 1. Hearth.
  • 2. Reservoir containing water for the bath.
  • 3. Stairway to rooms over the bath.
  • 4. Entrance to cellar under the inner end of the first wine press, in which were the fastenings of the standard of the press beam.
• C-F. Bath.
  • C. Furnace room.
  • D. Apodyterium.
  • E. Tepidarium.
  • F. Caldarium.
• H. Stable.
• J. Tool Room.
• K, L. Sleeping Rooms.
• N. Dining Room.
• M. Anteroom.
• O. Bakery.
  • 1. Mill.
  • 2. Oven.
• P. Room with Two Wine Presses.
  • 1, 1. Foundations of the presses.
  • 2, 2, 2. Receptacles for the grape juice, dolia.
  • 3. Cistern for the product of the second pressing, lacus.
  • 4. Holes for the standards of the press beams.
  • 5, 5. Holes for the posts at the ends of the two windlasses used in raising and lowering the press beams.
  • 6. Pit affording access to the framework by which the windlass posts were tied down.
• Q. Corridor.
  • 1. Round vats, dolia.
• R. Court for the Fermentation of Wine.
  • 1. Channel for the fresh grape juice coming from P.
  • 2. Fermentation vats, dolia.
  • 3. Lead kettle over a fireplace.
  • 4. Cistern curb.
• S. Barn, nubilarium (?).
• T. Threshing Floor, area.
• U. Open Cistern for the Water falling on the Threshing Floor.
• V-V. Sleeping Rooms.
• W. Entrance to Cellar under the Inner End of the Second Wine Press; see B. 4.
• X. Room with Hand Mill.
• Y. Room with Oil Press.
  • 1. Foundation of the press.
  • 2. Hole for the standard of the press beam.
  • 3. Entrance to cellar with appliances for securing the press beam.
  • 4. Holes for the windlass posts.
  • 5. Hole affording access to the fastenings of the windlass posts.
  • 6. Receptacle for the oil, gemellar.
• Z. Room containing the Olive Crusher.

CHAPTER XLV
THE VILLA RUSTICA AT BOSCOREALE

Less than two miles north of Pompeii, near the village of Boscoreale, a farmhouse was excavated in 1893-94 on the property of Vincenzo de Prisco. In the last century similar buildings were brought to light in the vicinity of Castellammare, but they were covered up again. Especial importance attaches to this villa rustica, both on account of the extreme rarity of examples of the type and because of the character of the remains, which makes it possible to determine the arrangements with certainty.

The living rooms, the stable, and the rooms used for the making of wine and oil were all under one roof. The size of the building is not so great as might have been assumed from the variety of purposes which it served; the enclosed area, exclusive of the threshing floor, measures about 130 by 82 feet. The plan (Plan IV) is regular, the principal entrance being near the middle of the southwest side.

The entrance was wide enough for carts and wagons, which were kept in the court (A). Along three sides of the court ran a colonnade, over which at the front were upper rooms; the roof on the left side and the rear rested on columns connected by a parapet. Under the colonnade at the further corner is a cistern curb (1), on one side of which is a large wash basin of masonry (2); on the other is a pillar supporting a small reservoir of lead (3). The reservoir, reached by means of steps (4), was filled from the cistern.

In a Roman farmhouse the kitchen was the large, central room (p. 253). Vitruvius recommends that it be placed on the warmest side of the court; and in our villa rustica it lies at the north corner (B) where, in winter, it would receive the full benefit of the sunshine. The hearth (1), on which remains of fire were found, stands in the middle of the room; in the wall at the rear is a niche, ornamented to resemble the façade of a diminutive temple, in which were placed the images of the household gods.

A large door in the right wall of the kitchen opened into the stable (H). Near it was a stairway (3) leading to upper rooms; in the corner was a pit (4) affording access to a small cellar in which the standard of the press beam in the adjoining room (P, 4) was made fast. In the opposite corner was a reservoir of lead (2) standing on a foundation of masonry; it received water from the reservoir in the court (A, 3) and supplied the bath. On the same side of the room is the entrance to the bath and to the closet (G).

The arrangements of this bath are in a better state of preservation than those of any other Roman bath yet discovered; the tank and reservoir with the connecting pipes may now be seen at Pompeii in the little Museum near the Forum fitted up for the exhibition of the objects found in this villa. The bath rooms comprised an apodyterium (D), a tepidarium (E), and a caldarium (F) with a bath basin at one end and a labrum in a semicircular recess at the other. The bath was heated from a small furnace room (C). Over the hot air flue leading from the furnace into the hollow space under the floor of the caldarium was a water heater in the form of a half cylinder similar to the one found in the Stabian Baths (p. 194). The tepidarium, as well as the caldarium, had a hollow floor and walls.

Over the furnace stood a round lead tank, the lower part of which was encased in masonry; the pipes connecting it with the reservoir in the corner of the kitchen and with the bath rooms were found in place, and are shown in Fig. 185. The middle pipe supplied the tank with cold water; the flow could be regulated by means of a stopcock. The lower pipe started from the reservoir, but before reaching the tank was divided, the left arm leading into the tank, the other into the bath basin. As there were stopcocks in the main pipe and in the arm entering the tank, by adjusting these the bath basin could be supplied with either hot or cold water through a single pipe. The upper pipe was divided in the same way, one arm leading to the labrum. In the public baths there was a separate tank for lukewarm water; here a moderate temperature was obtained by mixing hot and cold water.

At the bottom of the tank (seen at the right) is a short bibcock used when the water was drawn off. On the side of the reservoir we see the end of the feed pipe leading from the reservoir in the court; at the right is a supply pipe which conducted to the stable (H) water not needed for the bath.

On the same side of the court is a tool room (J), in which were found remains of tools; several sickles were hanging on the walls. Next are two sleeping rooms (K, L); a passage between them leads to the bakery, with a single mill (1) and oven (2). In the corner is a dining room (N) in which the remains of three couches were found; it was separated from the court by an anteroom (M).

Over the colonnade on the front side of the court was a sleeping room with a large room adjoining, perhaps the bedroom of the overseer, villicus, which, according to Varro should be near the entrance.

The oblong room at the northeast side of the court contained appliances for making wine. At each end was a large press with a raised floor (forum, 1). The presses were operated on the same principle as that previously described (p. 336, Fig. 168).

At the rear of each press was a strong standard (arbor, 4), to which the inner end of the press beam (prelum) was attached. In front stood two posts (stipites, 5-5), to which were fitted the ends of a horizontal windlass. By means of a pulley and a rope passed around the windlass, the outer end of the press beam could be raised or lowered. When it was lowered in order to increase the pressure on the grapes, both standard and windlass posts would be pulled out of the ground unless firmly braced. Under the rear of each press was a small cellar, in which was placed a framework for holding the standard in place. One was entered from a pit in the corner of the kitchen (B, 4), the other from a similar depression in a small separate room (W); at 6 was a pit for fastening the windlass posts.

The grape juice ran into round vats (2, 2) sunk in the ground. In front of the first press are two, in front of the second only one; a cistern of which the curb (3) is indicated on the plan, here takes the place of the other vat. The cistern could be filled also from the first press by means of a lead pipe under the floor. The round vats were for the pure juice of the first pressing. Into the other was conducted the product of the second pressing; the remains of the grapes, after the juice had ceased to flow, were drenched with water and again subjected to pressure.

In Pliny's "Natural History" (XIV. xxi. 136) we read that in Campania the best wine underwent fermentation in the open air, exposed to sun, rain, and wind. This villa supplies an interesting confirmation of the statement; the round fermentation vats fill a large court (R), the walls of which are pierced with openings in order to give readier access to the wind. Along one side runs a channel of masonry about three feet above the ground (1), protected by a narrow roof; thence the grape juice was distributed through lead pipes to the vats. During the vintage season, the inner end of the channel was connected with the press room by means of a temporary pipe or channel entering the wall above the cistern (P, 3).

The surface of this court is higher than that of the rest of the building; instead of excavating in order to set the large earthen vats in the ground, the proprietor filled in with earth around them. In one corner is a lead kettle (3) with a place for building a fire underneath; perhaps wine was heated in it. The vats in the court seem not to have been used exclusively for wine. In one were found remains of wheat, in another of millet. Other vats stood in the passageway on the side of the court (Q, 1).

Three of the small rooms toward the rear were sleeping rooms (V-V). In another (X) was found a hand mill. At the end of the passageway was a double room containing the appliances for making oil, a press (in Y) and a crusher (in Z). The press was like the wine press described above, only much smaller, with a raised floor (1), a standard for the press beam (2), a pit for bracing the standard of the press beam (3), two posts at the ends of the windlass (4, 4), a pit from which a crosspiece connecting these posts could be reached, and a vat (6) at one side for receiving the oil. This vat, for some reason not understood, was divided into two parts by a partition in the middle.

The olive crusher, trapetum, now in the Museum at Pompeii mentioned above, is shown in the accompanying illustration (Fig. 186). It was designed to separate the pulp of the olives from the stones, which were thought to impair the flavor of the oil. It consists of a deep circular basin of lava, so hollowed out as to leave in the centre a strong standard of the stone, miliarium. In the top of this standard was set an iron pin, on which was fitted a revolving wooden crosspiece (shown in Fig. 186, restored). This carried two wheels of lava, having the shape of half a lens, which travelled in the basin. The wheels were carefully balanced so that they would not press against the side of the basin and crush the stones of the olives.

In the long room S remains of bean straw and parts of a wagon were found. South of it is the threshing floor (T), the surface of which is raised above the ground and covered with Signia pavement. The water that fell upon the threshing floor was conducted to a small open cistern (U).

For at least a part of the year the proprietor of the villa probably lived in it. So elaborate a bath would not have been built for the use of slaves; and in the second story was a modest but comfortable series of apartments (over V, W, X, and part of Q), apparently designed for the master's use, as was also the dining room (N) with K and L.

In a place where such a find would least have been anticipated—the cistern in the room of the wine presses—was made a remarkable discovery of treasure. Here a man had taken refuge, and with his skeleton were found about a thousand gold coins, four gold bracelets, ear-rings, a gold chain, and the beautiful collection of silver ware (p. 380) afterwards presented by Baron Rothschild to the Louvre.

CHAPTER XLVI
HOUSEHOLD FURNITURE

Much less large furniture has been found at Pompeii than is ordinarily supposed. In not a single sleeping room has a bed been preserved; and in only one of all the dining rooms have sufficient remains of the dining couches been found to make it possible to reconstruct them. Beds, couches, chairs, and tables were ordinarily of wood, which crumbled away, leaving slight traces. Reference has been made elsewhere to the marble tables standing in the atrium, and occasionally in other parts of the house. Tables of bronze are infrequently met with, while bronze chairs are almost as rare as bronze couches.

Wood was not a suitable material for many classes of smaller articles, and these, made of bronze, clay, glass, or stone, are found in great numbers. Such are the lamps, the bronze lamp stands, the kitchen utensils, the table furnishings, and the toilet articles of bronze, ivory, or bone.

The wooden frame and end board of one of the dining couches just mentioned was completely charred, but the form was clearly indicated, and the woodwork has been restored (Fig. 188). The couch is now in the Naples Museum, as are also the other articles of furniture illustrated in this chapter.

The half figures on the front of the end board, shown more plainly in the detail at the left of the illustration, were cast; the rest of the mounting was repoussé work. The bronze on the side toward the table was inlaid with silver. The end boards were placed at the head of the upper couch and the foot of the lower one (p. 263); the middle couch did not have a raised end. The mattress rested on straps stretched across the frame. The dining room in which the couches were found adjoins the tablinum of a house in the seventh Region (VII. ii. 18).

The carved marble supports of a gartibulum are shown in Fig. 121; a complete table of a plainer type is seen in Plate VII. An example of a round marble table, found in 1827 in a house near the Forum, is presented in Fig. 189. The three legs are carved to represent those of lions, a lion's head being placed at the top of each. A table of similar design was found in the peristyle of the house of the Vettii, with traces of yellow color on the manes of the lions (p. 326).

Among the best examples of ornamental carving is the marble table leg in the form of a sphinx, found in the second peristyle of the house of the Faun (Fig. 190). Effective also is the bold carving of the gartibulum in the north atrium of the house of Siricus (VII. i. 25).

Small tables or stands of bronze supported by three slender legs were called tripods. The top was flat, but not infrequently surrounded by a deep rim, making a convenient receptacle for light objects. The rim of the example shown in Fig. 191 is ornamented with festoons and bucrania, while the upper parts of the legs are modelled to represent winged sphinxes. This stand was not found in the temple of Isis, as is often stated, but probably in Herculaneum.

The bisellium, the 'seat of double width,' was a chair of simple design without a back, used in the Theatre and Amphitheatre by members of the city council and others upon whom the "honor of the bisellium" had been conferred. The remains of one with bronze mountings have been restored. The restoration, however, does not seem to be correct in all particulars, and instead of presenting it we may refer the reader to the somewhat conventional bisellium carved on the tomb of Calventius Quietus (Fig. 242).

The lamps are found in a great variety of forms. The essential parts are the body, containing the oil, which was poured in through an opening in the top, and the nozzle with a hole for the wick (Fig. 192). Hand lamps were usually provided with a handle, hanging lamps with projections containing holes through which the chains could be passed.

The opening for the admission of oil was often closed by an ornamental cover (Figs. 195, 196). In front of it, near the base of the nozzle, was frequently a much smaller orifice through which a large needle could be inserted to pick up the wick when it had burned out and sunk back into the oil, and air could be admitted when the cover was closed.

The light furnished by the wicks was dim and smoky. A more brilliant light was obtained by increasing the number of nozzles. Lamps with two nozzles are often found. These were sometimes placed at one end, the handle being at the other; sometimes in the case of hanging lamps, at opposite ends, as in the example shown in Fig. 193.

Lamps with several nozzles are not infrequently met with. The shape is often circular, as in two of the examples presented in Fig. 194, one of which had six wicks, the other twelve. Sometimes a more ornamental form was adopted. Lamps having the shape of a boat are not uncommon; the one represented in Fig. 194 was provided with nozzles for fourteen wicks.