Chapter II: Part 2

The baths too, which played so great a part in the life of the ancients, must not be forgotten among the public places of resort. Of large Public Baths three have up to the present time been found in Pompeii, the so-called Central Baths, which at the time of the eruption of Vesuvius were still in course of construction, the Baths by the Forum, and the Stabian Baths, at the corner of the Stabiae and Abbondanza streets. These last named are the best preserved, and deserve on this account a more thorough consideration. We come first into a large courtyard surrounded with pillars, the Palaestra, devoted to gymnastic exercises; here there was a stone track constructed, for rolling stone balls, further a swimming bath (_Natatio_), with the dressingrooms appertaining thereto (fig. 46). The reliefs in stucco, which are preserved on the outer walls of these rooms, merit special notice. On the right of the principal entrance two doors lead to the men’s bath, which consisted of the _Apodyterium_, where people took off their clothes (the niches served to keep them in, fig. 47), the _Frigidarium_ or cold bath, the _Tepidarium_ or lukewarm bath, and the _Caldarium_ or hot bath. (Fig. 48 represents the Tepidarium of the Baths near the Forum; here the heating is derived from a large brazier presented by Vaccula.) Both these rooms received their heating through the hollow pavement and hollow walls, i. e. the pavement rests on small pilasters about two feet high, and the walls are overlaid with tiles, which being provided with raised sidewalls form a kind of flue on the wall (figs. 49 and 50). By this method the heat introduced from beneath, could penetrate under the pavement and between the double walls. Of late it is true this way of heating has been disputed.

The women’s bath adjoins the men’s, with the same rooms required for bathing; between the _Caldarium_ of the men’s bath and that of the women’s bath lies the furnace-room; here were placed three large caldrons for hot, tepid, and cold water. Of such a furnace-room and the arrangement of caldrons an idea may also be formed from the well preserved bathing plant excavated in a Roman villa at Bosco Reale (where was made the great discovery of silverplate, now at Paris). This has recently been set up at Pompeii, in a small house behind the Temple of Jupiter in the street called Del Foro.

Besides these public bathing establishments there were of course also in the better class of houses private baths which show the same arrangements, though naturally more or less curtailed.

The private houses are of course, according to the wealth of the owners, of very various descriptions, and planned on a sometimes more, sometimes less imposing and costly scale, since here one, there another circumstance must have influenced the building of the house and altered its form. Something however remains common to all, and out of the variety it is possible to reconstruct the design of a standard Pompeian house. The house has in general the form of a rectangle of which the small side faces the street, see fig. 51. The door is in the middle of this side, and is flanked right and left by one or two rooms, which are either used as shops and then open outwards for their whole width, or are entered from the interior and form part of the house. Between these a passage leads from the door to the chief apartment situated behind, viz., the _Atrium_. This passage is called _fauces_ or _prothyron_. In the superior class of houses the door is set back a little so as to leave a free space in front, called _Vestibulum_. Then there are usually two doors, one a wide folding-door corresponding in size to the passage leading to the Atrium, and a smaller door at the side intended for the _Ostiarius_, or porter, who could thus refuse admittance to an importunate or unpleasant visitor, without exposing the interior of the house to the gaze of those standing before the door. A salutation such as _Have_ or _Ave_, “Hail” inlaid in the threshold of the door, or a _Cave Canem_, “Beware of the Dog” with the representation of a dog in mosaic (fig. 53) is a not unusual ornament which meets the eye as one enters. A knocker on the door served to summon the _ostiarius_. The _atrium_, a room usually square, contains in the middle a rectangular tank sunk in the ground for the reception of rainwater; for this an opening was left in the roof. Five classes of _Atrium_ are generally distinguished. In the simplest, the _Atrium Tuscanicum_, the roof sloping inwards was supported by two main beams crossing the Atrium and two side beams resting on them (fig. 52; in the new _Casa_ of Reg. V, Ins. IV the ancient construction of the roof of the Atrium has been re-erected). If the opening thus formed was to be large, or it was impossible on account of the breadth of the Atrium to leave the weight of the roof to rest only on two beams, pillars were placed under the four points of junction and on these pillars the beams were laid; this is the _Atrium Tetrastylum_. If it was desirable to make the aperture still larger, additional pillars were employed besides the four at the corners, so that regular halls with colonnades were produced (_Atrium Corinthiacum_). If the roof sloped outwards so that above the _impluvium_ there rose walls supported by the principal beams or the pillars, the Atrium was called _displuviatum_, from the fact that in this case the rain flowed away outwards. Finally the _atrium testudinatum_, a very rare form at Pompeii, had its roof equally sloping outwards, but was devoid of the quadrangular opening. This opening is called _compluvium_; the name _impluvium_ is given to the tank sunk beneath to receive the water, and out of which the water was conducted by pipes into the reservoirs under the atrium. For protection against the intrusion of unbidden visitors who might without difficulty let themselves down from the roof into the room through the _compluvium_, the opening could be closed beneath by means of an iron grating. On both sides of the _Atrium_, which receives its light from above, are placed mostly small chambers, storerooms or sleeping apartments; the last one on each side usually opened its whole width to the atrium and is called _Ala_. Here in Patrician houses of distinction the representations of ancestors were generally placed. Opposite the entrance lies the _Tablinum_, usually opening with full width on the _Atrium_, and closed only by curtains (fig. 55). This was specially the room of the master of the house, here he kept his valuable documents, here he received visits, in front of the _Tablinum_; in the _Atrium_ is as a rule the place for keeping the _Arca_, or strongbox, made of iron, often artistically decorated, and let into a huge stone, to prevent its being stolen (fig. 58). Past the _Tablinum_ a narrow passage generally leads into the back rooms of the house, which, grouped around the Peristyle, an oblong quadrangular court surrounded by columns, comprising not only livingrooms and bedchambers, but also diningrooms, often different ones for winter and for summer. These are for the most part rather small, sufficing only for the arrangement of the three couches around the little table, from which the _Triclinium_ has its name. In this part a little on one side is usually found the kitchen with other rooms required for domestic purposes, and placed in close proximity to the kitchen for the sake of supply and discharge of water. The wealthier establishments have also one of the chambers lying round the Peristyle fitted up as a kind of domestic chapel for the worship of the _Lares_, if there is not a special _Sacrarium_ erected in the _Atrium_ for this purpose. Houses of more moderate pretensions content themselves with having their household gods, the _Lares_ and the serpents sacred to them, painted in the kitchen above or near the hearth, in order to offer sacrifice to them there (figs. 59 and 62). From the Peristyle we pass on further to the garden, in which, where the owner was a rich man, there is likewise no lack of architectural adornments, airy halls and porticoes. Upper stories were generally in little favour, with the increase of population however they could not have been dispensed with. For the most part they were let, as a rule with the shops situated on the street, on which account stairs leading upwards are often found in the shops; in wealthier establishments the upper chambers were allotted to the slaves. These upper stories, just as in our mediaeval towns, often project considerably over the street; one such projecting apartment, as was stated above, is well preserved (fig. 61).

How was the Pompeian house decorated? Let us begin with the floor. In most houses the flooring is provided with _opus signinum_, that is pieces of tile are pressed into a mass of stucco and then the surface is polished; in better houses their place is taken by mosaic, generally only black and white, and comprising only patterns and ornaments; more rarely a coloured picture is produced with smaller cubes in the middle of the room. Quite peculiarly rich in mosaics, and indeed such as artistically belong to the most splendid that have come down to us in this department of art, was the so-called Casa del Fauno, in which was discovered the famous Battle of Alexander, now in the Naples Museum (fig. 64). The irresistible onset of the Greeks who in spite of inferiority in number drive the Persians in headlong flight before them is expressed with unsurpassable power. Alexander whose helmet has fallen from his head in the impetuous attack has just transfixed with a powerful thrust of his spear one of the leaders of the Persian host, who was in the act of leaping from his dying horse and saving himself on a fresh one offered to him by a faithful follower. His fall arouses in the king who stands in his chariot, the deepest sympathy, so that in his sorrow for his general’s death he almost loses sight of his own escape. His charioteer however thinks only of bringing the chariot and his lord to safety over dead and dying. From the same house comes also the mosaic threshold in the Naples Museum, a portion of which we give in figure 63. Leaves and fruits of all kinds are joined to a cylinder held together by rings and garnished with various masks.

Figure 65 recommends itself by remarkable fidelity to nature. A cat has seized a bird (apparently a partridge) with the intention of strangling it. The cat probably belongs to the species of wild cats, since cats as domestic animals were not common among the Greeks and Romans before the fourth century of our era (hence is explained the fact that no skeleton of a cat has been met with among the ruins of Pompeii). Below two ducks are swimming, and mussels and other aquatic animals are represented. At Pompeii too mosaic had begun to be employed for the covering of walls, especially beside fountains. The paving of the ground with slabs of marble, a practice very common at Rome since the time of Sulla, seems to have been comparatively rare at Pompeii.

The eyes of visitors will be attracted by the walls even more than by the pavements. Although, as said before, the greatest number of the wall-paintings discovered have been cut out and brought to the Naples Museum, yet sufficient material exists in Pompeii also to form a judgment as to the effect of the Pompeian wall-painting, especially in the more recently excavated houses, in which the colours are still more fresh. (For the removal of wall-paintings a wooden frame is placed over and around the pictures, and the stones are taken away from behind till the stucco is reached; then plaster is poured in at the back of the picture, and so the whole becomes one single mass and can be removed.) We must not however forget that the rooms in which the paintings are found have at the present day a much more glaring light than in antiquity, a circumstance not without influence on the effect of the painting.

According to A. Mau four consecutive styles are to be distinguished.

1. Pre-Roman Period: Imitation of marble incrustation by means of plastic stucco work; no pictures (fig. 66).

2. Period of the Republic: Imitation of Marble incrustation by means of simple painting, together with representation of architecture, not fantastical but as it might actually exist. This style is however but scantily represented at Pompeii.

3. Period of the Early Empire, to about fifty years after Christ: Egyptianising ornamental style distinguished by beautiful and pure forms, and delicate, finely distinguished colours (fig. 67).

4. Ornamental Style of the last period of Pompeii, with special preference for architectural painting, fantastically slender and of a playfully ornamental fashion. The examples of this style are in Pompeii by far the most numerous (fig. 69).

Above the plinth of uniform shape the walls are for the most part divided into panels, which usually are painted alternately yellow and red; in their midst they have figures of various kinds floating in the air, women, satyrs, Loves, Victories and such like, or they are adorned with imitations of easelpictures, the subjects being taken from mythology. Numerous too are scenes from every day life, still more numerous landscapes; the historical motive is as yet only very rarely indicated. Very frequently mythological figures are introduced as engaged in the avocations of daily life in the midst of the fantastical architecture which covers the walls as ornament. The artistic value is naturally very different, but in general it must be admitted that the vividness of colour, the lightness of touch in creations which are due assuredly to no famous artist cannot be sufficiently admired. As to the process by which the wall-paintings were executed the most multifarious conjectures were formerly made; now on the contrary the view universally adopted is that we have to do almost exclusively with fresco painting, i. e. painting on fresh plaster, only that here and there recourse was also had to painting in tempera (fig. 68).

Some wall-paintings still in their original position will be dealt with later when we come to speak of the respective houses; a few examples out of the rich treasure removed to the Museo Nazionale in Naples may here suffice.

Figure 70 represents a painting which may rank as one of the most famous and the most frequently discussed, the Sacrifice of Iphigenia, probably a copy, though a feeble one, of a famous picture of an earlier period. Ulysses and Diomedes are holding the hapless maiden through whose sacrifice Agamemnon desires to appease the wrath of Artemis and to obtain a favourable wind for the expedition to Troy; they hold her ready for sacrifice before the image of Artemis standing on a column. Calchas the priest has already drawn the knife from its sheath to give the fatal stroke, but still he hesitates, as though he felt some scruple as to undertaking the cruel deed. Agamemnon stands aside, shrouded entirely in his robe, since as a father he cannot bring himself to look with his own eyes upon the carrying out of the sacrifice, to which as king and leader of the army he sees himself compelled. In the gaze which Ulysses directs to the image of Artemis we may read the reproach that she, the goddess, should demand such cruelty. Yet the merciful solution is prepared by the scene enacted above in the sky; there we see the goddess Artemis herself, to her hastens a nymph who brings the deer that is to fall by the sacrificial knife in place of Iphigenia. Figure 71 is derived at any rate from a famous ancient theme, perhaps after a painting by Timomachos; this is the single figure of Medea, who sword in hand plans the murder of her sons. The sword is still sheathed, sunk in deep deliberation she has folded her hands, and pressed thumb against thumb, she is a mother who loves her children tenderly, but she is also a wife who is bitterly sensible of every neglect on the part of her husband. Which feeling will gain the victory? Will it be gained by a mother’s love which pardons everything, or by the jealousy that knows how to strike the husband in the most painful way through the slaying of his children? The conflict of feelings is undoubtedly expressed in a most striking manner in the picture. Figure 73 also represents a picture remarkable for excellent preservation, the abduction of Europa by Zeus in the form of a bull. Europa daughter of Agenor, sports with her companions on the shore of the sea, gathers flowers and weaves garlands. There a bull approaches them (Zeus had concealed himself under this form), who through his tameness gives the maidens courage to busy themselves sportively with him. They deck him with flowers, caress him, nay at last Europa becoming bold mounts his back. It is this moment that the painter has chosen to depict. Europa has lain down on his back, the girls are still playing with him, yet he is already striding forward, only a few steps and he is in the sea, and then will Zeus bear his sweet burden to Crete, and her terrified playmates will vainly stretch forth their arms after the king’s daughter borne far away.

Figure 74 represents a subject often occurring at Pompeii, Venus united with Mars. Mars lays his left hand on the left arm of Venus, who resting at ease lays her left arm on the right thigh of Mars, who with his right hand raises the robe of the goddess so that the whole upper part of her person is uncovered. That the god of war has already quite forgotten his own peculiar mission, and is quite given up to love, is shown by the two Cupids, of whom the one is engaged in girding himself with the god’s sword, while the other is trying his helmet on his own head. Figure 75 offers us a picture with quite a modern interest. The worthy baker Paquius Proculus has had his portrait painted with his better half, since photography has not yet been invented. But for this purpose it is not sufficient to have brought the external form into order, to have neatly smoothed the moustache, and to have crisped the little locks so that they curl daintily over forehead and cheeks and roll deep upon the neck, no, they wish their intellectual interests to be recognised; therefore he takes in his hand a written roll, and she grasps with her left hand a diptychon, while with her right she holds to her lips the style to write on the wax tablet, as though in the next moment some brilliant idea would occur to her which she need only write down in order to be included for all time in the list of the intellectual Bluestockings. Just as in our own day many people get their portraits taken with books in their hands as though the study of literature formed their whole ordinary day’s work.

The decoration too of houses by means of statues of marble and bronze must here be briefly mentioned. It has already been stated that in the temples and public buildings numerous marble and bronze statues have been found. These discoveries can therefore be passed over here. As the most beautiful of the works of art which have been discovered in private houses may be mentioned the statue of the Dancing Faun (after which the Casa del Fauno is named) and the so-called Narcissus, found in a house of the Vico del Balcone pensile. In the former (fig. 77) the artist has represented a comrade of the circle of Dionysos, full of Bacchic pleasure, turning in wild dance; it is a rough sensual comrade, whose half animal being is sufficiently suggested by his goat’s ears and the little tail that is just visible. The strained muscles show with what energy he gives himself up to the activity of the dance, while on the other side the unrestrained joyousness expressed in his countenance, and the freedom and ease he displays in the movement of the upper part of his body and his arms clearly reveal with what sportive agility he copes with the exertion. Almost more beautiful is the so-called Narcissus (fig. 78) a youth just outgrown the years of boyhood, over whose left shoulder hangs the skin of a goat or a doe, who however is otherwise naked except the feet which are clothed with elegant sandals. With slight movement of the arm he supports the left hand against the hip, and stretches out the right hand, while at the same time he bends his head to this side as though he were turning his attention to some distant sounds. People have chosen to see in this figure a Narcissus listening to the flattering words of Echo, but such a situation is nowhere to be found in the myth. Others suggest Dionysos playing with his panther; for this the doeskin and the wreath of ivy in the hair would be very suitable, as also the beautiful sandals; but then we should have to suppose that the figure had already in antiquity been removed from its original base and placed on a new pedestal. For the enjoyment however which the work of art affords us the name which is given it is a matter of indifference, and this enjoyment will be experienced by every one who contemplates the beautiful statuette. Also the recently found statuette of a youth, completely plated with silver, (fig. 72) which in antiquity was altered into a lampholder, and therefore has experienced some damage, deserves careful inspection on account of its beauty.

While this figure was to be employed in the house for lighting purposes, both the others seem to have had their place at the fountain of the house, with which in a certain way they were connected, in that the relation of Satyrs and similar beings to springs is a well-known one in antiquity. In other places the marble and the bronze statues are employed actually as fountain figures, so in the case of figure 79, the bronze statuette of a Cupid who exerting all his strength holds a dolphin up high, from whose mouth the water flows. As to how such statuettes were grouped with fountains and how also in small houses an attempt was made to enliven the narrow space left for the garden by the erection of all sorts of works of art, a sufficiently clear example is afforded by the little garden of the Casa di Lucrezio (fig. 76). Here on both sides of the fountain niche in which stands a Silenus as distributor of water, double Herms or busts are placed which represent Bacchus with Ariadne. Of the other figures above all let the group standing in the foreground be mentioned, a group of a Satyr extracting a thorn from Pan’s foot. A dainty motive too is that of a fountain figure (fig. 80) from the Casa del Balcone pensile. A boy whose dress falls down long over his back (in this way a support for the marble figure is obtained) stands in easy pose, while he lays his right arm on his head and stretches out the left hand with a mussel shell. From this shell trickled the water, and a more copious stream flowed from the waterpipe straight into the marble basin.

Mosaic is frequently united with sculpture in the ornamentation of fountains, for example in that of the Casa delle Fontana Grande (fig. 81). Here the fountain takes the form of a retiring arched niche, in which the water from beneath the mask of a water-god flowed out of an aperture in a broad jet over a flight of steps, while marble masks with wide opened eyes are placed on the piers of the niche.

Between the columns of the Peristyle, to judge from the wall-paintings, there were often placed also medallions hung on ribbons, the so-called _Oscilla_, now and then shaped like a _pelta_ (i. e. as the shields of Amazons are commonly represented). These are sculptured in relief on both sides. None are of course found in their original position, but a whole series of such medallions, which were found lying on the ground, is exhibited in the Naples Museum.

An entirely different class of ornament is to be found in the Atrium; here sometimes a portrait bust of the owner has been found inserted in its pedestal, which in at least one instance is plainly designated as a dedication on the part of one formerly belonging to the house. Figure 84 represents the bust of C. Cornelius Rufus, an interesting work in marble, which clearly shows how remarkably well the sculptors of the earlier Roman Empire understood how to seize and to reproduce the characteristic features of their sitter. The bust is let into a square pillar, from which, right and left, instead of arms, quadrangular stumps protrude, on which it was customary to hang wreaths as ornaments on days of commemoration. Figure 82 gives a view of the whole atrium with the bust, by which we are enabled to recognise the harmonious way in which this ornament fits into the whole surroundings. Still more striking perhaps in its effect is the bronze bust of L. Caecilius Jucundus (fig. 83:--the original is now in Naples), the Banker, in whose house was found the chest with wax tablets, of which mention has been made on another page. Here is a bronze bust which has been inserted in its marble pedestal, a dedication by the Freedman Felix to the Genius of his master (_Genio L. nostri Felix L._). Many a one who has seen the bust in the Museo Nazionale, has, at a first glance, without knowing any more about it, been led to exclaim that he might be off at once to the Exchange, so characteristically has the sculptor rendered his portrait. Friend Caecilius is certainly not handsome, so he cannot have been flattered by the artist, who has suppressed neither the broad outstanding ears, nor the great ugly wart, almost suggesting representations of Satyrs. But through the marvellous mixture of bonhomie which is stamped on his countenance and keen calculation and decision which are expressed in the closed lips and the glance of the eyes (unfortunately the pupils formerly represented by coloured smalt have fallen out) a personality has been successfully depicted which carries in itself the stamp of genuineness. Caecilius Jucundus evidently knew full well how to feather his nest, but he was no mere miser who only brooded over his treasures, no, he not only prized very highly his cheerful enjoyment of life, but he also loved gaiety and good fellowship, and in the circle of his boon-companions he was ready to take a joke, and was himself capable of enlivening conversation by many a jest.

So much for the decoration that was provided for the house by painter and sculptor. How stands it then with the household furniture?

Our rooms are filled with a quantity of furniture, numerous tables, chairs, cupboards with every possible name and object, sofas, and whatever else pertains to modern housekeeping. Compared with all this the ancient house would seem to us empty. In the first place cupboards for keeping clothes and the like are hardly to be found. To a great extent small rooms were made available for keeping movable articles by putting up shelves, but for clothes chests standing on the ground had to serve, which might be compared with our presses and trunks. They were the better suited for this purpose inasmuch as the dress consisted more of stuffs which did not assume their definite form as dress until they were put on. These trunks could at the same time be used as seats, often, as at the present day in the East, for reclining on. There were too regular seats, for the most part without backs, and like foot-stools; among them we ought particularly to mention the _bisellium_ which properly could hold two persons, but as a special honour was granted by decree of the Decurions to a single individual (fig. 85). Tables, especially show tables of costly woods, to display the ornamental tableservice may have existed, but none of these have come down to us; on the other hand marble tables, generally placed close to the impluvium (fig. 86), have in many instances been preserved. Among them are some that can be raised at pleasure. They often have feet artistically shaped, the forms of all possible fabulous beings, griffins &c. being employed as ornaments. Such tables as we are accustomed to take our meals at are no where to be seen, because the custom of the ancients was to eat while lying down. The furnishing of a triclinium was as follows:--around a central point of masonry only about a foot and a half in height, on which the table-top or tray was placed, stand three low couches abutting on one another at right angles, occasionally (in the open air) of masonry, otherwise of bronze (fig. 87), or of wood, on each of which three persons recline at meals; the fourth side is left open for the attendants. The arrangement of the couches can often still be seen by examining the mosaic floor. To one or other of the couches a still lower seat is frequently attached, probably for the children. The inner side of the _lecti_ (for that is the name of these sofas) was as a rule somewhat higher than the outer; people got upon them from the lower side, and lay with the left arm on the cushions serving as a support in such a manner that the right arm was free to take the food to the mouth. The tables of masonry were generally without ornament, since they were covered by the tray with food; once only has an ornament been found in this position at Pompeii, a mosaic representing a death’s head, a motive borrowed no doubt from the Egypto-Alexandrian custom of inviting people to brighter enjoyment of life by allusion to its fleeting nature and the nearness of death. When towards the beginning of the Empire round tables (_orbes_) came more generally into use in place of square ones, the three couches arranged at right angles around the table had naturally to be united in a single semicircular sofa corresponding to the circular shape now adopted for the table. Such a semicircular sofa received the name _Sigma_ or _Stibadium_ on account of its resemblance to the Greek letter C. This style must--to judge from wall-paintings--have been usual in Pompeii, yet we are unable to point it out among the existing remains in the rooms. (Fig. 88 is from a wall-painting; this gives also the conversation of the guests at table: _facitis vobis suaviter_, you are having a good time, says one; another, _ego canto_, I sing; _est ita_, _valeas_, so it is, good luck to you, says the third.)

Of tripods, which in the ancient house formed part of the necessary furniture, beautiful shapes have come down to us, (cf. fig. 91). Tables then and chairs, chests and couches, with these the house furniture is pretty well exhausted; but one must include with them the movable stoves by which in winter some measure of warmth could be secured. Stoves, as we know them were non-existent in antiquity, as even now in the greatest part of Italy. If it became cold, a brazier of charcoal was brought, as at the present day, at which people warmed themselves. (The best example of such a brazier is that dedicated by one Vaccula in the Baths, which may be seen in figure 48 behind the railing.) Richer folk had for this purpose also a special stove which could be carried from one room to another, as now in Paris, see figure 92. The question of heating, as that of chimneys in the kitchen, is for us northeners one of great importance, which however for the South plays no great part, as one can see any day at the present time. Apart from the resorts of foreigners, in which on practical grounds full allowance is made for the ideas and usages of people belonging to northern countries, the Italy of to-day remains for the most part at the stand point of antiquity. There are no stoves and as few chimneys, because the fuel used is almost exclusively charcoal, which kindled in the open air continues to glow without requiring a special exit for smoke. And if there is any smoke, it has to find its way where it pleases. This is the origin of the name _Atrium_, because everything became black (_ater_) through smoke. However we must not omit to mention that in some Pompeian kitchens a wide pipe or channel is provided, through which an escape to the street is allowed to any smoke that there may be, subject to its own good will. To suppose any such thing as an actual chimney (apart of course from baking ovens) would be mere wild imagining, there was in fact absolutely no necessity for such a thing.

We must consider charcoal as the fuel also for various utensils which served for the preparation of warm drinks, the so-called _Calda_, or for keeping food warm, and which certainly had their place not in the kitchen but in the diningroom or other apartments. One of such utensils (fig. 90) is garnished after the fashion of a fortress with towers at the four angles and battlements on the surrounding wall; while the interior served for the reception of charcoal and for keeping food warm, the surrounding wall and towers were used for water, which at pleasure could be drawn off by a tap. On the other hand the vase represented in figure 93 is near akin to the Russian samovar; here a wide pipe is introduced into the body of the vessel, which could be filled with glowing charcoal in order to heat the liquid contained in the vessel. Or on the contrary if the liquid was to be cooled, all that was necessary was to fill the pipe with snow. Of course owing to the open pipe the liquid could in neither case be poured out, but had to be ladled out. For the preparation of warm drink as well as for the heating of food the apparatus represented in figure 94 was also undoubtedly employed. In this instance a high cask-like vessel is connected with a cylindrical one having a spout, while the enclosed space holds charcoal.

The question of lighting also merits some brief consideration. It has already been stated that the apartments on the principal floor had scarcely ever any direct light from the street, but received indirect light from the atrium or the peristyle. We are not however on this account to imagine them to have been dark; the sun’s power in the South is so great that even in the case of indirect light a very considerable brightness is attained; if the door-spaces were closed by wooden doors, or by curtains, still sufficient light fell into the room through an opening introduced above the door, or the doors and curtains were so arranged that the light above was not shut out. Artificial lighting was supplied by oil lamps, which must have been employed in great numbers, to ensure sufficient brilliancy. Hence lamps, especially of course the ordinary terracotta lamps, are the most numerous of the objects found. Candelabra served to support them, of these very elegant forms have been preserved. One of the most interesting is represented in figure 96, where four lamps, each with two wicks, hang down from a pillar raised on a basis semicircular in front. The candelabra also often take the form of trees, on the boughs of which the lamps are suspended, so for example in figure 97. Besides these there are lofty candelabra which spring from a basis usually supported by the feet of an animal, and rise to a considerable height in the form of slender columns; on the top, which generally spreads out as a calyx, there usually stood only one lamp with several wicks.

Next to the candelabra may be mentioned under the head of domestic utensils more or less costly vases, which were frequently displayed on handsome tables or the tripods described above. Of these too a great number have been found in Pompeii and deposited in the Museo Nazionale at Naples. Thus figure 98 shows a large vessel of bronze, a crater or mixing bowl, the elegant twisted handles of which are fastened to the body of the vase by means of a winged Medusa mask. That its purpose was merely ornamental is shown by the circumstance that it is placed on a separate basis supported by lion’s claws. A more bowl-like vessel, also supported by lion’s claws, is represented on page 107.--On each side of this two united bodies of lions connected with serpents are employed as handles. The jugs in figure 99 display different shapes, in the one the handle is formed by a soaring bird with broad bill (a swan or perhaps a goose), while an eagle sits enthroned above the mouth; in the other the body of the vessel consists of a head with eyes separately inlaid, but now lost. Numerous too are the ornamental vessels of silver. Two cups famous above all are represented in figure 95, on one side of which is placed a male centaur, on the other a female. On their backs are seated Erotes (Loves). Although both cups are without doubt intended as companion pieces which belong so to speak to the same set, yet there are distinctions in details. These cups, so finely chiselled, are provided with a smooth lining inserted specially for the reception of the liquid, a circumstance illustrating a well-known passage in the speech of Cicero against Verres. There it is stated that Verres in Sicily had in preference to everything seized the silver vessels, that he had not however set so much value on the silver, but had restored the cups _emblemate_ or _sigillo avulso_. Now the _emblemata_ or _sigilla_ are nothing else than the outer cases adorned with work in relief, which were united by solder to the smooth inner cases.

If we would form a more accurate estimate of the valuables with which the show tables (_abaci_) were loaded, we can avail ourselves of a recent discovery not indeed made in Pompeii itself, but yet in its entire character belonging to Pompeii. In Bosco Reale, a small town situated nearer Vesuvius, where in ancient times there seems to have been a sort of suburb of Pompeii, a villa had been discovered in 1894 on the estate of Cav. de Prisco, buried under the ashes from Vesuvius, and in this every chamber was found in an undisturbed state. In one apartment, the storeroom, there were found large vessels full of corn and pulse, in another place the explorers came upon a great heap of agricultural implements, a furnace for baths was unearthed, in which all the water pipes with their taps were preserved (the same that is now placed in position behind the Forum), in short everything was found intact, exactly in the condition (except of course changes brought about by length of time) in which the villa was on the 24th of August in the year 79. But still greater treasures were destined to come to light from the villa. On the 13th of April 1896 the skeleton of a man was suddenly discovered: he had fallen with his face on the ground, stifled under the hot showers of ashes which pressed upon him from every side. In his convulsively clasped hands he grasped bracelets and a long gold chain; many gold coins with the heads of the Emperors from Augustus to Vespasian, several of them still quite fresh as if they had just been issued by the mint, lay scattered near him on the ground. He had sunk to the earth before a little niche, in which he had doubtless just laid down a part of his burden, and where he had wished to put also the remainder that he was carrying, in order to protect all from unbidden intruders.

In the niche itself, wrapped in a piece of coarse woollen stuff, lay a great treasure of silver, which through the liberality of Baron Edm. de Rothschild has reached the Louvre. It falls into two categories, in the first place such vessels as can be designated objects of use (these however also merit careful observation on account of the fine ornament that appears on them); and secondly a series of cups, bowls, and other utensils which are adorned with artistic representations. Though the others are also interesting we can here deal only with the latter of the two classes, so far as representations of them are available. Chief among them is a bowl that in size and shape compares best with the Minerva bowl of the Hildesheim Treasure. In quite free form there raises itself from the ground as a centrepiece the bust of a goddess who wears on her head the spoils of an elephant, so that the trunk projects over the centre of her forehead and the tusks on both sides over her temples. She is clad in a light chiton with many folds, fastened over the arm by numerous studs; the overlapping portion of the chiton is gathered together at the breast into a roll in which appear ears of corn with grapes and all kinds of fruit. In her left hand the goddess holds a cornucopia containing bunches of grapes, pomegranates &c., in her right a Uraeus serpent. There is no question that the tutelary deity of Alexandria alone can be intended by the figure (fig. 100).

A second bowl has as its central ornament the upper portion of a man’s body boldly projecting from the surface, which may be noted as extremely characteristic. The shortcropped hair lies closely on the head, the large ears protrude, many a wrinkle furrows the brow, clearly marked crow’s feet enable us to infer that the subject is pretty well advanced in age. The cheeks have fallen in, and so leave the cheek bones standing forth in strong relief. The attribution of the figure to the Emperor Claudius is assuredly groundless, still the features remind one of members of the House of the Claudii, and above all this one thing cannot be questioned that we have to deal with a Roman and no Greek. Of the companion bowl with a woman’s bust the centrepiece has come to London. On the other hand the Louvre has secured two hand mirrors once belonging to the _mundus muliebris_, the toilet apparatus of a Pompeian lady; one with elegant handle formed of twigs intertwined bears as an ornament in the middle of its back a wonderful bust of Ariadne (fig. 101); the head slightly inclined towards the left arm is crowned with a wreath of ivy, and the drapery leaves free the left breast shaped with wondrous beauty. A second mirror bears as ornament for the back (the polished front always serves as the actual reflecting surface) the representation of Leda with the swan. Leda almost nude is seated on a rock, and while she supports herself on the rock with her left hand, holds out with her right a bowl to the swan standing before her.

Besides these there are comprised in the treasure four eggshaped cups with large handles rising above the rim, and twisted feet, two of which have the exterior adorned with storks in low relief which are seeking food in the neighbourhood of their nest, while both the others represent the life of cranes, how they search for food, struggle over their booty, and engage their rivals with powerful blows of their beaks. Other vases remind us of the great bell-shaped vessel of the Hildesheim treasure. From a graceful calyx grows up a flower-stem divided into joints, on which as they spread out are introduced groups of animals fighting, while elegant arabesques springing from flower cups fill the body of the vase with their charming windings and twinings. Of wonderfully fine execution also are two low vessels, each provided with two handles, round the body of which twine two olive branches with berries. (Fig. 102.) Other cups are ornamented with so-called “Still Life” (fig. 103); others have allusions to literary efforts. There we see skeletons of poets as Euripides and Menander (fig. 89), or philosophers as Zeno and Epicurus in various actions, with inscriptions appended which show the connection. One and all preach the doctrine of Epicurus, enjoy life while you may, life passes away only too quickly. The placing of such scenes on vessels destined to minister to the keener enjoyment of life is for antiquity no unusual thing; I need refer only to the above mentioned mosaic of a death’s head which served as the ornament of a table, and to the well-known scene from Trimalchio’s Banquet (in Petronius), who has a silver skeleton with movable limbs brought upon the table, and invites his guests to brighter enjoyment of life with the words “Alas for us poor wretches! What a nothing we are! Like this skeleton shall we all be as soon as Orcus carries us off; so let us enjoy life while we may!”

Fine tables laden with such and similar vases must have been found in every one of the better class of houses in Pompeii, so they could not be passed over in describing the furniture. Yet some may miss in the catalogue of furniture the mention of looking-glasses. In Pompeii however these would be sought in vain. There were indeed mirrors enough for the toilet, as we have seen in the treasure from Bosco Reale, but only hand mirrors, mostly of metal, occasionally, as it seems, also of glass, yet always only so small that even if fixed on a stand they are to be treated as articles of the toilet, not as constituent parts of the furniture. We may suppose that refined luxury in individual cases may have led to the employment of larger mirrors (cf. Lessing, _Rettung des Horaz_), but these things have nothing to do with Pompeii, to judge at least by what has been found there.

Now that we have gained an idea of the Pompeian house in general and of its equipment, it is possible to examine more thoroughly individual houses of special note. We begin with the Casa di Pansa, or, as the house has been officially named from a painted inscription, which has now disappeared, the Domus Cn. Allei Nigidi Mai. For two appellations have usually to be distinguished, a popular one, often due to the presence of people of rank on the occasion of the excavation (e. g. in the case of the Casa dell’ Imperatore di Germania), or derived from special objects discovered (Casa del Fauno); frequently too the electioneering inscriptions which are written on the houses have led to (unauthorised) conclusions as to the owner. On the other hand the second, the official appellation, is founded on the discovery of seals or inscriptions within the house that allow of a conclusion as to the former possessor. The so-called House of Pansa then (fig. 104) is situated in the Street of Nola, opposite the Baths. It displays a façade of tufa, of the Samnite epoch, with unusually lofty doorway, which runs back from the street and so forms a _vestibulum_. Through the doorway we catch sight of the _Atrium_ with its very deep _impluvium_, and behind this the _tablinum_, from which two steps lead to the peristyle. The tufa columns of the peristyle are of the Ionic order, but by a coat of stucco were turned into Corinthian. Behind the peristyle an entrance leads to the kitchen garden, the beds of which were still discernible at the time of the excavation. A large portion of the ground pertaining to the house is taken up by shops and a bakery with three mills. It is worth while to examine such a bakery somewhat more in detail.

Every bakery was connected with several mills, in which was prepared the flour required for baking. Each mill consists of a conical support (_Meta_) and upper part forming a double funnel (_Catillus_); the latter is so placed over the supporting cone that the upper cavity serves to receive the corn as it is poured in, while by the rubbing between the lower funnel and the fixed cone the grains of corn are reduced to powder. That the turning may proceed more easily the external double funnel rests by means of a cross bar of wood upon an iron point fixed in the cone beneath, at the narrowest point of the _catillus_ holes are made in which are fixed bars by means of which the turning of the mill is effected by a donkey. For this reason the ground round about is paved. Near the space in which the mills stand is the oven, and by this is seen a hollow for the reception of water (fig. 105); to the left was a room in which the bread was put into shape. Here are also often remains of a peculiar contrivance for the kneading of dough, a cylindrical vessel of lava in which the dough was kneaded by means of a roller turning round an iron rod. Shelves on the wall, of which there are still to be seen traces served to display the baker’s wares. It may here be remarked that in the villages of Sardinia at the present day mills are in use which correspond almost exactly to those at Pompeii, and also that the machine for kneading dough is still employed in a similar form at Palermo. From a well closed baking oven eighty-one loaves were taken which naturally were somewhat stale, inasmuch as they were put into the oven as early as the 24th of August 79! (Fig. 107.) Some of them are exhibited in the museum at Pompeii. Next to the House of Pansa comes the House of the Tragic Poet, which plays a part in Bulwer’s romance as the house of Glaucus (fig. 106). It has its name from a painting wrongly explained as a rehearsal (in reality the myth of Admetus and Alcestis is represented), and also a Mosaic relating to the theatre. On account, however, of the magnificent paintings found in the Atrium which refer to Homeric themes (the carrying off of Briseis, Zeus and Hera on Ida _etc._) it is also called Casa Omerica. Here the photograph is taken from the Atrium; the fountain close to the impluvium is seen in the foreground, behind, a step higher, is the tablinum, with mosaic ornament, opening with its whole width on the peristyle. There is still to be seen the little chapel of the Lares in which a statuette of Silenus was found. From this house comes the Sacrifice of Iphigenia, a painting represented on an earlier page.

Bordering on the house of the Tragic Poet is the Fullonica, the house of a fuller, where the arrangements necessary for carrying on the trade are so completely preserved and so clearly illustrated by wall-paintings that one can form an accurate idea of the process of fulling. In figure 108 is given a picture of the second fulling-mill situated in the Street of Stabiae. In the atrium are preserved the marble table and the troughlike basin into which fell the stream of water; in the peristyle beyond the tablinum we have a glimpse of the vats of masonry in which the cleansing of the woollen stuffs took place. In the small entrance which near the tablinum led to the workroom was found at the time of the excavation a great mass of whitish argillaceous earth (_terra fullonica_), which was used for the cleansing of woollen stuffs. The pictures of the other Fullonica (fig. 110) inform us as to the process itself. Vats placed in niches are seen, standing in which the fullers partly wash the material partly tread it with the feet. Beyond we see a workman carrying a frame like a crinoline (on this the clothes were spread to be bleached with sulphur), while another brushes or cards the garment hung up on a bar; beneath on the left sits a woman who seems to be giving a girl instructions as to the treatment of a piece of cloth. Another painting represents the press with which the woollen material when washed was smoothed; it is exactly like those in use at the present day.

If one follows the Street of Nola further towards the East one soon comes to a house which may be designated as one of the most famous and best preserved of those in Pompeii, the Casa del Fauno (fig. 109), so named from the bronze statue of the dancing faun found therein (fig. 77). In the footway before the threshold the visitor is greeted on entrance with the word _Have_ (Hail!). The house has two entrances with two _Atria_, of which the one here represented, the principal Atrium, may serve at the same time as an example of the _Atrium Tuscanicum_, inasmuch as no columns are placed around the impluvium as supports for the beams of the roof.