Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1869-01-20
POnlpeian Houses.
HOW THE ANCIENTs LIVED.


Twill endeavor to explain the usual in
terror arrangement of the houses, and it
is believed that the houses in Rome were
built on essentially the same plan.
The street door opens upon the restibatle
which consists of one or more not very
commodious apartments. Opposite the
street door door opens into the atri'tna,
or court, which is the chief living room,
aud generally contains more, and more
sumptuous articles of ornament than any
other apartment, having in the better
houses a mosaic pavement and painted
walls. The atrium is rooted, with an
opening in the centre, toward which the
roof is inclined on all sides. Under the
opening is a tank for the reception Of
water from the sky, and here there is often
a fountain fed by water pipes from the
public aqueduct Behind the atrium is
the periStuLe surrounded by porticos that
rest on rows of equi-distant columns, and
generally ornamented by statues, vases
and other works of art. The peristyle,
like the atrium, has an opening in the roof,
with a tank, or, it may be, a fountain be-
meath it; and this Is the garden of the
house, planted with trees, shrubbery and
flowers. From the peristyle open the
lodging-rooms, and the eating room, or
tricliniltnl. so called from the three couches
which were placed on three sides of tbs
low table, the fourth side being left open
for the removal of the dishes. The Lodge
ing-rooms are mere kennels, just large
enough for a couch, with no space for any
other furniture, and with no light except
from the peristyle-an arrangement which
indicates that the toilette must have been
the public baths. The trieliniuin Is
spacious. and, in the richer houses, very
highly ornamented In addition to these
apartments there are various store rooms,
bathrooms, sometimes a library, sonie-
times a chapel for the Lares and the PEN
ates, sometimes saloons designed for festive
or other purposes. In the less sumptuous
houses the atrium serves as the kitchen,
the cooking being performed over braziers
or stoves. In houses of better sort the
kitchen is a separate apartment, in the
rear of all the others. In very large
houses, there is a second peristyle, with
g1est chambers opening from it.
Such is the general construction of the
Pompeian house, of course with many de-
viations from the plan, and. In the richer
dwellings, with additional apartments fol
various purposes Of convenience and luxu
ry.
Most of the houses give evidence of but
one story, though in some of them there
are traces of staircases, both within anG
without the walls of the house. More
over. we have reason to believe that il
Rome the second story was always of wood
and if this was the case in Pompeu, Their
may have been an indefinite number o
second stories that have left no vestig
of their existence As most of the ligh
for the house was received from above, i
lis probable that the second story, wher,
it existed, did not wholly cover the first
There were often gardens occupying
part of the roof On the lower stor,
there were seldom, if ever, windows open
/ ing upon the street but there is groun
, for supposing that there were outside win
; dows in the walls of second story apart
ments. Panes of glass, even framed wiz
t dows, have been found in Pompeii, but
i is hardly probable that they were in ger
eral use. Chimneys are seen in conne'
! ton with bath rooms and bake houses, bl
none in private dwellings. There al
e traces, in a few instances, of the condue
z ing of heat by pipes from the bath
to the triclinium and other private apar
1 ments but probably brsziers were use
S for the most part on the few days in Il
: year when artificial heat was needed fl
S comfort. The smoke from the culinsr
e apparatus, if in the atrium, had its eas
a escape into the open air; or, if in a sci
4 arate apartment, it was suffered to find i
= own way through doors and windows. III
t chimney furnishes by no means the onl
!, instance in which an invention of extende
b capacity of usefulness has been, for lor
time. limited to the specific purpose
- which it CHANGED to be first applied.
The Pompeian house enables US to a
: tain, in many respects, a clear compr
:. hension of its inmates. The ideas en-
IT bodied in that most complex and blesse
of words, home, can have had no place
d such dwellings. There was nothing tn
l. could have served the purpose of fami
}. apartment The atrium made the neare
- approach to it, but that was public, a cor
e mon passage way, and place for gre
Il deal of the household work Moreove
o the rain water cistern in the centre mu
lie have been disassociating institution, al
l. the smoke, when the cooking took pla
there, still more so. Life must ha'
It been passed chiefly out of doors, and Il
places of public amusement that have be,
''' already discovered would have seated q
whole population twice over. Retireme
;" must have been as alien from the habits
the people as domesticity, and we c.
I'd ryrdly conceive of the more delicate trac
ID haof character and the amenities of life
20 existing without the opportunity for bot
" While we find in Pompei numero