In the interior of the house the place of doors was sometimes supplied by curtains (παραπετάσματα), which were either plain, or dyed, or embroidered. The principal openings for the admission of light and air were in the roofs of the peristyles; but it is incorrect to suppose that the houses had no windows (θυρίδες), or at least none overlooking the street. They were not at all uncommon. Artificial warmth was procured partly by means of fire-places. It is supposed that chimneys were altogether unknown, and that the smoke escaped through an opening in the roof (καπνοδόκη), but it is not easy to understand how this could be the case when there was an upper story. Little portable stoves (ἐσχάραι, ἐσχαρίδες) or chafing-dishes (ἀνθράκια) were frequently used. The houses of the wealthy in the country, at least in Attica, were much larger and more magnificent than those in the towns. The latter seem to have been generally small and plain, especially in earlier times, when the Greeks preferred expending the resources of art and wealth on their temples and public buildings; but the private houses became more magnificent as the public buildings began to be neglected. The decorations of the interior were very plain at the period to which our description refers. The floors were of stone. At a late period coloured stones were used. Mosaics are first mentioned under the kings of Pergamus. The walls, up to the 4th century B.C., seem to have been only whited. The first instance of painting them is that of Alcibiades. This innovation met with considerable opposition. We have also mention of painted ceilings at the same period. At a later period this mode of decoration became general.--(2) ROMAN. The houses of the Romans were poor and mean for many centuries after the foundation of the city. Till the war with Pyrrhus the houses were covered only with thatch or shingles, and were usually built of wood or unbaked bricks. It was not till the latter times of the republic, when wealth had been acquired by conquests in the East, that houses of any splendour began to be built; but it then became the fashion not only to build houses of an immense size, but also to adorn them with columns, paintings, statues, and costly works of art. Some idea may be formed of the size and magnificence of the houses of the Roman nobles during the later times of the republic by the price which they fetched. The consul Messalla bought the house of Autronius for 3700 sestertia (nearly 33,000_l._), and Cicero the house of Crassus, on the Palatine, for 3500 sestertia (nearly 31,000_l._). The house of Publius Clodius, whom Milo killed, cost 14,800 sestertia (about 131,000_l._); and the Tusculan villa of Scaurus was fitted up with such magnificence, that when it was burnt by his slaves, he lost 100,000 sestertia, upwards of 885,000_l._--Houses were originally only one story high; but as the value of ground increased in the city they were built several stories in height, and the highest