The +villa+ was in reality a country palace, arranged with special reference to the prevailing winds, exposure to the sun and shade, and the enjoyment of a wide prospect. Baths, temples, _exedræ_, theatres, tennis-courts, sun-rooms, and shaded porticoes were connected with the house proper, which was built around two or three interior courts or peristyles. Statues, fountains, and colossal vases of marble adorned the grounds, which were laid out in terraces and treated with all the fantastic arts of the Roman landscape-gardener. The most elaborate and extensive villa was that of +Hadrian+, at Tibur (Tivoli); its ruins, covering hundreds of acres, form one of the most interesting spots to visit in the neighborhood of Rome. [Illustration: FIG. 65.--HOUSE OF PANSA, POMPEII. s, _Shops_; v, _Vestibule_; f, _Family Rooms_; k, _Kitchen_; l, _Lavarium_; _P, P, P_, _Peristyles_.] There are few remains in Rome of the +domus+ or private house. Two, however, have left remarkably interesting ruins--the +Atrium Vestæ+, or House of the Vestal Virgins, east of the Forum, a well-planned and extensive house surrounding a cloister or court; and the +House of Livia+, so-called, on the Palatine Hill, the walls and decorations of which are excellently preserved. The typical Roman house in a provincial town is best illustrated by the ruins of Pompeii and Herculanum, which, buried by an eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A.D., have been partially excavated since 1721. The Pompeiian house (Fig. 65) consisted of several courts or _atria_, some of which were surrounded by colonnades and called _peristyles_. The front portion was reserved for shops, or presented to the street a wall unbroken save by the entrance; all the rooms and chambers opened upon the interior courts, from which alone they borrowed their light. In the brilliant climate of southern Italy windows were little needed, as sufficient light was admitted by the door, closed only by portières for the most part; especially as the family life was passed mainly in the shaded courts, to which fountains, parterres of shrubbery, statues, and other adornments lent their inviting charm. The general plan of these houses seems to have been of Greek origin, as well as the system of decoration used on the walls. These, when not wainscoted with marble, were covered with fantastic, but often artistic, painted decorations, in which an imaginary architecture as of metal, a fantastic and arbitrary perspective, illusory pictures, and highly finished figures were the chief elements. These were executed in brilliant colors with excellent effect. The houses were lightly built, with wooden ceilings and roofs instead of vaulting, and usually with but one story on account of the danger from earthquakes. That the workmanship and decoration were in the capital often superior to what was to be found in a provincial town like Pompeii, is evidenced by beautiful wall-paintings and reliefs discovered in Rome in 1879 and now