Museum of Antiquity: A Description of Ancient Life — John Shaqi
Museum of Antiquity: A Description of Ancient LifeYaggy, L. W. (Levi W.)
History
Museum of Antiquity: A Description of Ancient Life
Yaggy, L. W. (Levi W.)
Civilization, Ancient; Classical antiquities
As it would have been difficult or impossible to have kept alive a
lamp or torch in so dense a steam, there is near the door a circular
hole, closed formerly by a glass, which served to admit the light of a
lamp placed in the adjoining chamber. The hypocaust, or furnace and
apparatus, 25, for heating the water, are so placed that they can not
be seen from the triangular court. They are small, but correspond with
the small quantity of boiling water which they were required to
furnish. _f._ Stone table. _g._ Cistern. _h._ Mouth of hypocaust. _i._
A furnace, probably for boiling water when merely a tepid bath was
required, without heating the suspensura caldariorum. By the side of
the hypocaust were placed the vases for hot and cold water, as
described in the chapter on Baths; their pedestals were observable
between the mouth of the furnace and the letter _k._ _l._ Wooden
staircase, no longer in existence, which led to the apartments above.
26. Reservoir.
Such was the distribution of this bath. Some paintings and mosaics,
which are ordinary enough, formed its only decorations; yet, from the
little that remains, we can discover that the good taste which reigned
everywhere, and the freshness of the colors, must have rendered the
effect of the whole most agreeable.
27. This chamber seems to have been used as a wardrobe, where the
numerous garments of the opulent masters of this dwelling were kept
under presses, to give them a lustre. This conjecture is founded upon
the remains of calcined stuffs, and the fragments of wardrobes and
carbonized plank found in the course of excavation.
28. Great gallery, lighted by windows which looked upon the two
terraces, 34, separated by the large hall, 33. This gallery furnished
an agreeable promenade, when the weather did not permit the enjoyment
of the external porticoes or terraces.
29, 29. These two small apartments, which were open to the gallery,
and probably were closed by glass, may very well have been, one a
library, the other a reading-room, since the place in which books were
kept was not usually the place in which they were read; being small
and confined, suitable to the comparatively small number of volumes
which an ancient library generally contained, and also to the limited
space within which a considerable number of rolls of papyrus might be
placed.
A bust, painted on the wall of one of them, confirms this supposition,
for it is known that the ancients were fond of keeping the portraits
of eminent men before their eyes, and especially of placing those of
literary men in their libraries.
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