The houses of Greco-Roman antiquity differed from those of modern times in several respects. They took their light and air from the inside, the apartments being grouped about a court or about a large central room which ordinarily had an opening in the ceiling; the distribution of space being thus made on a different principle, the large rooms were often larger, the small rooms smaller and more numerous than in modern dwellings of corresponding size; and in the better houses the decoration of both walls and floors was more permanent than is usual in our day. The ancient houses were relatively low, in most cases, if we except the crowded tenements of imperial Rome, not exceeding two stories. The windows in the outside walls were generally few and small, and the external appearance was not unlike that of Oriental houses of the present time. In the city house the large front entrance was frequently ornamented with carved posts and lintel. The development of the Italic house can be traced at Pompeii over a period of almost four hundred years. The earlier form consisted of a single series of apartments,--a central room, _atrium_, with smaller rooms opening into it, and a garden at the rear; an example is the house of the Surgeon (p. 280). A restoration of such a house with its high atrium, wide front door, and garden is shown in Fig. 114. [Illustration: Fig. 114.--Early Pompeian house, restored.] Later, under Greek influence, a court with a colonnade and surrounding rooms was added. This was called _peristylium_, 'peristyle'; it is simply the more elaborate inner part of the Greek house, _andronitis_, joined to the dwelling of Italic origin. We find the union of atrium and peristyle with their respective groups of apartments fully accomplished in the second century B.C., the Tufa Period; the type of dwelling thus developed remained in vogue during Roman times and is often called the Roman house. The double origin is clearly indicated by the names of the rooms. Those of the front part are designated by Latin words,--_atrium_, _fauces_, _ala_, _tablinum_; but the apartments at the rear bear Greek names,--_peristylium_, _triclinium_, _oecus_, _exedra_. In large houses both atrium and peristyle were sometimes duplicated. The houses of Pompeii impress the visitor as having been designed primarily for summer use. The arrangements contemplate the spending of much time in the open air, and pains was taken to furnish protection from the heat, not from the cold. The greater part of the area is taken up by colonnades, gardens, and courts; from this point of view the atrium may be classed as a court. The living rooms had high ceilings. In summer they were cool and airy, in winter difficult to heat; they were dark and close when the door was shut, cold when it was open. [Illustration: Fig. 115.--Plan of a Pompeian house.]