Although the Pompeian atriums show no traces of a hearth, there is possibly a reminiscence of the ancient arrangement in the _gartibulum_, a table which we frequently find at the rear of the impluvium. Varro says that since his boyhood these tables, on which vessels of bronze were placed, had gone out of use; at Pompeii they remained in fashion much longer. The gartibulum with its bronze vases may symbolize the ancient hearth with the cooking utensils. Possibly, however, it represents the kitchen table near the hearth on which the dishes were washed; that it may have served a similar purpose in later times is evident from the fact that in front of it a marble pedestal was often placed for a statuette which threw a jet of water into a marble basin at the edge of the impluvium. This group of table, fountain figure, and basin appears in many Pompeian atriums. In Plate VII we see the gartibulum and the supports of the marble-basin, but the base of the fountain figure has disappeared. [Illustration: Fig. 120.--A Pompeian's strong box, _arca_.] The strong box of the master of the house, _arca_, often stood in the atrium, usually against one of the side walls. It was sometimes adorned with reliefs, as the one shown in Fig. 120, which is now in the Naples Museum. It stood on a heavy block of stone, or low foundation of masonry, to which it was attached by an iron rod passing down through the bottom. A wealthy Pompeian sometimes had more than one of these chests. In three atriums the herm of the proprietor stands at the rear. One, with the portrait of Cornelius Rufus, is shown in Fig. 121. When there were two atriums in a house, the larger was more elaborately furnished than the other, and was set aside for the public or official life of the proprietor; the smaller one was used for domestic purposes. Typical examples are found in the houses of the Faun and of the Labyrinth. In the former the principal atrium is of the Tuscan type, the other tetrastyle; in the latter the large atrium is tetrastyle, the smaller Tuscan. III. THE TABLINUM The tablinum was a large room at the rear of the atrium, opening into the latter with its whole width; the connection of the two rooms is clearly shown in Plate VII and Fig. 121. According to Vitruvius, when the atrium was 30 to 40 feet in width--as in the larger Pompeian houses--the tablinum should be half as wide; when the atrium was smaller, the width of the tablinum should be two thirds that of the atrium, while the height at the entrance should be nine eighths, and inside four thirds of the width. These proportions will not hold good for Pompeii, where the tablinum is generally narrower and higher (Vitr. VI. iv. 5, 6). [Illustration: Fig. 121.--Atrium of the house of Cornelius Rufus, looking through the tablinum and andron into the peristyle.