From the time of Plautus, second story rooms were designated as 'dining rooms,' _cenacula_. Varro says that after it became customary to dine upstairs, all upper rooms were called cenacula. This explanation is not altogether satisfactory, because other literary evidence for the prevalence of such a custom is lacking. Perhaps in early times, when, on account of the introduction of the compluvium and impluvium, the atrium ceased to be convenient and comfortable for the serving of meals, a dining room was frequently constructed on an upper floor, and, being the principal second story apartment, gave its name to the rest. In some places the ancient custom may still have lingered in the time of the Early Empire. [Illustration: Fig. 128.--Interior of a house with a second story dining room opening on the atrium, restored.] The upper parts of the Pompeian houses in most cases have been completely destroyed; in a few, however, there are traces of a second story apartment that was probably used as a dining room. One of these houses is in Insula XV of Region VII, near the temple of Apollo. It is painted in the second style, and dates apparently from the end of the Republic. At the rear of the atrium are two rooms and a passageway leading to the back of the house. Over these was a single large apartment, closed at the sides and rear, but opening on the atrium in its entire length; along the front, as seen in our restoration (Fig. 128), ran a balustrade connecting the pilasters--ornamented with half-columns--which supported the roof. In a corner of the atrium at the rear a narrow stairway led to the second floor. At the right, as our section shows (Fig. 129), was a narrow gallery resting on brackets, which connected the upper room at the rear with one in the front of the house. [Illustration: Fig. 129.--Longitudinal section of the house with a second story dining room. At the right, vestibule, door, and fauces, with front room above; then the atrium, with the gallery connecting the front room with the dining room; lastly, the apartments at the rear of the house. In this house there was no peristyle.] The large upper room was so well fitted for a dining room, especially in summer, that we can hardly resist the conclusion that it was designed for this purpose. There is no trace of a kitchen on the ground floor; and for greater convenience this also was probably placed in the second story, behind the dining room. In the fifth Region there was a small dwelling, which afterwards became a part of the house of the Silver Wedding; the arrangement of the two stories at the rear of the atrium was similar to that just described, except that columns were used in place of the pilasters, and there was only the one upper room in the back part of the house. In such cases as this 'dining room' and 'upper story' might easily have come to be used as synonymous terms.