The front of the house, the large Tuscan atrium with the adjoining
rooms, dates from the Tufa Period; the atrium was originally one of
the most richly decorated at Pompeii. The rooms back of the atrium
opening toward the rear, and those of the middle and lower terraces,
are a later addition, built after the city wall at this point had
been removed, perhaps not long before the end of the Republic; traces
of the second style of decoration are found in one of the lowest
rooms, the tepidarium of the bath. Remains of the first style are
found in the fauces, but the greater part of the house is decorated in
the last style.
One of the small rooms (_c_) opening on the atrium, originally a
bedroom, was in later times turned into a house chapel. In the right
wall is a small niche, on the back of which a Genius of the ordinary
type is painted. Near him and also offering a libation is a female
figure with the attributes of Juno, a diadem, and a sceptre. The two
figures represent the Genii of the master and mistress of the house
(p. 270). Under the niche, and at the sides are iron nails, driven
into the plaster to hold wreaths and garlands.
[Illustration: Fig. 177.--Corner of bake room in the lowest story of
the house of the Emperor Joseph II, at the time of excavation.]
On either side of the broad middle room (_w_) is a dining room (_v_,
_x_), connected with it by two large windows. All three rooms open
upon the colonnade (_y_), and this again opens out upon a terrace
(_z_).
The principal room of the middle story (2. η, under _z_) takes the
place of an atrium; it is lighted by a door and two windows opening
upon a terrace (μ). Connected with it are two dining rooms (θ, κ),
considerably higher than the other apartments of this story, and three
sleeping rooms (ι, λ, ζ). A dark corridor (β) separated these rooms
from the solid earth at the rear, and furnished access, by means of
ladders, to two low upper rooms (over ι and λ; see 4. II, III),
perhaps used as storerooms. From β one could also reach, in the same
way, an oblong chamber excavated in the earth (I), designed originally
as a cistern, but used as a cellar at the time of the eruption. Of the
remaining upper rooms one (IV) was built on the solid ground at the
side of the stairway leading from the upper floor (α); the other two
(V, over γ, δ and VI, over ζ) were connected by a gallery or bridge
over the stairway leading to the lower floor (ε); this gallery could
be reached also by a ladder or wooden stairway in the large middle
room (η). The outermost room (VI) was perhaps a washroom; there is a
rectangular basin in one corner.
The lower floor was given up to a bath (_frigidarium_, 8;
_tepidarium_, 6; _caldarium_, 7) and to a bakery (3, 4).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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