[58] DIONYSUS. A surname of Bacchus. [59] LIBATION. Wine poured as an offering to the gods. [60] VESTIBULUM. The space in front of the house-door (_fores_) which in the time of the imperial government was frequently covered with a portico. [61] ADOPTED DAUGHTER. The adoption of a child in ancient Rome was regulated by very strict laws. Adoption in its narrower sense (_adoptio_) extended to persons who were still under paternal authority; with self-dependent persons the so-called _arrogatio_ took place. With women this last form was entirely excluded. [62] ATRIUM. From the door of the house a narrow passage (_ostium_) led to the first inner court, the atrium, so-called because this space, where the hearth originally was, was _blackened_ by the smoke (_ater_). The atrium, which in the more ancient Roman houses possessed the character of a room with a comparatively small opening in the roof, and afterwards resembled a court-yard, was at first the central point of family life, the sitting-room, where the industrious house-keeper sat enthroned among her slaves. When republican simplicity gave way to luxury, the atrium became the hall devoted to the reception of guests, and domestic life was confined to the more retired apartments. [63] TRICLINIUM, (triple couch) really the sofa on which three, and sometimes even more persons reclined at table; the name was also given to the dining-room itself, which comprised the second inner court-yard, the so-called peristyle or cavaedium. [64] CIMBRIAN PENINSULA, now called Jutland. [65] GUTTONI. A German race on the lower Vistula. [66] AESTUI. A German race living on the coast of Revel. [67] SCANDII. Inhabitants of southern Sweden. [68] THE SENSE OF CONTRAST was a conspicuous trait in Roman character. They were wont to heighten their appreciation of the joys of life by images of death, and the dining-room was intentionally placed so as to afford a view of tombs. [69] THE GOLDEN HOUSE (_domus aurea_). The name given to the magnificent palace of Nero, which extended from the Palatine Hill across the valley and up again as far as the gardens of Macaenas on the Esquiline. It contained an enormous number of the choicest works in statuary. Vespasian had a large part of this building pulled down.