Occasionally for the canine doorkeepers were substituted in commercial states gold and silver representations, more likely to attract than repel thieves; for example, at the entrance to Alcinoös’s palace were groups of this description, attributed to the wonder-working Hephæstos.[273] A coarse imitation of this practice prevailed among the Romans, for we find in Petronius that Trimalchio had his court guarded by a painted mastiff, over which in good square characters were the words “Beware of the dog.”[274] ----- Footnote 273: Odyss. η. 93. Footnote 274: Satyr, c. 29. p. 74. Hellenop. ----- Along the walls of this enclosure the cattle-sheds would in remoter ages appear to have been ranged, where afterwards stood suites of chambers for the domestics, or piazzas, or colonades, to serve as covered walks in extremely hot or bad weather. Within, on either side the gateway,[275] chiefly among the Dorians, rose a pillar of conical shape, sometimes an obelisk, in honour of Apollo or of Dionysos, or, according to others, of both, while in the centre was an altar of Zeus Herceios, on which family sacrifices were offered up.[276] At its inner extremity you beheld a spacious portico, adjoining the entrance to the house, where in warm weather the young men often slept. From the descriptions of the poet, however, it would appear to have been something more than a common portico, resembling rather the porches of our old English houses, roofed over and extending like a recess into the body of the house itself. In the dwellings of the great, this part of the building, adorned with numerous statues, was probably of marble finely polished if not sculptured, and being merely a chamber open in front could not in those fine climates be by any means an unpleasant bedroom, particularly as it usually faced the south and caught the early rays of the sun. Here Odysseus[277] slept during his stay with Alcinoös, as did likewise Priam and the Trojan Herald while guests of Achilles in his military hut.[278] ----- Footnote 275: Sch. Aristoph. Vesp. 875. Here the Romans sacrificed to Janus, the Greeks to Apollo. Macrob. Saturn. l. i. c. 9. Poll. iv. 123. Comm. p. 790. Footnote 276: Eustath ad Od. χ. 376. p. 790. Cf. Poll. i. 22, seq. Muret. in Plat. de Rep. p. 635. Soph. Œdip. Tyr. 16. Footnote 277: Odyss. η. 345. Cf. Il. ζ. 243. Hesych. v. πρόδομος. Footnote 278: Il. ω. 673, sqq. Cf. Feith. Antiq. Hom. iii. 10. p. 244. -----