§192. The Greeks seem to have furnished the idea next adopted by the Romans, a court at the rear of the _ātrium_, open to the sky, surrounded by rooms, and set with flowers, trees, and shrubs. The open space had columns around it, and often a fountain in the middle (Fig. 39). This court was called the _peristylum_ or _peristylium_. According to Vitruvius its breadth should have exceeded its depth by one-third, but we do not find these or any other proportions strictly observed in the houses that are known to us. Access to the _peristylium_ from the _ātrium_ could be had through the _tablīnum_, though this might be cut off from it by folding doors, and by a narrow passage[1] by its side. The latter would be naturally used by servants and by others who did not wish to pass through the master's room. Both passage and _tablīnum_ might be closed on the side of the _ātrium_ by portières. The arrangement of the various rooms around the court seems to have varied with the notions of the builder, and no one plan for them can be laid down. According to the means of the owner there were bedrooms, dining-rooms, libraries, drawing-rooms, kitchen, scullery, closets, private baths, together with the scanty accommodations necessary even for a large number of slaves. But no matter whether these rooms were many or few they all faced the court, receiving from it light and air, as did the rooms along the sides of the _ātrium_. There was often a garden behind the court. [Footnote 1: This passage is called _faucēs_ in the older books. Mau has shown that the _faucēs_ was on the entrance side of the _ātrium_. He calls the passage by the _tablīnum_ the _andrōn_.] [Illustration: FIGURE 40. PLAN OF HOUSE]