§201. The Tablinum.--The probable origin of the _tablīnum_, has been explained above (§190), and its name has been derived from the material (_tabulae_, "planks") of the "lean-to," perhaps a summer kitchen, from which it developed. Others think that the room received its name from the fact that in it the master kept his account books (_tabulae_) as well as all his business and private papers. He kept here also the money chest or strong box (_ārca_), which in the olden time had been chained to the floor of the _ātrium_, and made the room in fact his office or study. By its position it commanded the whole house, as the rooms could be entered only from the _ātrium_ or _peristylium_, and the _tablīnum_ was right between them. The master could secure entire privacy by closing the folding doors which cut off the private court, or by pulling the curtains across the opening into the great hall. On the other hand, if the _tablīnum_ was left open, the guest entering the _ōstium_ must have had a charming vista, commanding at a glance all the public and semi-public parts of the house (Fig. 47). Even when the _tablīnum_ was closed, there was free passage from the front of the house to the rear through the short corridor (§192) by the side of the _tablīnum_. It should be noticed that there was only one such passage, though the older authorities assert that there were two. [Illustration: FIGURE 48. THE PERISTYLE FROM HOUSE IN POMPEII] [Illustration: FIGURE 49. ROOF OF PERISTYLE] §202. The Peristyle.--The _peristylium_ or _peristylum_ was adopted, as we have seen (§192), from the Greeks, but despite the way in which the Roman clung to the customs of his fathers it was not long in becoming the more important of the two main sections of the house. We must think of a spacious court (Fig. 48) open to the sky, but surrounded by a continuous row of buildings, or rather rooms, for the buildings soon became one, all facing it and having doors and latticed windows opening upon it. All these buildings had covered porches on the side next the court (Fig. 49), and these porches forming an unbroken colonnade on the four sides were strictly the peristyle, though the name came to be used of the whole section of the house, including court, colonnade, and surrounding rooms. The court was much more open to the sun than the _ātrium_, and all sorts of rare and beautiful plants and flowers bloomed and flourished in it, protected by the walls from cold winds. Fountains and statuary adorned the middle part; the colonnade furnished cool or sunny promenades, no matter what the time of day or the season of the year. Loving the open air and the charms of nature as the Romans did, it is no wonder that they soon made the peristyle the center of their domestic life in all the houses of the better class, and reserved the _ātrium_ for the more formal functions which their political and public position demanded (§197). It must be remembered that there was often a garden behind the