d
_fauces_, leading to the peristyle. On its left-hand side, near the
ground, was a rudely traced figure of a gladiator, with an inscription
above, of which only the first letters, PRIMI, remain. On the left
wall of the fauces, near the extremity, and level with the eye, is
another inscription, or _graffito_, in small characters, difficult to
be deciphered from the unusual _nexus_ of the letters, but which the
learned have supposed to express the design of an invalid to get rid
of the pains in his limbs by bathing them in water.

At the extremity of the _fauces_, on the right, there is an entrance
to a room which has also another door leading into the portico of the
peristyle. The walls are painted black and red, and in the
compartments are depicted birds, animals, fruits, etc. Two skeletons
were found in this room. In the apartment to the left, or east of the
tablinum, of which the destination can not be certainly determined,
the walls are also painted black, with architectural designs in the
middle, and figures of winged Cupids variously employed. On the larger
walls are two paintings, of which that on the right represents the
often-repeated subject of Ariadne, who, just awakened from sleep, and
supported by a female figure with wings, supposed to be Nemesis, views
with an attitude of grief and stupor the departing ship of Theseus,
already far from Naxos. On the left side is a picture of Phryxus,
crossing the sea on the ram and stretching out his arms to Helle, who
has fallen over and appears on the point of drowning. The form of this
chamber, twice as long as it is broad, its vicinity to the kitchen,
and the window, through which the slaves might easily convey the
viands, appear to show that it was a triclinium, or dining-room.

The floor, which is lower by a step than the peristyle, is paved with
_opus Signinum_, and ornamented only at one end with a mosaic. On one
of the walls, about ten feet from the floor, is the _graffito_,
_Sodales Avete_ (Welcome Comrades), which could have been inscribed
there only by a person, probably a slave, mounted on a bench or a
ladder.

The viridarium, or xystus, surrounded with spacious porticoes, was
once filled with the choicest flowers, and refreshed by the grateful
murmur of two fountains. One of these in the middle of the peristyle
is square, having in its centre a sort of round table from which the
water gushed forth. The other fountain, which faces the tablinum, is
compose