rmian
villas, and interest in ornamenting them, even in the most perilous
times, is well known. Still more celebrated are the villas of Lucullus
and Pollio; of the latter some remains are still to be seen near
Pausilipo.

Augustus endeavored by his example to check this extravagant passion,
but he produced little effect. And in the palaces of the emperors, and
especially the Aurea Domus, the Golden House of Nero, the domestic
architecture of Rome, or, we might probably say, of the world, reached
its extreme.

The arrangement of the houses, though varied, of course, by local
circumstances, and according to the rank and circumstances of the
master, was pretty generally the same in all. The principal rooms,
differing only in size and ornament, recur everywhere; those
supplemental ones, which were invented only for convenience or luxury,
vary according to the tastes and circumstances of the master.

[Illustration: GROUND PLAN OF A ROMAN HOUSE.]

The private part comprised the peristyle, bed-chambers, triclinium,
oeci, picture-gallery, library, baths, exedra, xystus, etc. We proceed
to explain the meaning of these terms.

Before great mansions there was generally a court or area, upon which
the portico opened, either surrounding three sides of the area, or
merely running along the front of the house. In smaller houses the
portico ranged even with the street. Within the portico, or if there
was no portico, opening directly to the street, was the vestibule,
consisting of one or more spacious apartments. It was considered to be
without the house, and was always open for the reception of those who
came to wait there until the doors should be opened. The prothyrum, in
Greek architecture, was the same as the vestibule. In Roman
architecture, it was a passage-room, between the outer or house-door
which opened to the vestibule, and an inner door which closed the
entrance of the atrium. In the vestibule, or in an apartment opening
upon it, the porter, _ostiarius_, usually had his seat.

The atrium, or cavaedium, for they appear to have signified the same
thing, was the most important, and usually the most splendid apartment
of the house. Here the owner received his crowd of morning visitors,
who were not admitted to the inner apartments. The term is thus
explained by Varro: "The hollow of the house (cavum aedium) is a
covered place within the walls, left open to the common use of all. It
is called Tuscan, from the Tuscans