e thus reach the dwelling of
the aedile Pansa. He, at least, is the proprietor designated by general
opinion, which, according to my ideas, is wrong in this particular. An
inscription painted on the door-post has given rise to this error. The
inscription runs thus: _Pansam aedilem Paratus rogat_. This the early
antiquarians translated: _Paratus invokes Pansa the aedile_. The early
antiquaries erred. They should have rendered it: _Paratus demands Pansa
for aedile_. It was not an invocation but an electoral nomination. We
have already deciphered many like inscriptions. Universal suffrage put
itself forward among the ancients as it does with us.

Hence, the dwelling that I am about to enter was not that of Pansa,
whose name is found thus suggested for the aedileship in many other
places, but rather that of Paratus, who, in order to designate the
candidate of his choice, wrote the name on his door-post.

Such is my opinion, but, as one runs the risk of muddling everything by
changing names already accepted, I do not insist upon it. So let us
enter the house of Pansa the aedile.

This dwelling is not the most ornate, but it is the most regular in
Pompeii, and also the least complicated and the most simply complete.
Thus, all the guides point it out as the model house, and perceiving
that they are right in so doing, I will imitate them.

In what did a Pompeian's dwelling differ from a small stylish residence
or villa of modern times? In a thousand and one points which we shall
discover, step by step, but chiefly in this, that it was turned
inwards, or, as it were, doubled upon itself; not that it was, as has
been said, altogether a stranger to the street, and presented to the
latter only a large painted wall, a sort of lofty screen. The upper
stories of the Pompeian houses having nearly all crumbled, we are not in
a position to affirm that they did not have windows opening on the
public streets. I have already shown you _maeniana_ or suspended
balconies from which the pretty girls of the place could ogle the
passers-by. But it is certain that the first floor, consisting of the
finest and best occupied apartments, grouped its rooms around two
interior courts and turned their backs to the street. Hence, these two
courts opening one behind the other, the development of the front was
but a small affair compared with the depth of the house.

These courts were called the _atrium_, and the peristyle. One might say
that the atri