um was the public and the peristyle the private part of the
establishment; that the former belonged to the world and the second to
the family. This arrangement nearly corresponded with the division of
the Greek dwelling into _andronitis_ and _gynaikotis_, the side for the
men and the side for the women. Around the atrium were usually
ranged--we must not be too rigorously precise in these distinctions--the
rooms intended for the people of the house, and those who called upon
them. Around the peristyle were the rooms reserved for the private
occupancy of the family.

I commence with the atrium. It was reached from the street by a narrow
alley (the _prothyrum_), opening, by a two-leaved door, upon the
sidewalk. The doors have been burned, but we can picture them to
ourselves according to the paintings, as being of oak, with narrow
panels adorned with gilded nails, provided with a ring to open them by,
and surmounted with a small window lighting up the alley. They opened
inwards, and were secured by means of a bolt, which shot vertically
downward into the threshold instead of reaching across.

I enter right foot foremost, according to the Roman custom (to enter
with the left foot was a bad omen); and I first salute the inscription
on the threshold (_salve_) which bids me welcome. The porter's lodge
(_cella ostiarii_) was usually hollowed out in the entryway, and the
slave in question was sometimes chained, a precaution which held him at
his post, undoubtedly, but which hindered him from, pursuing robbers.
Sometimes, there was only a dog on guard, in his place, or merely the
representation of a dog in mosaic: there is one in excellent
preservation at the Museum in Naples retaining the famous inscription
(_Cave canem_)--"Beware of the dog!"

[Illustration: The Atrium in the House of Pansa, restored.]

The atrium was not altogether a court, but rather a large hall covered
with a roof, in the middle of which opened a large bay window. Thus the
air and the light spread freely throughout the spacious room, and the
rain fell from the sky or dripped down over the four sloping roofs into
a marble basin, called _impluvium_, that conveyed it to the cistern, the
mouth of which is still visible. The roofs usually rested on large
cross-beams fixed in the walls. In such case, the atrium was Tuscan, in
the old fashion. Sometimes, the roofs rested on columns planted at the
four corners of the impluvium: then, the opening enlarged, and th