position yielding a large revenue to the proprietor'. In advance of the front of the mansion was a small open space planted with trees, and not without its decoration, the avenue to the house being supposed to indicate the rank of the owner. Pompey, having been successful in the war against the pirates, had his porch ornamented with beaks of ships and other naval trophies; others were adorned with bronze quadrigæ or chariots drawn by four horses, equestrian statues, &c. Juvenal particularly alludes to this ostentatious display in the vestibule of the counsellor Emilius, where the brazen car on high, Yoked with four steeds abreast, attracts the eye3. A colonnade surrounded three sides of this square, and by means of this access was given under cover to the entrance of the house, which 1 See Insula in Vitruvius's Architecture, book i. chap. 6. 2 Cicero's Oration against Antony. 3 Badham's Translation of the Satire on Patronage. 4 An area is represented as the Forum of Gabia in Museo della Villa Borghese by Visconti and Piroli. had no remarkable decoration. One doorway at Pompeii had two pilasters surmounted with capitals and a somewhat rich entablature, and under it were suspended little bells'. To the right and left of the entrance were rooms for persons waiting the hour of reception. The whole of this arrangement constituted the vestibule. Besides the vestibule, or Porch, the several divisions of a Roman mansion, which are supposed to merit description, are the following: The PROTHYRUM, or Lobby. The ATRIUM, or Hall, a covered court. The PERISTYLE, or Inner Court, with the Private Rooms, and the Apartments of the Ladies. The PINACOTHECA, or Picture-gallery. The OECI, or Saloons. The EXHEDRA, or Assembly-room. 1 Mazois, Ruines de Pompeii, vol. ii. plate 1. The SCALE, staircases. The SOLARIUM, and upper part of the mansion. The VIRIDARIUM and HORTUS, or Garden. The SPHERISTERIUM and ALEATORIUM, Tennis-court and Dice-room. The BALNEUM, or Bath; and The TRICLINIUM or Dining-room. The Prothyrum was a tolerably broad corridor, where the Ostiarii, servants appointed to guard the entrance, were stationed. Adjoining the Cella Ostiarii, a room in its application similar to a porter's lodge, the necessary caution CAVE CANEM, Beware of the Dog, has been found inscribed: sometimes, however, the dog was only a painted resemblance. Here also was suspended from the ceiling a magpie's cage, which was of rich workmanship; the bird was exceedingly rare in Rome. In the Prothyrum or Lobby were four principal doors: that from the area, with the door of the Atrium opposite to it; two wide lateral doors led to courts occupied by the stables, carriage-houses, and other offices connected with them. The term Prothyrum, although derived from Greece, was there used to denote the front of the door; while the part of the house here described was called Thyrorion, or Diathyra, from its situation between the door of the house and that of the Atrium '. The door of the Atrium, as well as the threshold, was of bronze, a luxury derived from the temples, where this expensive and durable material was first used for the purpose. At Rome still exist two fine ancient examples of the last kind, in the doors of the Pantheon and the Temple of Remus, now the church 1 The modern term Lobby, of precisely the same application, is from the German Laube, an opening before a room, an antechamber. His Lobbies filled with 'tendance, Rain sacrificial whisperings in his ear, Make sacred even his stirrup.-Shakspeare. 2 "You enter the Pantheon by doors cased in bronze, which appear at least of Classical date, as their form is com. mon on the ancient relievos: not carved, like those of the Temple of Remus, but studded with a variety of bullæ and turning pivots."-Forsyth's Italy, p. 136.-Of Ghiberti's of St. Cosmas and Damian; they even had marble doors for tombs'. At the door of the Atrium the Introductor received the names of visitors 2. THE ATRIUM. The Roman Atrium was a covered building before the inhabited part of the mansion, hav bronze doors at the Baptistery of St. John at Florence, Michael Angelo declared that they were worthy of being the Gates of Paradise. The adjustment of every part is most agreeable to the eye, the breadth of them bearing a greater proportion to the height than is generally adopted in doors. Each folding-door contains five subjects, executed in all the gradations of relief; the architrave and frame are quite in harmony with the general richness of the whole.-Williams's Italy, vol. i. p. 141.-The folding-doors of King Henry the Seventh's chapel at Westminster, which are cased with gilded brass, if not Classical or the work of Pietro Torrigiano are of most beautiful execution, and excite the admiration of modern artists. 1 A specimen of a marble door is engraved in the Museum Worsleyanum, vol. i. plate 41: but see Ruines de Pompeii, vol. i. plate 19. 2 This office corresponded with that of the modern Gentleman-Usher, or Husher, a word derived from the French Huis, a door. |