/hr't' - 
 
AN ESSAY 
 
 ON 
 
 THE ROMAN VILLAS 
 
 OF 
 
 THE AUGUSTAN AGE, 
 
 THEIR ARCHITECTURAL DISPOSITION 
 
 AND 
 
 ENRICHMENTS; 
 
 AND ON THE REMAINS OF ROMAN DOMESTIC EDIFICES 
 DISCOVERED IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 BY 
 
 THOMAS MOULE. 
 
 “Ed io anche son Antiquario.” 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMAN, 
 PATERNOSTER-ROW. 
 
 1833. 
 
TO 
 
 MICHAEL JONES, Esq., 
 
 FELLOW OF THE SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES, 
 
 ETC. ETC. ETC. 
 
 THIS ESSAY 
 
 IS INSCRIBED, 
 
 AS A TESTIMONY OF GRATITUDE AND SINCERE RESPECT, 
 
 BY HIS 
 
 MUCH OBLIGED AND OBEDIENT, 
 VERY HUMBLE SERVANT, 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 .amphora coepit 
 
 Institui; currente rota cur urceus exit ? 
 
 Horace. 
 
 IN this Essay it is attempted to exhibit 
 within reasonable limits the state of do¬ 
 mestic architecture, and an outline of 
 the conveniences incident to the private 
 habitations of the Romans, in a form to 
 satisfy the curiosity of the general reader; 
 works of this nature being considered 
 scarcely, less interesting than the military 
 career of the same people, and perfectly 
 
VI 
 
 agreeable to the spirit of inquiry now 
 so universally manifested. 
 
 It was written as an introductory 
 chapter, with a desire of completing a 
 History of Domestic Architecture, a de¬ 
 sign which will not be relinquished, 
 should the following pages meet with 
 sufficient patronage to induce the author 
 to proceed with his intention. In this 
 species of composition, the labour of 
 authenticating facts becomes a pleasure, 
 and his next subject will be an attempt to 
 illustrate the Baronial Castles of England, 
 in continuation of the history. 
 
 The drawing for the frontispiece was 
 made by Mr. Willement, in which the 
 utensils, grouped with his usual skill, 
 are all selected from the Pittura cT Erco- 
 lano ; it has been admirably engraved 
 
Vll 
 
 by Mr. Challis, a young artist destined 
 to rise in his profession. The plan of a 
 Roman House intended to give some idea 
 of the disposition of the several apart¬ 
 ments round a court, 
 
 While fancy brings the vanish’d piles to view, 
 
 And builds imaginary Rome anew, 
 
 is copied from an edition of Vitruvius , 
 published at Venice in 1511 . 
 
 Numerous works relative to the im¬ 
 portant discoveries at Pompeii, have al¬ 
 ready made the subject familiar to most 
 persons. These, and the books of Civil 
 Architecture by Vitruvius, are extensive 
 stores of information; but the chief source 
 has been the description of a Roman 
 House, published at Paris under the title 
 of the Palace of Scaurus. For the use of 
 
Vlll 
 
 a faithful translation, containing valuable 
 notes by Mr. Michael Jones, who is no 
 less distinguished by refined taste, than 
 by extensive acquaintance with classical 
 literature, the author is under great ob¬ 
 ligation to that gentleman, as well as for 
 the means of reference to many books in 
 his valuable library. The numerous quo¬ 
 tations and references by notes in this 
 essay, will sufficiently evince the author’s 
 desire to do ample justice to his very 
 interesting subject. 
 
 November 1st, 1833. 
 

 ’S. 
 
 
 * 
 
THE 
 
 ROMAN VILLAS 
 
 OF 
 
 THE AUGUSTAN AGE. 
 
 IN the early times of the Republic, the 
 Romans strictly confined themselves to what 
 was useful, even in their public works: it was 
 only during the reigns of the Emperors that 
 they began to give to the Temples of the Gods 
 an air of magnificence by the regularity of their 
 architectural disposition \ 
 
 Before the war with Pyrrhus, which hap¬ 
 pened four hundred and seventy years after 
 
 1 Strabo, lib. 5 . 
 
 B 
 
2 
 
 the foundation of the City, it is clear they 
 used only thatch or shingles as a covering 
 for their houses, which at the same time 
 consisted of no more than one story in height; 
 the Laws of the iEdiles also forbidding the 
 walls of private buildings to be made of a 
 greater thickness than eighteen inches, English 
 measure: subsequent regulations, indeed, fixed 
 the height of houses at sixty or seventy feet \ 
 
 In the time of Horace, who wrote in the 
 reign of Augustus, every man, who was rich 
 enough, had his country-seat in the charming 
 Campania; and the district of Naples, Baise, 
 Puteoli, &c. was preferred, being the most 
 beautiful sea coast in the world, according 
 to the poet’s own words,— 
 
 What place on earth with charming Baise vies 2 . 
 
 All were confessedly inferior to the cele- 
 
 1 Dionysius Halicarnassensis, lib. 1. 
 
 2 Francis’s Translation of “ Nullus in Orbe, sinus Baiis,” 
 &c. Epistle 1. Baise was the winter retreat of the Romans; 
 while Tibur, Tusculum, Preneste, Alba, Cajeta, Mons Cir- 
 
3 
 
 brated villa of Lucullus, situated near Naples, 
 which had more the air of a magnificent town 
 than a rural seat. Here this luxurious and 
 accomplished Roman general not only caused 
 hills on the coast to be cut through, for the 
 purpose of conducting the ocean into a lake, 
 which he had been at the expense of forming 
 on his estate, but directed whole bays of the 
 sea to be dammed up, for the sake of covering 
 them with marble structures, that he might 
 indulge in his love of artificial variety. This 
 exorbitant luxury in building, which Horace 
 notices in various familiar passages of his 
 
 ceius, Anxur, and the more airy situations in the mountains, 
 were their favourite retirements during the heats of summer. 
 Juvenal also notices the rage for erecting villas which pre¬ 
 vailed in his time :— 
 
 Centronius lov’d to build; and now the shore, 
 
 Of curv’d Cajeta priz’d—now charm’d him more 
 The cliffs of Tibur ;—next some lofty site 
 Amid Preneste’s mountains would invite. 
 
 The villas rose!—thither were marbles brought, 
 
 From Grecian and more distant quarries sought. 
 
 Badham's Translation, Satire 14 . 
 
 B 2 
 
4 
 
 Lyric Poems, kept constantly increasing, and 
 perhaps was carried higher by no one than 
 by his patron and friend Maecenas himself. 
 
 Some idea of the extent and peculiar con¬ 
 struction of the Golden House of Nero is to 
 be obtained from Suetonius’s description 1 . He 
 states, that in nothing was the Emperor more 
 prodigal than in building; and that in this 
 house the vestibule was lofty enough to admit 
 under it a colossal statue of the founder, no 
 less than one hundred and twenty feet in 
 height, and that the palace extended by three 
 colonnades a mile in length. In the centre 
 was an immense lake, surrounded with build¬ 
 ings, having the appearance of a town ; and 
 within the compass of the domain were corn¬ 
 fields, vineyards, pastures, and woods, stock¬ 
 ed with a variety of animals both wild and 
 tame. The interior of the palace was overlaid 
 with gold, and enriched with jewels and mo¬ 
 ther-of-pearl. The rooms devoted to public 
 
 1 In his Life of Nero Claudius Csesar. 
 
 % 
 
entertainments are represented as arched with 
 vaults of ivory, or with ceilings so contrived 
 as to scatter fragrant flowers amongst the 
 guests ; besides which, they were furnished 
 with pipes for conveying into different parts 
 aromatic waters and sweet-smelling unctions. 
 The chief banqueting-room in this palace is 
 described as completely circular in plan, and 
 fitted with a very ingenious piece of mecha¬ 
 nism, made to revolve, producing the effect of 
 day or night, in imitation of the celestial he¬ 
 misphere 1 . The baths, equally magnificent in 
 their plan, were supplied with salt water from 
 the Mediterranean, and with warm water, con¬ 
 ducted by rivulets from the hot springs of 
 Baiae. After an enormous expense had been 
 thus lavished, and which nothing but the re¬ 
 venue of an empire could have afforded, Nero 
 merely observed, he had at last completed a 
 habitation fit for a man, 
 
 1 Those who are acquainted with the Diorama exhibition- 
 room in the Regent’s Park, London, will have an excellent 
 idea of the facility of producing an effect of this kind. 
 
6 
 
 With the materials of this palace it is said 
 the Temple of Peace, the Baths of Titus, and 
 the Amphitheatre of Vespasian were afterwards 
 partly constructed. Of the Temple of Peace, 
 built by Vespasian, the only remains are three 
 very large arches, the soffits of which are en¬ 
 riched with octagonal panels, and certainly do 
 not convey any competent idea of that splen¬ 
 dour which authors have related that this palace 
 originally displayed. History, indeed, records 
 that it was not only the most superb, but the 
 largest palace in the universe, after the Golden 
 House was destroyed,—which is rather extra¬ 
 ordinary; the dimensions given to it, if they 
 are correct, viz. three hundred feet in length 
 and two hundred feet in width, being nothing 
 uncommon for the magnitude of a palace. 
 The exterior of the building is said to have 
 been covered with large sheets of gilt bronze, 
 it was adorned with the finest statues, pictures, 
 marbles, and other rich ornaments; besides 
 which the citizens here deposited their treasures 
 as in a place of security, under the piotection 
 
7 
 
 of the Emperor and the Senate of Rome. This 
 edifice was at length destroyed with all its con¬ 
 tents by a conflagration. The site of the palace 
 of the Caesars at Rome, comprehending the re¬ 
 mains of the residence of the Emperors and the 
 Golden House of Nero, is now a desert, full of 
 ruins and vast fragments of temples and baths. 
 There are still to be found parts of a terrace, 
 overlooking the Circus Maximus, whence the 
 Emperors gave the signal for the commence¬ 
 ment of the games. In another quarter of 
 this interesting site are three rooms, in good 
 preservation, which display a little of the 
 ancient Roman taste in the construction and 
 proportions of the apartments of a noble house. 
 These seem to have received their light, like 
 the Pantheon, from an opening in the ceiling; 
 and instead of the formal square which so 
 much prevails in modern rooms, each of the 
 four sides is here broken into a semicircular 
 recess. The same accumulation of soil has 
 taken place on the Palatine Hill as elsewhere 
 in Rome; for these chambers, which must have 
 
8 
 
 been once on the surface, are now many feet 
 below the ground 1 . 
 
 Few vestiges even remain of those innume¬ 
 rable villas with which Italy was once crowded; 
 although in erecting and adorning them the 
 Romans lavished the wealth and spoils of the 
 world. Some accidental allusions in the an¬ 
 cient poets, and some occasional descriptions 
 
 1 Tappen’s Professional Observations on the Architecture 
 of Italy, &c.; and Matthews’s Diary of an Invalid. 
 
 Bianchini, a learned Italian antiquary, wrote an account 
 of his discoveries Del Palazzo de Cesari, which was pub¬ 
 lished after his death, at Verona in 1738. He spent his 
 fortune and lost his life in excavating the ground; but 
 carried his theoretical arrangement of the edifice too far, 
 according to Forsyth, a most intelligent traveller, and per¬ 
 haps the best architectural critic who has visited the spot. 
 Speaking of the Imperial Palace, he says, “ In the present 
 chaos of broken walls and arcades we can no longer retrace 
 the general design of'this palace as it existed in any one 
 reign. Palladio, whose imagination has rebuilt so many 
 ruins, forbore from these. Panvinio tried in vain to trace the 
 original plan in his Topographia Romce, published in the 
 sixteenth century.”—See Forsyth’s Remarks on Antiquities, 
 Arts, 8(C. in Italy, p. 141. 
 
9 
 
 in their historians, convey indications of the 
 magnificence both of their houses in the city 
 and of their villas, sufficient to astonish the 
 present age. If the more accurate accounts 
 of these buildings by Vitruvius 1 and Pliny 
 may be relied on 2 , the most admired efforts 
 
 1 Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, an architect in the reign of 
 Augustus, wrote a treatise on his profession, which is the 
 only book on Architecture extant of the classical period. 
 Of this work there are several editions, but the best is said 
 to be that of De Laet: Amsterdam, 1649. A translation of 
 the whole ten books was published by Mr. Joseph Gwilt, 
 F.S.A. in 1825. The civil architecture of Vitruvius, com¬ 
 prising all that relates to the private edifices of the ancients, 
 had been previously translated by Mr. William Wilkins, 
 F.S.A. in 1817. 
 
 Plinius Secundus the Elder was the author of a work 
 on Natural History, compiled from various writers who had 
 pi eviously treated of that extensive and interesting subject, 
 and which displays the whole knowledge of the ancients 
 relative to natural history. It is divided into thirty-seven 
 books, and is dedicated to the Emperor Vespasian. The 
 thirty-fifth book treats of pictures, and contains observations 
 lelative to painting; the thirty-sixth, of the nature of stone 
 and marble; and the last, of gems. To each book is subjoined 
 a list of the authors from whom his observations were col¬ 
 lected. The best edition of the Historia Naturalis is said 
 
10 
 
 of modern architecture are greatly inferior to 
 the superb works of the Augustan age both 
 in grandeur and in elegance \ 
 
 There is not, says an able member of his 
 profession, any misfortune which an architect 
 is more apt to regret, than the destruction 
 of these buildings; nor could anything more 
 sensibly gratify his curiosity or improve his 
 taste, than to have an opportunity of viewing 
 the private edifices of the ancients, and of col¬ 
 lecting from his own observation such ideas 
 concerning the disposition, the form, the orna¬ 
 ments, and uses of the several apartments, as 
 
 to be that of Hardouin, a learned French Jesuit, in three 
 volumes folio, published at Paris in 1723: the only English 
 translation is by Philemon Holland, in one volume, published 
 in 1601. 
 
 1 The ruins and site of various villas near Rome are 
 pointed out to the traveller by the ciceroni. “ Half the 
 charm consists in the names which they bear. These rustic 
 and grand substructions, however, crown the hill so admi¬ 
 rably, that whatever they originally were, they now appear 
 the master object of Tivoli, and prove how happily the 
 ancient architects consulted the elevation of site and the 
 point of view.”— Forsyth’s Remarks on Italy, p. 247. 
 
 * 
 
11 
 
 no description can supply \ The recent dis¬ 
 coveries at Pompeii have led to a very success¬ 
 ful attempt, by M. Mazois 1 2 , in this interesting 
 branch of architecture, which is principally 
 founded on those remains, and presents very 
 curious details relative to the history of the 
 arts and of the private life of a Roman senator, 
 collected with indefatigable diligence from an 
 immense variety of ancient authors, where the 
 materials were only to be met with in detached 
 and widely separated parts. 
 
 The mansion of a Roman Patrician was in¬ 
 sulated on all sides, and surrounded by streets 
 adorned with a colonnade, beneath which 
 were shops; the rent arising from this dis- 
 
 1 Adam’s Introduction to his Account of the Palace of 
 Diocletian. 
 
 2 Le Palais de Scaurus, ou Description d’une Maison 
 Romaine, published at Paris in 1819: a translation of it has 
 not yet appeared in the English language,—a circumstance 
 of no small surprise. Very liberal use of this curious work 
 has been made in this slight essay; but it still requires a 
 complete translation, with plates of reference to accompany 
 the author’s brilliant and very lively description. 
 
position yielding a large revenue to the pro¬ 
 prietor 1 . In advance of thfe 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 2 ; others were adorned 
 with bronze quadrigae or chariots drawn by 
 four horses, equestrian statues, &c. Juvenal 
 particularly alludes to this ostentatious display 
 in the vestibule of the counsellor iEmilius, 
 where 
 
 -the brazen car on high, 
 
 Yoked with four steeds abreast, attracts the eye 3 . 
 
 A colonnade surrounded three sides of this 
 square 4 , 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. 
 
 s 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. 
 
13 
 
 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 1 . 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 sup¬ 
 posed 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 Bibliotheca, or Library. 
 
 The Oeci, or Saloons. 
 
 The Exhedra, or Assembly-room. 
 
 The Sacrarium, or Domestic Chapel. 
 
 The Culina, Kitchen, with its offices. 
 
 1 Mazois, Ruines de Pompeii, vol. ii. plate 1. 
 
14 
 
 The ScaljE, staircases. 
 
 The Solarium, andupperpartof themansion. 
 
 The Viridarium and Hortus, or Garden. 
 
 The Spheristerium and Aleatorium, Ten¬ 
 nis-court and Dice-room. 
 
 The Balneum, or Bath ; and 
 
 The Triclinium or Dining-room. 
 
 The Prothyrum was a tolerably broad cor¬ 
 ridor, where the Ostiarii, servants appointed 
 to guard the entrance, were stationed. Ad¬ 
 joining the Celia Ostiarii, a room in its appli¬ 
 cation similar to a porter’s lodge, the necessary 
 caution Cave Canem, Beware of the Dog, 
 has been found inscribed: sometimes, how¬ 
 ever, 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 prin¬ 
 cipal 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, 
 
15 
 
 carriage-houses, and other offices connected 
 with them. The term Pro thy mm, 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 9 , now the church 
 
 1 The modern term Lobby, of precisely the same applica ¬ 
 tion, is from the German Lauhe, an opening before a room, 
 an antechamber. 
 
 His Lobbies filled with ’tendance, 
 
 Rain sacrificial whisperings in bis ear. 
 
 Make sacred even his stirrup.— Shakspeare. 
 
 “ 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 bullae and 
 turning pivots.”— Forsyth’s Italy, p. 136.—Of Ghiberti’s 
 
16 
 
 of St. Cosmas and Damian; they even had 
 marble doors for tombsAt 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- 
 
 bronzedoors at the Baptistery of St. JohnatFlorence, 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 grada¬ 
 tions of relief; the architrave and frame are quite in har¬ 
 mony 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 modem Gen¬ 
 tleman-Usher, or Husher, a word derived from the French 
 Huis, a door. 
 
17 
 
 ing in the middle a court surrounded by columns 
 and likewise covered, called the Cavcedium. 
 Rooms appropriated to numerous attendants 
 were placed round this court, which, as it was 
 the most frequented part of the house, had 
 great magnificence usually bestowed upon it. 
 The walls of the Atrium were panelled with 
 marble, breast high, and the remainder was 
 adorned with capricious yet graceful arabesques. 
 Such a mode of decoration at least was in 
 general use in the time of Augustus \ 
 
 Although the Cavsedium was covered, a 
 
 1 The fantastic and imaginary representation of animals 
 and foliage is sometimes called Romanesque; and Count 
 Caylus says it was brought from Egypt, adopted by the 
 Greeks, and received amongst the Romans in the age of 
 Augustus. Terms also are used as expressive of the general 
 character of the various styles; as Egyptian, Etruscan, the 
 Neronian period, that of Diocletian, of Constantine, and the 
 Saracenic period. Ancient walls were painted from the 
 earliest times, and panels of rooms with flowers in the 
 centre have been found at Thebes. Arch. Diet. See also 
 Vitruvius, lib. v. cap. 7. Very noble fresco paintings adorn 
 the ceilings and walls of most of the Roman palaces of 
 modern date. 
 
 C 
 
18 
 
 space in the centre of the roof was left open to 
 the sky, called the Impluvium, through which 
 the rain-water fell into the Compluvium, a square 
 basin in the middle of the court, whence it 
 flowed into cisterns for domestic use. Several 
 of these reservoirs were sometimes connected 
 together upon different levels, so that the 
 water became purified by passing from one to 
 the other. Spring water was however used at 
 table and also in the kitchen 
 
 Many houses had in the centre of the Cavse- 
 dium a fountain, fed from the public aqueduct 
 by means of leaden or earthen pipes \ 
 
 1 Ducts of water, according to Vitruvius, were of three 
 kinds; channels of masonry, leaden pipes, or tubes of 
 fictile ware. When it was required to conduct water at 
 the least expense, tubes of earthenware were used, which 
 were so formed as to join together. Aqueducts of tubes, 
 continues the Roman architect, have these advantages;—if 
 any damage should happen, any person may rectify it; and 
 water from earthen tubes is more wholesome than that from 
 pipes, as the use of lead is found to be pernicious. The 
 taste also of that from tubes is better, as is proved at our 
 daily meals; for all persons, although they have tables fur¬ 
 nished with vases of silver, use fictile ware on account of 
 the purity of the taste. 
 
19 
 
 The Impluvium, or open part of the Atrium, 
 is represented to have been, occasionally at 
 least, covered by linen of a purple colour 1 , 
 which being gently agitated by the wind, cast 
 upon the columns and statues a tinged and 
 moving reflection. 
 
 The more these curtains spread, the pleasing dye 
 Rides on the beams the more, and courts the eye; 
 
 The gaudy colour spreads o’er every thing,— 
 
 All gay appear, each man a purple king 2 . 
 
 This was so much the more agreeable as the 
 Cavsedium received no other light. 
 
 The corridor of the Atrium in the House of 
 Scaurus 3 , according to Pliny, was of Lucullan 
 
 1 Pliny’s Natural History, book xix. chap. 1. 
 
 2 Lucretius, book iv. Creech’s translation. 
 
 3 Marcus Scaurus, the son of a distinguished Roman 
 consul of the same name, was celebrated on account of his 
 passion for luxury in buildings. No one, says Pliny, could 
 expect to be compared to him for expensive profusion in his 
 villa of Tusculum, so vast was his riches. Petronius also 
 makes Trimalchion exclaim, in giving an idea of the mag¬ 
 nificence of certain parts of his mansion, “ When Scaurus 
 comes here, he will lodge no where else.” Sat. cap. 17. 
 
 c 2 
 
20 
 
 marble,—a black species obtained from *the 
 island of Chio; and the columns of which it 
 was composed were thirty-eight feet high 1 2 . 
 But he also tells us that no other House then 
 in Rome could boast of such lofty columns. 
 
 The pavement, beautiful in appearance and 
 of imperishable solidity, was composed of the 
 rarest marbles fixed in a bed of cement. Horace 
 speaks of 
 
 .... the rich Floor with inlaid marble bright e . 
 
 The Atrium was an architectural distribution 
 of the mansion which originated in Italy, and 
 was unknown in Greece 3 . The Andronites of 
 
 1 Natural History, book xxxvi. chap. 2. And his English 
 translator continues, in the homely language of Queen 
 Elizabeth’s days, “ And least any man should say that this 
 is done in secret and hucker mucker, know he that when 
 these pillars were to be carried up into the Mount Palatine 
 where his house stood, the bailife that had the charge of the 
 publick sinkes vaulted under the ground, dealt with Scaurus 
 for good securitie, yea, demanded cautions and sureties for 
 satisfying of all harmes and dammages that might be occa¬ 
 sioned by their carriage, so huge and heavie they were. 
 
 2 Francis’s Translation, book i. epist. 10. 
 
 3 Vitruvius, lib. iv. cap. 10. 
 
21 
 
 the Greek houses was something of the kind 1 ; 
 hut the invention is expressly said to have 
 been derived by the Romans from the Atriates, 
 a people of Etruria, and must be understood 
 as perfectly distinct from the Vestibule before 
 described as standing without the Atrium 2 . 
 
 This part of a Roman mansion was peculiarly 
 appropriated to the public, every house having 
 two grand and important divisions in its plan; 
 one for the general use and reception of visitors, 
 and the other for the residence and immediate 
 use of the proprietor. 
 
 1 Andron signified that apartment of the house which 
 was appropriated to the men, usually placed in the outer or 
 lower part; while that inhabited by the women and children 
 was in the inner or upper part. 
 
 2 Mr. Wilkins gives the following definition of Atrium: 
 “ The Court of a Roman house, entered immediately from 
 the fauces of the vestibulum. Varro, De Ling. Lat. iv. 33, 
 makes the Atrium the same as the open Cavsedium of Vitru¬ 
 vius. In the description which Pliny gives of his villa, both 
 the Cavsedium and Atrium are mentioned.” The etymology 
 of Valpy is the most satisfactory; he says. Atrium or Ath- 
 rium is derived from the Greek Aitkrion, as being in the 
 open air: sub dio. Etymolog. Lat. Diet. 
 
22 
 
 In the architectural disposition of houses 
 there were no less than five different kinds of 
 Atrium, each named from the particular manner 
 in which the Cavsedium was covered. 
 
 The first, called the Tuscan, was simply com¬ 
 posed of four beams crossing each other at 
 right angles, and supporting the roof. This 
 primitive form of Atrium could only be adopted 
 in a small house; for when the Cavsedium was 
 increased in its dimensions, the beams having 
 too great a length would not bear the weight 
 of the roof. 
 
 The second kind of Atrium, called Tetrastyle, 
 had only four columns to support the trabs, or 
 beams of the roof at the points of intersection. 
 
 The third, or Corinthian, Atrium was the 
 most magnificent of them all; the only one, 
 indeed, that could be adopted in a Palace, be¬ 
 cause the number of columns required to sup¬ 
 port the roof allowed of any extent to be given 
 to the Cavsedium. 
 
 The Displuviatum formed the fourth kind of 
 Atrium; its difference consisted merely in the 
 
23 
 
 roof, which, instead of being inclined towards 
 the Impluvium in the middle of the court, 
 conveyed the water outside the Cavsedium. 
 
 The fifth, called Testudine, having no open 
 space at the top like the others, could only be 
 employed in small houses, and derived its 
 name from a resemblance of the roof to the 
 shell of a tortoise. It was a vaulted room of 
 no extraordinary dimension \ 
 
 The Atrium was unquestionably the most 
 essential and most interesting part of the 
 Roman mansion. It was here that numbers 
 assembled daily to pay their respects to their 
 patron, to consult the legislator, to attract the 
 notice of the statesman, or to derive importance 
 in the eyes of the public from an apparent in¬ 
 timacy with a man in power. Of this custom 
 the modern Levee, or morning reception of 
 company, is evidently a derivative. 
 
 The subjects of the more tasteful paintings 
 which were employed to decorate the walls of 
 
 1 Specimens of the several kinds of Atria are engraved in 
 Rnines de Pompeii, vol. ii. 
 
24 
 
 the Atrium, were usually drawn from the 
 Iliad and the Odyssey, with inscriptions placed 
 at intervals on the frieze \ 
 
 Other inferior subjects, particularly the com¬ 
 bats of gladiators, were employed to embellish 
 the taverns and dwellings of the lower class of 
 citizens, but were seldom seen in noble houses. 
 Davus, the servant of Horace, avows his ad¬ 
 miration of the rude designs in pictures of this 
 description, and speaks in raptures of Rutilius 
 and Placiduanus, two gladiators, so well painted 
 with red and black, 
 
 Methinks in very deed they mount the stage, 
 
 And seem in real combat to engage 2 . 
 
 At Pompeii have been found several instances 
 
 1 Heroic fable is the subject of all the great pictures in 
 Herculaneum, of those painted on the Greek vases, of those 
 described or imagined by the Philostrati, and of those which 
 Pausanias and Pliny enumerate. Every artist wrought on 
 the elegant fictions of Greece; fictions which overspread 
 poetry and religion,—nay, encroached on the sacred page 
 of history, and pretended to embellish that which knows no 
 beauty but truth. Forsyth’s Italy, p. 230. 
 
 2 Francis’s Horace, Sat. vii. book 2. 
 
25 
 
 of similar paintings, certainly executed by in¬ 
 ferior artists, and calculated for the amusement 
 of the populace. 
 
 The farther extremity of the Atrium con¬ 
 tained three principal apartments; the Tabli- 
 num, and its Alee, or wings, one on each side. 
 The Tablinum, completely open in front, was 
 of tolerably ample size, and contained all 
 proofs of the rank of the possessor of the 
 mansion, the archives of the family, and records 
 of the acts of each member who had held offices 
 of state. Both the Tablinum and the wings 
 were ornamented with pedigrees attached to 
 ancestral figures 1 ; it being the custom amongst 
 the Homans to place these representations of 
 their progenitors in the most conspicuous part 
 of the house, together with all the names of 
 noble families whence they derived their de- 
 
 1 Pliny, book xxxv. chap. 2. who tells us, “ there is extant 
 an act of Messala, an orator, wherein upon a great indigna¬ 
 tion he expressly forbad that there should be intermingled 
 one image that came from another house of the Levini 
 among those of his owne name and lineage, for feare of 
 confounding the race of his family and ancestors.” 
 
26 
 
 scent. Virgil particularly describes it, and 
 alludes to the arrangement on the entablature: 
 
 Above the portal, carv’d in cedar wood, 
 
 Plac’d in their ranks their godlike grandsires stood 1 . 
 
 The multitude of statues with which this 
 part of the house was sometimes adorned, 
 gave it more the appearance of a Forum than 
 of the Atrium of a citizen a . 
 
 The Jus Imaginis, or right of having pic¬ 
 tures or statues at Rome, was equivalent to 
 the modern custom of bearing a coat of arms; 
 it was all indeed which those ages knew of 
 “ the boast of heraldry 3 .” 
 
 Every family also honoured the shades of 
 their ancestors under the appellation of Lares, 
 or benevolent domestic deities, who they sup¬ 
 posed had not relinquished in death their affec- 
 
 1 Dryden’s Virgil: iEneis, book vii. 
 
 3 Pliny, book xxxiv. chap. 4. 
 
 3 It was only allowed to those persons whose ancestors 
 or themselves had borne some curule office; that is, had 
 been Curule iEdile, Censor, Praetor, Dictator, or Consul. 
 Whoever had pictures or statues of his ancestors was called 
 noble-, he that had only his own, new. 
 
27 
 
 tion for that house where they had formerly 
 lived;—from this belief by degrees sprung the 
 whole ancient mythology 1 . Besides statues of 
 bronze and marble, the Tablinum contained 
 encaustic paintings, and diptychs inclosing 
 family portraits in wax 2 . 
 
 In the earlier times of the Republic the Atria 
 were less sumptuous, and contained few orna¬ 
 ments excepting the prizes taken in war, and 
 effigies of conquered nations, which makes 
 Tibullus say, that “ Victory places before the 
 palace the spoils of the enemy. 51 
 
 From a passage in another ancient author 3 
 it is clear that the officers who had the care of 
 
 1 Lares is said to be derived from the Etruscan word 
 lars, which signified conductor or leader. The power of 
 these deities was supposed to extend not only over houses, 
 but also over the country, &c.; the Lares Urbani presided 
 over cities; Lares Familiares, over houses, &c. 
 
 2 A portrait is represented in plate 34, vol. iv. of Pitt. 
 Ercol. 
 
 3 Petronius, a favourite of the Emperor Nero, wrote his 
 Satiricon in elegant Latin, the best edition of which is by 
 Burman: Amsterdam, 1743. An English translation had 
 been published by Addison in 1736. 
 
28 
 
 the house were stationed in the chambers sur¬ 
 rounding the Atrium. Encolpius, one of the 
 characters, on entering the house of Trimal- 
 cion, under which title Nero is supposed to be 
 designated, speaks first to the Atriensis, who 
 explains to him the subjects of the paintings 
 which decorated the Atrium; then before read¬ 
 ing the Triclinum, a tablet containing a list 
 of engagements, he meets with the house- 
 steward busy with his accounts; and at last is 
 compelled to turn back to implore the in¬ 
 dulgence of the treasurer. The household of 
 a Roman Patrician was very numerous; and 
 the servants composing it were divided into 
 Decuria, or classes of ten, in the roll kept by 
 the house-steward. It was discovered on one 
 occasion, particularly mentioned by Gibbon, 
 that four hundred slaves were maintained in 
 a single house \ 
 
 1 They were all executed at Rome for not preventing 
 their master’s murder. The same number of slaves be¬ 
 longed to an estate which a widow of private condition re¬ 
 signed to her son, whilst she reserved for herself a much 
 
29 
 
 Almost every profession, either liberal or 
 mechanical, might be found in the household 
 of an opulent Roman, independent of those 
 servants who were employed in agriculture, or 
 those who had the care of the immense herds 
 and flocks, who could not be fewer in number 
 than the domestics \ 
 
 At Rome it was also usual for the Patricians, 
 even in the time of the Republic, to have about 
 them, besides their menials, a number of clients 
 or free-born persons devoted to their service, 
 who in quality of humble friends were treated 
 as intimates, and were occasionally charged 
 with private commissions. These confidential 
 persons were called Comites and Amici 2 , and 
 
 larger share of the property .—Gibbons History of Rome , 
 chap. ii. 
 
 1 Pignorius, a learned Italian, has collected in a treatise 
 Be Servis, more than three hundred sorts of employments 
 exercised in the town houses only by menials; and even 
 then has omitted many offices which are indicated in the 
 Monuments collected by Gruter, a work which throws 
 light upon a multitude of obscure passages in classical 
 authors. 
 
 2 Also Cohors Amicorum, Contubernales, and Commen- 
 sales. 
 
30 
 
 held such posts under their patron as private 
 Secretaries, Physicians, Cash-keepers, or Privy- 
 purse, &c. forming a suite more of state, than 
 of necessity, for their services. 
 
 Some of the greater houses in Rome had 
 attached to them a Basilica, or hall for the dis¬ 
 cussion of business and the hearing of causes \ 
 like the Sala of the modern palace, where the 
 throne and canopy are always placed. 
 
 The Peristyle, or Inner Court. 
 
 The division of a Roman mansion appropri¬ 
 ated to the personal use of the owner consider¬ 
 ably exceeded that which was devoted to the 
 public in extent. Corridors on each side of 
 the Tablinum, called Fauces, led to the inner 
 
 1 Vitruvius, lib. vii. cap. 10. The public Basilicae in the 
 earlier ages of Christianity were readily converted into 
 churches, and the original name is still retained in the 
 largest and most sumptuous churches of Rome; but although 
 so called were mostly erected, as in the instance of St. 
 John Lateran, on the site of an ancient Basilica, or hall of 
 justice, not one of which bore any resemblance to a Cross 
 in its plan. 
 
31 
 
 court, which being surrounded by columns be¬ 
 came a Peristyle \ and gave name to the in¬ 
 terior division of the house. Through the 
 Tablinum was also a way into this court; but 
 that entrance was reserved for the owner him¬ 
 self 2 . The Peristyle, more extensive than the 
 Atrium, had columns that were connected to¬ 
 gether by a low parapet, or Pluteum 3 , some¬ 
 times hollowed out so as to contain earth for 
 planting flowers 4 . A Xystus, or parterre formed 
 beneath the shade of plane-trees, occupied the 
 centre of the court, with its walks bordered 
 with dipt box, &c. 5 In the middle was a deep 
 basin to contain fish, many of which basins 
 were found in the Xysta at Pompeii. In a 
 
 1 A term derived from stylus, a pillar, and peri, about; 
 which also signified the colonnade on the exterior of the 
 temples, and any place encircled with pillars. 
 
 2 Ruines de Pompeii, vol. ii. p. 24. 
 
 3 This wall was composed either of stone, or some 
 material less durable. The last was adopted only in places 
 under cover. 
 
 4 After this manner is the Pluteum in many places at 
 Pompeii. 
 
 5 Pliny’s Natural History, book xvi. chap. 10. 
 
32 
 
 town-house the refreshing light of the green, 
 and the delightful scent of the flowers in this 
 Xystus, were calculated to afford some com¬ 
 pensation for the absence of a garden. 
 
 The fresco paintings on the walls of the 
 Peristyle represented architectural views in 
 perspective 1 , and the boarding of the roof 
 which concealed the frame-work was also 
 painted; a practice, says Pliny, introduced by 
 Pausias of Sicyon 2 . Ceilings formed in com- 
 
 1 A remarkable modern instance of this style of painting 
 was executed by J. F. De Vries, at Antwerp. He repre¬ 
 sented on a wall fronting an entrance, a Vista, through 
 which appeared an elegant garden laid out in noble parterres. 
 This performance was so amazingly like nature, and the 
 perspective so exactly true, that by many it was taken for 
 a real view; and the deception was so strong that it imposed 
 on the Prince of Orange, who could scarcely be persuaded 
 that it was not really what it appeared, till he was convinced 
 by the nearest approach to it. In this style of painting 
 De Vries excelled; his lights and shadows were judici¬ 
 ously conducted, and every object which he introduced in 
 the perspective views of rooms, halls, or galleries, was re¬ 
 presented with all the truth of nature, and finely coloured 
 with remarkable transparency. 
 
 2 Natural History, book xxxv. chap. 11. 
 
33 
 
 partments, or caissons, were called Laque- 
 aria \ 
 
 The colour generally used for the whole of 
 the surbase continued beneath the decorations 
 of the Peristyle was Pontii sinopis, a dull red: 
 a very brilliant tint was also produced by the use 
 of a richer material, the cinnabar of Ephesus; 
 but to protect this very delicate and precious 
 colour from the injurious action of the air, the 
 greatest precaution in its application was 
 necessary. 
 
 The Private Apartments. 
 
 The Romans rose at day-break, quitted their 
 houses early, to make visits, and attend to their 
 affairs; they next paid their adoration to the 
 
 The sunk panels of various geometrical forms symme¬ 
 trically disposed in flat or vaulted ceilings, or in soffits. 
 The beams which extended from the walls to the entabla¬ 
 ture, were intersected by others ranged longitudinally; the 
 square spaces made by these intersecting beams were con¬ 
 tracted towards the top, and were also called Lacunaria. 
 The suburban villa at Pompeii contained two examples of 
 this kind of ceiling. 
 
 D 
 
34 
 
 gods in the temples, whence they proceeded 
 to the Forum, where the Prsetor held his court 
 of justice 1 , and beneath the porticos of the 
 Basilicse discussed all public transactions, sel¬ 
 dom returning home before the hour of the 
 principal meal 2 , towards the evening, 
 
 When day declines, and feasts renew the night 3 . 
 
 It may indeed be said that the Romans 
 really lived out of doors, for the rooms that 
 were appropriated to their personal use were 
 
 1 Hence it was sometimes called Conventus as well as 
 Forum. The Forum generally bore the name of the founder, 
 as Forum Appii, Forum Trajani, Cornelii, Livii, Pompilii, &c. 
 There were also Fora Civilia et Judicialia. 
 
 2 The Prandium was a refreshment at noon, but the 
 Coena agrees best with the modern dinner; the various kinds 
 of meals are amply described by Ciaconius, a learned critic. 
 His book “De Triclinio Romano,” together with the treatises 
 of Fulvius Ursinus and Mercurialis upon the same subject 
 was published at Amsterdam in 1689, with plates to illustrate 
 the descriptions. There is also an appendix to Ciaconius, 
 on the Feasts of the Ancients, by J. W. Stuck, a celebrated 
 antiquary, which is very curious, and was published with 
 his other works, long after his death, at Leyden, in 1695. 
 
 3 Dryden’s Virgil, iEneis, book 4. 
 
35 
 
 generally of very small dimensions, although 
 they abounded with every refinement of volup¬ 
 tuous convenience, and were enriched with 
 ornaments of such exquisite taste, as to have 
 become proverbial in modern times by the term 
 classical. “ Considering the magnificence of 
 the Roman houses,” says Arbuthnot, a learned 
 writer on the value of ancient money, “ I should 
 be apt to think that both the materials and 
 workmanship were cheap.” M. Lepidus the 
 consul’s house had door-cases of Numidian 
 marble; it was the earliest that was so en¬ 
 riched 1 ; but afterwards they had them gilded, or 
 rather plated with gold: houses also were cased 
 with Carystian marble. Mamurra, Caesar’s 
 architect in Gaul, is recorded to have built the 
 first mansion of this kind on the Caelian hill 
 in Rome. Within the houses were costly 
 hangings of Tyrian dye, and marble pillars 
 with gilded capitals; the very walls, indeed, 
 were gilded. The Villa Gordiana had a Peri- 
 
 Pliny’s Nat. Hist, book xxxvi. chap. 6. 
 D 2 
 
36 
 
 style of no less than two hundred columns; 
 and fountains of variegated marble were intro¬ 
 duced in the courts, of houses, which in the pro¬ 
 gress of luxury at length occupied as much 
 ground as their ancestors were allowed for 
 estates \ 
 
 A Bed-chamber adapted to each of the 
 seasons had its Ante-chamber, called the Pro- 
 coeton, attached, besides rooms for different 
 servants. The Romans took repose in the 
 daytime like the modern Turks, &c. but then 
 it was not in the Bed-chamber, or Cubiculum, 
 as may be inferred from the description which 
 the younger Pliny has given of his villas at 
 Laurentum, and on the lake of Como, in 
 several of his letters 1 2 . In the epistle addressed 
 
 1 viz. Four jugera, or two English acres and a half. See 
 Arbuthnot’s Tables of Ancient Coins, page 150, &c. 
 
 2 Plinius the younger, nephew of the elder Pliny, was a 
 distinguished orator, and ranked with Tacitus in his profes¬ 
 sion; he was the author of many works, which have all 
 perished, excepting a panegyric on tire Emperor Trajan, 
 and ten books of letters, which he himself collected and 
 prepared for the public. The best edition of his letters is 
 
37 
 
 to Gallus 1 he particularly describes a chamber 
 so contrived that neither sun nor noise of any 
 kind could reach it. The mosaic pavements 
 of these rooms bore such inscriptions as bene . 
 dormio. &c . 3 In others, the walls were painted 
 in Opera Topiaria, resembling bowers composed 
 of green branches with birds perched, or on 
 the wing. One chamber also had windows so 
 situated, as to receive the rays of both the 
 rising and the setting sun. 
 
 The Hibernaculum, or small winter apart¬ 
 ment, was circular in its plan, and had the 
 
 acknowledged to be that published at Leipsic in 1806; but 
 there are English translations by Lord Orrery and by W. 
 Melmoth, the last said to be one of the best versions of a 
 Latin author which has appeared in the language. 
 
 1 Book ii. epist. 17. 
 
 2 On a part of a curiously carved bedstead of the time of 
 King Henry the Eighth, preserved in the collection of an 
 antiquary in London, was a flowing scroll bearing the words 
 com . to . bead . and over the doors of the richly carved screen 
 in the old hall at Halnaker, in Sussex, are labels inscribed 
 le. bien. venve.—come. in. and. drince. Inscriptions, 
 it is needless to say, have been applied to internal decoration 
 in all ages. 
 
38 
 
 lights so contrived as to receive the sun at all 
 hours of the day 1 . The beds were usually 
 placed in recesses called Zotheca, and the 
 bedsteads were made of citron wood or of 
 bronze 2 , and even covered with the tortoise’ 
 shell, which rivalled the precious metals in 
 estimation 8 . Juvenal mentions 
 
 The foreign tortoise and that clouded shell, 
 
 Which future times were destined to employ, 
 
 To build rare couches for the sons of Troy 4 . 
 
 The coverings of the cushions, like every 
 other article, were tastefully ornamented: the 
 cushions were filled with light feathers, and 
 
 1 A bedchamber in the Villa Suburbana at Pompeii was 
 so constructed. 
 
 2 The Museum at Portici exceeds all others in ancient 
 bronze. Bronze, though dearer, more difficult to be wrought, 
 more tempting to be destroyed, and less beautiful than 
 marble, forms most of the statuary. Bronze is preserved 
 here in all the various shapes of kitchen utensils, implements 
 of worship, and articles of dress. Even in early Greece 
 bronze was applied to the same variety of uses.— Forsyth’s 
 Italy. 
 
 3 Pliny’s Natural History, book xvi. chap. 43. 
 
 4 Badham’s Juvenal, sat. 11. 
 
39 
 
 the mattresses were stuffed with wool obtained 
 from Gaul \ 
 
 To the Hibernaculum was attached a small 
 room forming a Heliocausinus, which was a 
 kind of solar stove, imparting a gentle warmth 
 by means of widely glazed windows which 
 collected the sun’s rays. All other rooms 
 connected with the Hibernaculum were heated 
 by means of tubes fixed in the thickness of the 
 walls 9 . 
 
 The suite of private apartments in a Roman 
 mansion also contained a small dining-room, 
 several cabinets and Cellse Familiarise, or 
 rooms for persons immediately in attendance 
 upon the master of the house. To several of 
 the apartments discovered by the excavations 
 at Pompeii, a small room was found attached 
 which no doubt was destined for the attendant 
 on the master’s chamber. 
 
 1 Ursinus in the Appendix to Ciaconius “ De Tridinio,” 
 and Ruines de Pompeii, vol. ii. plate 10. fig. 2. 
 
 2 Winkelman’s Remarques sur V Architecture des Anciens, 
 p. 74, and several baths of the houses of Pompeii engraved 
 in Ruines 8fC. vol. ii. 
 
 t 
 
40 
 
 The windows of these rooms were all small, 
 but it is supposed they produced a more agree¬ 
 able effect to the eye on that account 1 2 . The 
 most common material of ancient windows 
 was thin canvas; but light was also admitted 
 by a very transparent species of stone called 
 speculum, which Seneca speaks of as an in¬ 
 vention of his time. This material was used 
 by the younger Pliny in his country-houses, 
 and was found at Segobriga in Spain; it was 
 afterwards discovered in Cyprus, Cappadocia, 
 Africa, and in Sicily. The Emperor Nero 
 built a temple solely of this stone within the 
 precincts of his Golden House, which in the 
 daytime received sufficient light without the aid 
 of windows. It was probably a kind of alabaster, 
 but more transparent than the species now used, 
 which does not become pellucid till cut very 
 thin*. The lapis specularis of the ancients 
 was undoubtedly talc, a species of fossil, com- 
 
 1 Cicero, Ad Attic, lib. 2, epist. 3. 
 
 2 Arbuthnot’s Tables, p. 153. 
 
41 
 
 mon in Cyprus, the Alps, Apennines, and 
 mountains of Germany. It is still used instead 
 of horn for lanterns, &c. Of Venetian talc, 
 another kind 1 2 , a beautiful pellucid greenish 
 yellow glass is made by fusion. 
 
 The windows upon the ground-floor of the 
 house were closed with clathri, iron gratings 
 either turning on a pivot, or fixed to the wall; 
 one of which has been discovered at Hercula¬ 
 neum 4 , and many at Pompeii. 
 
 The windows of the upper stories had boxes 
 with flowers in them 3 , imparting a cheerful 
 and rural aspect; while shutters painted of a 
 light blue colour were not only considered 
 most pleasing to the eye, but harmonized with 
 the azure sky 4 . 
 
 1 Not found at Venice, but bearing the name in con¬ 
 sequence of being an article of commerce with the Vene¬ 
 tians. 
 
 2 Winkelman Sur l’Architecture des Anciens, p. 64. 
 
 J Pliny, Natural History, book xix. chap. 4. 
 
 This colour, called Colon, used in painting shutters, was 
 manufactured at Puteoli. 
 
42 
 
 The furniture of the private apartments, 
 although made of the richest materials, derived 
 more value from the gracefulness of the forms 
 employed in the various designs, than from the 
 preciousness of the articles themselves, parti¬ 
 cularly when it is considered that this series of 
 rooms was entirely destined for one man, and 
 that only for his occupation during a few hours 
 of sleep. A door covered by drapery led from 
 this suite into a small court, the portico of 
 which was closed with glass. It is now no 
 longer doubted that the Romans were ac¬ 
 quainted with the use of glass windows, nume¬ 
 rous fragments of glass panes having been dis¬ 
 covered at Pompeii; these frail memorials 
 confirm all previous conjectures upon the sub¬ 
 ject. That entire corridors were sometimes 
 glazed may be inferred from Pliny’s descrip¬ 
 tion of his villa at Laurentum, where the 
 Atrium is represented as formed by glass 
 windows *. 
 
 1 See also the painting representing the Baths of Faustina, 
 published by Bellori and by Winkelman, Monum. Inedit. 
 
43 
 
 In this court was the Venereum, or, as the 
 Greeks called it, Aphrodision, a division of 
 the house comprising apartments dedicated to 
 the Cyprian goddess. No crevices were suf¬ 
 fered to appear in the doors of these rooms, 
 and they were completely protected from pry¬ 
 ing eyes by curtains on the inside. The sub¬ 
 ject of the painting on the wall opposite to the 
 door would be the punishment of the rash and 
 curious Acteon \ The gallery surrounding this 
 court was most in character when painted with 
 figures on a black ground, a mode of decoration 
 which gave a fine relief to the fairness of 
 women’s complexions, and also to their dress; 
 the quantity of gilded ornaments, spread upon 
 this black ground, destroyed whatever gloomi¬ 
 ness might otherwise prevail 2 . Here also was 
 placed a statue of Venus, with an altar at the 
 foot of it. This, indeed, was the temple of the 
 goddess, and had the greatest profusion of 
 ornament bestowed upon it. Columns remark- 
 
 1 Pitture de Pompeii, plate 1. 
 
 2 Pitture, and Ruines de Pompeii, vol. ii. 
 
44 
 
 able for the beauty of their substance supported 
 a gilded roof, which was reflected on the bright 
 marbles of the pavement 1 ; from the entablature 
 were suspended veils tinged with purple, and 
 embroidered with pearls, gathered in the Ery- 
 threan sea on the coast of Arabia. The whole 
 plan of this suite comprehended a court in the 
 centre, with a recess for the statue at the 
 end, on each side of which was a cabinet, both 
 alike. On the right hand of the court was a 
 refreshment room, and on the left a small 
 kitchen, together with a bath and its dependent 
 offices 2 . Beneath the colonnade stood flower¬ 
 pots filled with stimulating plants, and a round 
 table or monopodium. Such tables covered 
 with exquisite wines it will be remembered 
 are frequently represented on Etruscan vases, 
 
 1 It is generally supposed that the Romans understood the 
 art of gilding as used at the present time; but some of their 
 modes of inauration must have been much more expensive, 
 since it appears the gilding of the Capitol cost twelve 
 thousand talents, amounting to £2,325,000 English money. 
 — Arbuthnot’s Tables. 
 
 - See the House of Acteon in Ruines de Pompeii, vol. ii. 
 
45 
 
 placed near persons reposing on couches \ 
 The subdued light admitted to the cabinets 
 was a voluptuous refinement obtained by em¬ 
 ploying transparent alabaster, and by curtains 
 drawn before it. The walls of the rooms in 
 this division of the mansion were also decorated 
 with painted subjects drawn from the licentious 
 descriptions of the poets, of the mysteries of 
 their wanton mythology 2 . 
 
 The Gyn.eceum. 
 
 From the suite of apartments peculiarly de- 
 
 1 The forms of the Etruscan vases were equally perfect 
 and elegant. The ware of Arezzo, which was the most 
 celebrated, was red; that of Chiusi differed from the ware 
 manufactured at "Vblterra, which was very light covered 
 with a shining black varnish, and decorated with bassi re- 
 lievi and other ornaments as well executed as if in bronze. 
 From the numerous sepulchres or Hypogei discovered with¬ 
 out the ancient walls of Volterra, particularly on the hills 
 of Portone and Monte Bradone, have been drawn the valua¬ 
 ble specimens of Etruscan workmanship which enrich the dif¬ 
 ferent museums of Europe.— Hoare’s Classical Tour through 
 Italy, p. 8. 
 
 8 Propertius, lib. ii. eleg. 6. 
 
4G 
 
 voted to the personal use of the master of the 
 house, a door of communication led to those of 
 his wife and the ladies of the family, which 
 were denominated Gynseconites, a term origi¬ 
 nally employed by the Greeks to signify the 
 upper part of the houses, in the arrangements 
 of their dwellings 1 . The Romans, in many 
 instances regarding the conveniences of life, 
 imitated the Greeks, and in the extravagances 
 of luxury, as in many other particulars, greatly 
 surpassed their masters. Every considerable 
 Roman mansion had therefore its Gynseceum, 
 its Prothyrum, and its Exhedrse 2 ; and it is 
 
 1 From the account given by Vitruvius it may be inferred 
 that the villas of the Greeks were of great extent, and con¬ 
 trived with a view to considerable comfort. The circum¬ 
 stance of separate suites of apartments being allotted to the 
 reception of each guest, is a proof of great advances towards 
 the perfect contrivance in distribution of the whole, and 
 of the convenience they would afford in the economy of 
 the household.— Gwilt’s Cursory View of Ancient Architec¬ 
 ture. 
 
 2 Vitruvius, book vi. chap. 10. Julius Pollux, a Greek 
 grammarian, who was preceptor to the Emperor Commodus, 
 compiled an Onomasticon, or vocabulary, one class of which 
 
47 
 
 known that almost all the architects of reputa¬ 
 tion came from Greece, 
 
 The Romans left the exercise of the fine 
 arts to their freedmen, and therefore could 
 boast of few men of great talent, especially 
 amongst those who devoted themselves to 
 architecture, a science which necessarily re¬ 
 quires a highly cultivated mind, and ought ex¬ 
 clusively to be the study of persons gifted with 
 genius, and who in addition, have some know¬ 
 ledge of polite literature. Architecture has 
 not, like painting, an imitation of nature for its 
 object; the elements with which it works have 
 merely conventional forms. Its rules, deduced 
 from reason and experience, cannot be defined, 
 but are transmitted by tradition and example. 
 In short, it is only by combinations and repeated 
 attempts that it can give to the inspiration of 
 genius the stamp and character of the truly 
 
 comprises the Greek names of all parts of habitations; the 
 best edition is by Lederlin and Hemsterhuis, published at 
 Amsterdam in 1706. There is also a work by Grapaldus, 
 “ De Partibus CEdium,” published at Lyons in 1535. 
 
48 
 
 beautiful \ Whoever is desirous of studying 
 architecture has therefore much need of an 
 enlightened guide; one who is at least capable 
 of conducting him through the labyrinths of 
 uncertain theories 2 . 
 
 It was customary for the female part of the 
 family in Greece to occupy the most retired 
 part of the house, absolutely excluded from 
 the approach of man: the Roman ladies, on 
 the contrary, usually resided in the first story 
 
 1 Palais de Scaurus, cap. ii. In M. Mazois’ elegant 
 eulogium on Architecture he bestows very high praise on 
 Percier and Fontaine, the architects who jointly directed the 
 cexeution of the principal buildings with which Napoleon 
 adorned Paris. 
 
 a The late James Wyatt, who sedulously examined and 
 studied every monument of ancient Rome, on one occasion 
 drew together a crowd of people by lying on his back, on a 
 ladder slung horizontally immediately under the soffit of the 
 portico of the Pantheon, measuring and drawing with the 
 greatest accuracy parts which were almost inaccessible. 
 Brilliant, quick, and intuitive as was his genius, this eminent 
 architect was never remiss in investigating and making 
 himself master of the details and practical causes by which 
 the great effective results of his profession are produced.— 
 Hunt’s Architettura Campestre, Introd. p. 14. 
 
49 
 
 towards the front of the house, where they re¬ 
 ceived whatever visitors they pleased 
 
 A suite of several rooms appropriated to the 
 use of the ladies, and decorated with taste, led 
 to a state room, having a ceiling supported by 
 columns, to which draperies richly embroidered 
 in various colours were suspended;—a mode of 
 embellishment seen in all the paintings of Her¬ 
 culaneum representing interior views. 
 
 In imitation of the Asiatics, the Romans 
 entrusted the care of the ladies’ apartments 
 to eunuchs; and no one was permitted to enter 
 the Thalamus, where the matron usually sat 
 with her maidens, without permission. The 
 name of this room was adopted from the 
 Greeks, and frequently occurs in Homer and 
 other poets 2 . Amongst the attendants were 
 selected females endowed with talent, who in 
 
 1 Corn. Nep., Pref. 
 
 Phe general disposition of the Palace of the Odyssey 
 accords with that of the Greek houses described by Vitru¬ 
 vius. Ulysses is represented as sleeping in the Prodomus; 
 and near this place must have been the Thalamus of Pene- 
 
 E 
 
50 
 
 adjoining chambers were employed in various 
 polite arts, as painting, &c. 
 
 The dressing-room of a Roman lady of rank 
 was the deposit of the most costly elegance 
 that human ingenuity could then devise: to 
 enumerate the endless catalogue of articles 
 used at the toilette would be tedious and un¬ 
 necessary. 
 
 Pliny acquaints us that Lollia Paulina 1 when 
 at a wedding-feast, not given by one of the 
 principal families, was covered with jewels and 
 pearls from head to foot, which were estimated 
 at no less a sum than forty millions of sesterces, 
 upwards of three hundred thousand pounds 
 English money. She had not, he tells us, re- 
 
 lope, for hence he hears her voice lamenting. Penelope 
 also from her Thalamus hears what is passing in the Ccena- 
 culum, The Thalamus of the queen might therefore he on 
 one side of the Prodomus, and the r l halamus of Ulysses on 
 the other, like the Thalamus and Amphithalamus of a Greek 
 house, which Vitruvius represents as situated on either side 
 the Vestibule.— Wilkins’ Civil Architecture of Vitruvius, 
 p. 254. 
 
 1 The wife of the Emperor Caligula. 
 
51 
 
 ceived this prodigious treasure of precious 
 stones from the Emperor her husband, but 
 that it was the accumulated spoils of entire 
 provinces, obtained by the Consul her grand¬ 
 father 1 . Adjoining the dressing-room were 
 chambers, in which was prepared and preserved 
 the immense wardrobe termed Vestiarium*. 
 Near the Ladies’ Room was also a Penetrale, 
 or Oratory, in which the sex delighted to place 
 foreign divinities. To this suite likewise be- 
 
 1 Pliny’s Natural History, book ix. Full particulars of 
 the toilette of a Roman lady are to be found in “ Sabine, 
 ou la Matinee d’une Dame Romaine,” by Bcettiger; and in 
 “ Mundus Muliebris.” Ulpian, lib. 25.10. In the museum at 
 Portici are a greatvariety of rings, ear-rings, combs, thimbles, 
 mirrors of polished metal, and inventions of luxury and taste 
 admirably executed. 
 
 2 Plautus in Epidic. act ii. has made a comical list of a 
 Roman lady’s wardrobe, which it is impossible to translate 
 into any modern language. The Roman women at first 
 wore togse, afterwards tunics, commonly of wool, but of so 
 thin a texture that Lucian says you could see their bodies 
 through them. Tarentum was famous for that sort of 
 manufacture. Their outward garment was the Palla, or 
 Amiculum, which sometimes covered the head like a veil, 
 and was much the same with the Peplus. The Penula was 
 
 E 2 
 
52 
 
 longed several large rooms of great elegance 
 and beauty, appropriated for conversation. 
 
 The Pinacotheca. 
 
 Another arrangement of a Roman mansion 
 which branched from the Peristyle by a long 
 gallery, was the Pinacotheca, or Picture-gallery, 
 also borrowed from the Greeks, who were well 
 acquainted with the value of pictures. Marcus 
 Claudius Marcellus, a victorious general, not 
 only proved to the Romans that Hannibal was 
 not invincible, but enriched the capital with 
 the spoils of Syracuse, having actually stripped 
 the conquered city of all its most valuable 
 treasures of literature, sculpture, and painting, 
 to adorn the public buildings of Rome; chiefly, 
 he confessed, for the purpose of introducing 
 a taste for the fine arts and elegance of the 
 
 forbidden to women except in the country, perhaps on ac¬ 
 count of its convenience for intrigue. Faustina, the wife 
 of Marcus Aurelius, appears on medals in. three or four 
 different head-dresses; and it is certain the Roman ladies 
 used false hair. Such was the Caliendrum mentioned by 
 Horace: Arbuthnot’s Tables, p. 145. 
 
53 
 
 Greeks amongst his countrymen. More than 
 sixty years afterwards, the Consul Lucius 
 Mummius obtained the name of Acliaicus for 
 his destruction of Corinth, whence he conveyed 
 to Rome all the paintings of high celebrity, 
 and other works by the most accomplished 
 artists of Greece. By this means he greatly 
 contributed to form a pure taste, which pro¬ 
 gressively extended, until a collection of pic¬ 
 tures became a necessary appendage to every 
 Roman mansion of the first class. 
 
 The Pinacotheca was directed to be placed 
 towards a northern aspect by the rules of the 
 architect Vitruvius 1 ; this exposure, which at 
 all times afforded a uniform light to the pic¬ 
 tures, excluded the vivid rays of the sun. In¬ 
 finite care was bestowed on the preservation of 
 the paintings, exclusive of the peculiar position 
 of the gallery, which protected the colours from 
 the injurious effects of damp and sun. Each 
 picture was covered with transparent varnish 
 
 1 Lib. vi. cap. 7. 
 
54 
 
 to preserve it from dust, and some were also 
 inclosed in frames with shutters \ 
 
 Some pictures were executed in the encaustic 
 manner, said to have been invented by Pausias, 
 a painter of Sicyon, and others in fresco, which 
 last was usually adopted in paintings on walls e . 
 There were at least three several kinds of en¬ 
 caustic painting. The first, by means of colors 
 incrusted in lines, traced with the Cestrum 
 on ivory:—this instrument was a kind of 
 style, sharp at one end, and flattened at the 
 other. Amongst the pictures discovered at 
 Herculaneum is an interesting representation of 
 a lady painting with a Cestrum 3 : she is habited 
 
 1 See Pittura di Pompeii, a plate representing the deco¬ 
 rations of an Atrium. 
 
 2 Fresco painting is described as performed on fresh 
 plaster, or on wall covered with mortar not quite dry, and 
 with water-colors. The plaster could only be laid on as 
 the painting proceeded, and no more was done at once than 
 the painter could dispatch in a day. The colors being pre¬ 
 pared with water, and applied over plaster when quite fresh, 
 became incorporated with the plaster and retained their 
 beauty. 
 
 3 Pittura d’Ercolano, vol. vii. plate 1. 
 
55 
 
 in an ample white tunic without sleeves; her 
 mantle thrown over the lower part of her body, 
 falls in graceful folds over her seat, and spreads 
 itself on the pavement. The picture is placed 
 on an easel, near to which stands a small mar¬ 
 ble table containing hollows for the necessary 
 variety of tints; at a distance in the same pic¬ 
 ture appears an old woman grinding colours; 
 while another is seemingly melting wax mixed 
 with oil on the fire, that being the vehicle used 
 for the colours \ The second mode of encaustic 
 painting was with coloured wax, used in the 
 same way as is still practised in taking portraits 
 in wax. In the third method, melted wax was 
 used with a brush:—this last was the most 
 durable, and on that account was applied to 
 ships 1 2 . All the ancient pictures hitherto dis¬ 
 covered are in fresco, a style which admitted 
 the indiscriminate use of all kinds of colour. 
 Many of these frescos have been separated 
 
 1 Ruines de Pompeii, vol. ii. whence this account of the 
 mechanism of ancient art is derived. 
 
 2 Pliny’s Natural History, book xxxv. chap. 2. 
 
 
56 
 
 with equal daring and address from the walls 
 upon which they were originally traced. Pliny 
 gives an account of an operation of this kind 
 attempted by Caligula, in such a way as to 
 make it appear that it was frequently prac¬ 
 tised. In Pompeii several paintings were found 
 that had been already detached from the walls 
 before the fatal eruption of Vesuvius, and care¬ 
 fully placed on the ground with the view of 
 removal elsewhere. The following account of 
 existing specimens is by an artist of eminence. 
 
 The collections of ancient paintings at Por- 
 tici are curious and instructing; some of them 
 containing exquisite pieces of art. One room 
 is filled with representations of fruit and flowers, 
 well painted and freely handled: some grapes 
 in particular are remarkable for execution, 
 quite transparent, with the touches of light on 
 them judiciously placed to give effect and 
 clearness. A second room contains various 
 ornaments painted in a masterly manner, and 
 with considerable ingenuity in the design. A 
 third is covered with various animals and birds. 
 
57 
 
 Another apartment is filled with landscapes: 
 one is a view of ancient Puteoli. Amongst 
 the innumerable pictures in several rooms, the 
 following appeared to be the best: Sophonisba 
 drinking the juice of hemlock,—admirable in 
 expression; An infant Hercules strangling 
 serpents; Jupiter and Leda; The Graces; 
 A Venus; The Education of Bacchus ; and a 
 Medusa’s Head. These are all slight, but it is 
 that slightness which conveys character and re¬ 
 finement of taste. They are in fresco on stucco 
 grounds, and with a polish on the surface. It 
 does not seem that any glazing colours have 
 been used, the effect being produced entirely 
 by body colour. The Romans, however, as 
 Pliny informs us, had a dark yet transparent 
 mixture, which they laid over their highly 
 finished works to give the delusion required. 
 From the freshness and clearness of the colour¬ 
 ing, they seem to possess the advantage of paint¬ 
 ings in oil, so far at least as durability is ad¬ 
 vantageous '. The name of Apelles in Pliny 
 
 1 Williams’s Italy, vol. ii. p. 119. 
 
58 
 
 is the synonym of unrivalled excellence: and 
 a very superior critic has observed, that grace 
 of conception and refinement of taste were his 
 elements, and went hand in hand with grace of 
 execution and taste in finish,—powerful, and sel¬ 
 dom possessed singly, irresistible when united. 
 Such were the principles on which he formed 
 his Venus Anadyomene, or rather the personi¬ 
 fication of the Birth-day of Love,—the wonder 
 of art, the despair of artists; whose outline 
 baffled every attempt at emendation, whilst 
 imitation shrunk from the purity of the force, 
 the brilliancy, the evanescent gradations of her 
 tints 1 . This celebrated picture, drawn from 
 Campaspe, the beautiful mistress of Alexander, 
 to which the name of Apelles was affixed, and 
 usually called his masterpiece, was valued at a 
 hundred talents, or £19,375 English money. 
 
 Of the very high prices of pictures amongst 
 the Romans, the following notices are derived 
 
 1 Fuseli’s Lectures. The story of the contest between 
 Protogenes of Rhodes and Apelles is well known by the 
 tale which Prior has founded on it. 
 
59 
 
 from learned authorities:—The two pictures of 
 Medea and Ajax, by Timomachus, a painter 
 of Byzantium, were bought by Julius Csesar 
 for eighty talents, about £ 15,500. Hortensius, 
 the orator and friend of Cicero, paid for the 
 Argonauts, painted by Cydias, about 1,162/. 1 Os. 
 English money. Agrippa purchased two re¬ 
 markable pictures of Ajax and Venus from 
 the Cyzicenians for twelve thousand nummi, 
 or about 96/. 17s. 6d. The Archigallus, or 
 High Priest, a picture which the Emperor 
 Tiberius highly esteemed, and painted by Par- 
 rhasius, was valued at sixty sestertia, about 
 484/. 7s. 6d. Pliny says he was one of the 
 most excellent painters of his time; that it was 
 he who first gave symmetry and just proportions 
 in the art; that he also was the first who knew 
 how to express the truth of character and the 
 different airs of the face; that he found out a 
 beautiful disposition of the hair, and heightened 
 the grace of the countenance. It was allowed 
 even by the masters in the art, that he bore 
 away from all others the glory of succeeding 
 
60 
 
 in the outline, in which consists the grand 
 secret of painting. Amongst his pictures was 
 a celebrated one of Theseus; and another re¬ 
 presenting Meleager, Hercules, and Perseus, 
 a group \ L. Lucullus bought a copy of Gly- 
 cera, by Pausias, for two talents, or 397/. 10s. 
 English money 2 . Quintilian, commenting upon 
 the talents of six famous painters, says: Pro¬ 
 togenes excelled in exactness; Pamphilius and 
 Melanthus, in the disposition; Antiphilus, in 
 facility; Theon the Samian, in fruitfulness of 
 ideas; and Apelles, in grace and ingenious con¬ 
 ception. Other celebrated artists were Zeuxis, 
 Metrodorus, &c., whose works were in very 
 high estimation in Italy. 
 
 The Bibliotheca. 
 
 The Library also communicated with the 
 Peristyle, and was required to have an eastern 
 aspect; as its use demanded the morning sun, 
 
 i Pliny, book xxxv.; and Junius de Pictura Veterum ;—of 
 the last there is an English translation, published in 1638. 
 
 4 Arbuthnot’s Tables of Ancient Coins, p. 164. 
 
61 
 
 which was calculated to preserve the books 
 from damp, and had the additional advantage 
 of shielding the apartment from those sultry 
 winds which engender worms,—a consideration 
 by no means to be overlooked; as these insects 
 were found to occasion infinite mischief in li¬ 
 braries, by gnawing the rolls of parchment or 
 the leaves of papyrus, of which the books were 
 made \ The private libraries of the Romans, 
 although they contained a considerable number 
 of books, were probably small: one discovered 
 at Herculaneum, containing more than a thou¬ 
 sand volumes, was of such confined dimensions, 
 that by extending the arms, both sides of the 
 wall might be touched 1 2 . The manuscripts of 
 
 1 A deed written in Latin on papyrus, dated A.D. 572, is 
 exhibited in the British Museum; and also a large specimen 
 of the reed Cyperus Papyrus, of which that kind of paper is 
 made. It is accompanied by an Italian note by Sir William 
 Hamilton, written on modern papyrus, explaining the mode 
 of preparing it. The ancient papyrus was to be found no¬ 
 where but in Egypt and in India, according to Strabo. 
 
 2 Winkelman, Re'cherches sur l\Architecture des Anciens, 
 p. 73. 
 
62 
 
 papyrus found at Herculaneum, and now pre¬ 
 served at Portici, consist chiefly of the works 
 of the Greek philosophers or sophists, the 
 subjects of which are either natural or moral 
 philosophy, medicine, criticism, and general 
 observations on the arts, life, and manners \ 
 The unfolding of the papyri is exceedingly 
 curious and interesting. From the frailty of 
 the material the process is extremely slow; 
 perhaps not more than half an inch is unfolded 
 at a time, and is fixed upon gold-beater’s leaf. 
 In appearance the papyri might be mistaken for 
 parts of calcined branches of trees, the circular 
 folds seeming like the growth of the wood. 
 In looking at these black and indurated masses, 
 it requires an effort to believe them to be re¬ 
 plete with human knowledge 2 . 
 
 In the Bibliotheca, drawers placed all round 
 the room preserved the Locumenta, or boxes 
 containing the volumes carefully labelled 3 . 
 
 1 Sir Humphry Davy’s Report, 1819. 
 
 2 Williams’s Italy, vol. ii. p. 130. 
 
 3 Pittura d’Ercolano, vol. ii. plate 7. 
 
63 
 
 Scrinium was a term also applied to a casket in 
 which rolls or books were kept. The books 
 called Volumina consisted of rolls of papyrus, 
 or parchment strung together l ; and these rolls 
 were fastened either in the centre, or from the 
 end, by means of a boss, upon which the greatest 
 skill was frequently lavished. It is not impro¬ 
 bable that the value or importance of the ma¬ 
 nuscript was sometimes indicated by the style 
 of ornament introduced upon the fastening. 
 
 Experience must soon have shown the great 
 convenience of folding the sheets of vellum 
 into two or four; but it appears the previous 
 method of a long roll prevailed in the days 
 of Catullus, and even for some time after¬ 
 wards 4 . Pictures as well as busts of men 
 eminent in the cultivation of letters and the 
 
 1 At Athens a statue was erected in honour of the in¬ 
 ventor of binding books by means of glue, OlympiodoTus . 
 
 2 Horace is said to have been very short and corpulent; 
 a circumstance which is learnt from a fragment of a letter 
 of Augustus to him, preserved in his life by Suetonius, 
 where the Emperor compares him to the hook he sent him 
 which was a little short thick volume. 
 
64 
 
 fine arts, were admitted as an appropriate or¬ 
 nament of the Library. In one of the younger 
 Pliny’s letters he thus writes to his friend Cati- 
 lius Severus : “ Herennius Severus, a man of 
 great learning, thinks it will be an honour to 
 place the portraits of Cornelius Nepos and 
 Titus Cassius in his library. They were both 
 natives of your city; and he desires if their 
 pictures are there, as it is probable they are, 
 that I would take care to get them copied and 
 painted. This is a commission which I parti¬ 
 cularly enjoin you to execute, &c.—I beg you 
 will select the most careful painter you can 
 find; and I entreat that the artist you choose 
 may not be permitted to vary, even for the 
 better 1 .” When Asinius Pollio, the patron 
 both of Virgil and Horace, first raised a public 
 library at Rome 2 , the statues of men of science 
 and literature of every age were placed in it; 
 but Marcus Terentius Varro, usually styled the 
 
 1 Book iv. epistle 28. 
 
 2 Pliny’s Natural History, book xxxv. chap. 2. 
 
65 
 
 most learned of all the Romans, was the only 
 person who during his lifetime had the honour 
 of a statue in Pollio’s library. Augustus after¬ 
 wards founded the Bibliotheca Palatina, and 
 enriched it with a vast collection of Greek and 
 Latin manuscripts,—an example followed by 
 many succeeding Emperors. 
 
 Amanuenses were employed in rooms ad¬ 
 joining the library in copying manuscripts, 
 under the direction of a grammarian, which 
 transcripts were made with reeds upon papyrus, 
 or very white parchment. The reed employed 
 for writing was sharpened and split in the 
 point like the modern pen, and was called by 
 the various names of Calamus, Arundo, and 
 Canna. The celebrated traveller Bruce, who 
 found the papyrus growing both in Egypt and 
 Abyssinia, actually made a paper of the plant, 
 in imitation of that used by the Romans. The 
 method of writing upon wax, although pre¬ 
 viously used, was not the most ancient. Leaves 
 of trees were employed in the primitive at¬ 
 tempts ; then Philyra, or the thin skin between 
 
 F 
 
66 
 
 the bark and the wood of the linden-tree; after 
 which, linen and wax came into use. The 
 Stylus or Graphium of the Romans was an 
 iron pencil sharp-pointed at one end and broad 
 at the other. With the sharp end the im¬ 
 pression was made on the wax, and the other 
 was adapted to make erasures. Sometimes 
 the obliterating instrument was attached to 
 the writing stylus 1 . In mentioning this in¬ 
 strument, it is scarcely possible to forget that it 
 was a stylus with which Julius Csesar defended 
 himself in his last moments, and according to 
 Suetonius wounded Cassius. 
 
 The Romans, however, still continued to write 
 in the waxed table-book even after the use ot 
 papyrus was adopted. These tables were called 
 Pugillares, and were also denominatedDiptycha, 
 Triptycha, or Pentycha, according to the num¬ 
 ber of leaves, either of wood or metal, of which 
 they were composed. Propertius says 2 , 
 
 1 As in the instance engraved in Plate III. of Hobhouse s 
 Illustrations of Childe Harold. 
 
 2 Lib. iii. 23. 8. 
 
67 
 
 With gold my tablets were not costly made, 
 
 On common box the sordid wax was laid. 
 
 The tables were used as being more convenient 
 for correction by erasure. The writing when 
 completed was thence transcribed into Volu- 
 mina, or books of parchment, whether intended 
 foi sale or to be deposited in the library for 
 private use. 
 
 This method of making use of tablets or 
 diptychs is particularly recommended by Quin¬ 
 tilian ; and Ovid, in the story of Caunus and 
 Byblis, minutely describes the usage: Byblis it 
 will be remembered is about to address her 
 brother by letter;— 
 
 .... Then fits her trembling hands to write: 
 
 One holds the wax, the style the other guides; 
 
 Begins, doubts, writes, and at the tables chides; 
 
 Notes, razes, changes oft, dislikes, approves, 
 
 Throws all aside, resumes what she removes. 
 ****** 
 
 The wax thus fill’d with her successless wit. 
 
 She verses in the utmost margin writ, 2 
 
 Reading-rooms were connected with the 
 
 1 Institutes , book x. chap. 3. 9 Sandys’s Translation. 
 
 F 2 
 
 \ 
 
68 
 
 library, as also rooms appropriated to philo¬ 
 sophical discussion. The probable and com¬ 
 parative extent to which the bibliomania was 
 carried at Rome may be inferred from the cir¬ 
 cumstance of Serenus Samonicus, a physician 
 of the age of Severus, having left his library 
 of 62,000 volumes to M. Antonius Africanus 
 Gordianus, who had been his pupil. The 
 splendid and matchless library at A1 thorp, in 
 Northamptonshire, belonging to Earl Spencer, 
 is at present computed at about 33,000 vo¬ 
 lumes. 
 
 The (Eci, or Saloons. 
 
 The term CEcus is derived from Greece, 
 where it was used to imply the House; but the 
 Romans, in the arrangement of their more 
 ample mansions, gave it the signification of 
 Saloon \ A small room of this description, or 
 
 1 Vitruvius’s Architecture, book vi. chap. 5, 6, and 10. 
 Saloon, the term here used to express a spacious hall or 
 kind of state room, is derived from the French salon, but 
 perhaps came originally from the German sal. 
 
69 
 
 one adorned with only four columns, was de¬ 
 nominated Tetrastyle, from that circumstance; 
 its form was square, and consequently its height 
 was equal to one breadth and a half. The 
 columns supported an entablature, or beams, 
 encrusted with gilded enrichments *, and the 
 floor was of mosaic. There is no proof that 
 the Greeks were acquainted with the last spe¬ 
 cies of decoration. Dr. Clarke considers that 
 the tessellated pavement, or Lithostratum, was 
 introduced into Rome from Persia in the time 
 of Sylla, and succeeded the painted floor of the 
 Greeks 2 . Pliny is replete in his description 
 of all kinds of mosaic pavements, which, as 
 objects of elegance and curiosity, were in high 
 request amongst the Romans. The first essays 
 in this species of art only presented lines of va¬ 
 rious forms made of stones of different colours. 
 In a short time glass, united to the most pre¬ 
 cious marbles, and to pastes susceptible of polish 
 
 1 Statius, lib. 1. Sylva3 2. v. 153. 
 
 2 Clarke’s Travels . vol. v. p. 123. 
 
70 
 
 and capable of resisting the action of water, 
 enabled the artists in mosaic to form complete 
 pictures. Landscapes even were composed, 
 with men and animals tinted with the different 
 shades that the accidents of light and the pas¬ 
 sions give to animated beings 1 . 
 
 In the CEci, or Banqueting-rooms, of which 
 
 1 The best examples of the orthodox portraits of Christ, 
 the Madonna, and the Apostles, are to be found in the mo¬ 
 saics which generally encrust the absis of the ancient Basi- 
 liccE at Rome. It is probable that it was from one of these 
 early designs, which may be traced as high at least as Con¬ 
 stantine, that Nicephorus composed his description. The 
 tessellated pavement in Westminster Abbey Church was 
 brought from Rome in the reign of Henry III.; the materials 
 are porphyry, lapis lazuli, jasper, alabaster, Lydian and ser¬ 
 pentine marbles, and touchstone. The pieces are of different 
 sizes, many of them scarcely half an inch square, and the 
 largest not more than four inches, with the exception of the 
 principal centres; the whole was highly polished. The 
 modern mosaic is said to be composed of a semivitrified 
 substance called fritta, mostly manufactured at Venice. 
 It is cut with a diamond, and then with an iron hammer 
 broken into cubes of different sizes, which are immersed in 
 a strong plaster. 
 
 ■ 
 
71 
 
 there were several, the centre of each of the 
 walls was painted; and as every room in a Ro¬ 
 man mansion bore its distinct name 1 , that with 
 one of the Seasons represented on each side 
 would be termed The Hall of the Seasons : a 
 room so decorated was found at Herculaneum. 
 
 A Corinthian Hall was surrounded by co¬ 
 lumns of that order of architecture 2 upon 
 pedestals, and was panelled with spotted marbles 
 procured from the islands of Thasos and Les¬ 
 bos 3 . The vaulted ceiling, divided into caissons 
 or sunk panels of stucco, was enriched with 
 gilt and coloured ornaments, and harmonized 
 with the variety of marbles shining on all sides 
 through the opening purposely made in the 
 
 1 Plutarch in his Life of Lucullus.—Tiberius’s twelve vil¬ 
 las in the Isle of Capri, had the name of a deity attached to 
 each of them, the most conspicuous and most favoured of 
 which was the Villa Jovis, where the Emperor, after the 
 defeat of Sejanus’s conspiracy, retired for the space of eight 
 successive months: considerable remains of this villa still 
 exist.— Hoare’s Italy. 
 
 2 Vitruvius, book vi. chap. 5, 6 and 10. 
 
 3 Pliny’s Natural History, book xxxvi. chap. 6. 
 
72 
 
 roof 1 . Horace contrasts the simplicity of his 
 cottage on the Sabine farm with the splendour 
 of other villas that abounded in the neighbour¬ 
 hood of Rome: 
 
 Nor here an ivory cornice shines, 
 
 Nor columns of Hymettian mines 
 Proudly support their citron beams. 
 
 Nor rich with gold my ceiling flames 2 . 
 
 The Egyptian Hall 5 derived its name from the 
 ornaments employed in its decoration, and, like 
 the Corinthian (Ecus, was surrounded by co¬ 
 lumns; but with this difference, that the enta¬ 
 blature was surmounted by an attic 4 having 
 pilasters at intervals and pierced with windows. 
 The embellishments, conformable to the Egyp¬ 
 tian style, included the celestial sphere accord- 
 
 1 Statius, lib. i. Sylvse 5. 
 
 2 Francis’s Translation of the 18th Ode, book ii. 
 
 3 Vitruvius, book vi. chap. 5. 
 
 4 Vitruvius uses the words “ornamenta columnarum ” 
 to signify the entablature, and sometimes he includes the 
 three several parts, architrave, frieze, and cornice, in the 
 term “epistylia.” The attic comprised everything placed 
 above the entablature. 
 
73 
 
 ing to the astronomical system of that people; 
 
 “ Cycle and epicycle, orb in orb;” 
 or like the zodiac of Tentyris 1 , which was carved 
 on a ceiling of that Temple. 
 
 In the mosaic pavement would be traced 
 views of the banks of the Nile, the period of 
 inundation, buildings and animals peculiar to 
 Egypt, with hunting scenes of the crocodile 
 and hippopotamus, as in the celebrated mo¬ 
 saic of Palestrina, now in the Barberini Palace 
 at Rome 2 . The capitals and bases of the co¬ 
 lumns of this room would be of gilded bronze; 
 and the marbles which covered the walls, the 
 richest that the Numidian quarries could fur¬ 
 nish*. 
 
 1 Engraved in the great Work on Egypt published by 
 order of the French Government. 
 
 2 The floors of the modern palaces of Rome are frequently 
 composed of inlaid marbles of different colours. Some are 
 of stucco, or plaster elegantly painted, and others of fine 
 brick only. 
 
 3 Pliny’s Natural History, book xxxiv. chap. 3. The 
 employment of marble is one of the most tasteful features of 
 internal embellishment; and a modern architectural critic 
 with great justice observes, that “the application of coloured 
 
74 
 
 The Exhedra. 
 
 The Exhedra was a large and spacious hall, 
 of great height; its extremities terminating in 
 hemicycles having a semicircular seat. These 
 seats are particularly represented in Mazois’ 
 splendid work on Pompeii 1 ; but he does not 
 give the name of Exhedra to a mere semicircu¬ 
 lar seat; as it is so well understood to imply 
 hall, or room for conversation, that Vitruvius 
 confounds it with the (Ecus, and gives it the 
 
 marbles admits of endless variety, and of every degree of 
 character, from the most simple to the richest. It is here 
 that the architect may be said to come into competition 
 with the painter, and may, like him, please the eye by a 
 masterly combination of tints. In external architecture it 
 must be granted that colours are totally inadmissible, but 
 assuredly not in interiors. Gilding and bronze may also 
 be reckoned as two of the colours peculiar to the architect s 
 palette. The first may be objected to; but surely there is 
 sufficient authority for its use by the ancients to satisfy the 
 most rigorous critic amongst the admirers of attic purity. 
 See Mr. Leeds’ ample dissertation on the interior decoration 
 of houses, written for Britton s Account of Sir John Soane s 
 Museum, p. 14. 
 
 1 Ruines de Pompeii, vol. i. plates 33 and 34. 
 
75 
 
 same proportions 1 . The word is composed of 
 the Greek preposition ex, and hedra seat , and 
 may be rendered Hall of Seats, or, still better, 
 Hall of Assembly 2 . 
 
 Separate benches were ranged on the sides, 
 of similar form, it may be supposed, to the two 
 seats found in the principal room of the Baths 
 in the Suburban Villa at Pompeii. The centre 
 of the Exhedra was left clear, for the company 
 to walk in : the pavement was of white mar¬ 
 ble; the walls also were lined with marble breast 
 high, the remaining part being covered with re¬ 
 presentations of columns, and their entablature 
 highly relieved, so as to give the architecture 
 
 1 Vitruvius, book vi. chap. 5. The portico of the Grecian 
 Palaestra, or Gymnastic School, was called Exhedra from its 
 containing a number of seats. In private houses the Exhe- 
 drse were generally open like the Pastas, or Vestibule, of a 
 Greek house.— Wilkins. 
 
 2 The modern ‘parlour’ is a monastic term, and originally 
 implied a room in a convent where the religious met and 
 conversed ; it is derived from the French parloir. 
 
 Roof and sides were like a parlour made, 
 
 A soft recess, and a cool summer shade. 
 
 Dry den. 
 
76 
 
 a prominent effect; also with pedestals bearing 
 statues, and with every variety of enrichment 
 of which architectural scenes are susceptible 1 . 
 
 The Exhedrsewere ornamented with pictures, 
 on account of the ample breadth of the walls, 
 which in these large rooms afforded a wide 
 scope for the exercise of the painter’s genius 2 . 
 Tragic scenes, subjects drawn from mythology, 
 
 1 In the history of the revival of art, Stefano, the pupil 
 of Giotto, who lived about the year 1320, has the merit of 
 restoring the true principles of perspective ; he painted in 
 fresco, and a Scriptural subject is mentioned by Pilkington 
 as a proof of his vast superiority to any other artist of his 
 time. The scene of this picture represented a magnificent 
 building, in which the grandeur of the edifice, the elegant 
 form and just proportion of the columns and other parts of 
 the architecture, the perfect deception to the eye, and the 
 grand effect of the whole, showed such taste, skill, and in¬ 
 vention as well as judgment, that it was considered an in¬ 
 imitable performance .—Life of Stefano called Florentino. 
 
 To Corregio, who flourished 200 years later, is attributed 
 the invention of successfully foreshortening the figures, which 
 he effected by the power of his extensive genius; and by that 
 means he painted the domes and the ceilings of palaces in a 
 style that surprised every one, as well by its novelty and 
 beauty as by its astonishing effect.— Pilkington. 
 
 2 Vitruvius’s Architecture, book vii. chap. 7. 
 
V 
 
 77 
 
 the Trojan war, with the adventures of Ulysses, 
 were all employed as means of decoration 1 . 
 A proof of the extent to which this mode of 
 embellishment was carried, is to be found in 
 the Baths of Titus at Rome, which, although 
 now destitute of external grandeur, abound 
 with curious examples of ancient painting, con¬ 
 sisting of both simple ornament and fanciful 
 figures, which Rafaello himself has not dis¬ 
 dained to study. These baths contain apart¬ 
 ments of considerable dimensions; the orna¬ 
 mental paintings in the smaller rooms of the 
 building are neither in good taste nor well 
 coloured, according to the opinion of an ac¬ 
 complished artist. Red, orange, and blue are 
 the colours which here predominate; but ad¬ 
 vancing, a vast improvement is found; the 
 roofs, where the various figures in fine taste are 
 all painted upon a white ground, are at least 
 thirty feet high, and can only be examined by 
 wax lights. 
 
 The Gallery discovered in the time of Rafaello 
 
 1 Petronius’s Satyricon, chap. 9. 
 
78 
 
 is extremely interesting, not only on account 
 of that eminent painter having improved his 
 mind in studying there, but because the paint¬ 
 ing is superior to that found in the other cham¬ 
 bers 1 . On the ceiling is a picture which has 
 been accurately copied by Annibale Caracci, the 
 founder of the Bologna School. It is said to re¬ 
 present Coriolanus and his mother Volumnia, 
 and is quite upon the principle of a finished 
 painting, the colouring and drawing being ex¬ 
 tremely beautiful. There are many other sub¬ 
 jects that equally exhibit refinement of mind; 
 and of the merits of the more elaborate and 
 highly finished pictures of the ancients, ample 
 testimony is afforded by various authors. These 
 remains in the Baths of Titus and others disco¬ 
 vered at Herculaneum, are sufficiently striking 
 examples of what they really were capable of 
 performing. All these were painted on walls, 
 
 1 See also “Description des Bains de Titus, ou Collection 
 des Peintures trouves dans les Ruines des Thermes de cet 
 Empereur,” by M. Pouce, published at Paris in 1786, which 
 are preferable to those of Herculaneum. 
 
79 
 
 and many of them in subordinate buildings. 
 The Aldobrandini Marriage, now in the collec¬ 
 tion of Signor Nelli at Rome, was cut from a 
 wall forming part of the Baths of Titus. This 
 celebrated ancient painting has been often 
 copied by eminent artists 1 2 . The picture, con¬ 
 sisting of ten figures, all of them females with 
 the exception of the bridegroom, is executed in 
 a light sketchy style; the shade of flesh is 
 hatched with a reddish purple heightened with 
 a warm brown. The only colours used are red 
 approaching to a crimson brown, green in¬ 
 clining to the hue of verdigris, brilliant orange, 
 purple, and a beautiful white: these colours are 
 almost exclusively employed in the drapery of 
 the figures. The back-ground is principally 
 taken up with a screen, which is of whitish 
 purple, the vacant ground being of a pale 
 green. As a work of art it has great merit, 
 chiefly for the purity of taste displayed in it*. 
 
 1 A very beautiful copy by Nicolo Poussin is in the 
 Doria Palace, which contains one of the finest collections 
 of pictures in Rome. 
 
 2 Williams's Italy, vol. ii. p. 66. 
 
80 
 
 The Sacrarium. 
 
 Most of the patrician families of Rome had 
 a domestic chapel, independently of the Lara- 
 rium before alluded to 1 . The Sacrarium, situ¬ 
 ated in a small retired court within the man¬ 
 sion, was approached by a little door inlaid with 
 ivory. This apartment, devoted to private wor¬ 
 ship, was adorned with four columns, having 
 the walls also covered with paintings represent¬ 
 ing divinities 2 . On each side of the portal in 
 
 1 Lararium, that part of the Atrium in which the Lares 
 were placed. See ante pp. 26 and 27. 
 
 2 See Ruines de Pompeii, plate 2; and the Essay on 
 Buildings, fig. 3. n. 10. The Penates, who presided over 
 houses and domestic affairs, were generally placed in the 
 innermost part of the house, which was thence called Pene¬ 
 tralia. These deities were chosen according to option, and 
 Jupiter as well as other superior gods was sometimes in¬ 
 voked. Four classes of Penates comprehended the celestial, 
 the sea gods, the gods of hell, and all heroes who had re¬ 
 ceived divine honours. The statues were made of wax, 
 ivory, silver, or potter’s ware, in proportion to the affluence 
 of the worshiper; and the only offerings to these gods were 
 wine, incense, fruits, and rarely the sacrifice of lambs, kids, 
 &c. When offerings were made, the statues were crowned 
 with garlands of poppies or garlic, and a monthly day was 
 
81 
 
 the interior of the court stood two basins 1 of 
 lustral water, procured occasionally from Ethi¬ 
 opia, according to Juvenal: 
 
 .Should Io’s priest command 
 
 A pilgrimage to Meroe’s burning sand; 
 
 Through deserts they would seek the secret spring. 
 And holy water for lustration bring 2 . 
 
 In the midst of the court of the Sacrarium 
 stood an altar for sacrifice, and on the opposite 
 side was a little temple dedicated to the Good 
 Goddess, with the inscription bona.dea. on 
 the door. The interior was enriched with pre¬ 
 cious marbles, of which the cornice and all the 
 more delicate mouldings wrought in marble 
 were gilded: the foliated gold was fixed on 
 the sculpture with white of egg*. The practice 
 
 set apart for their worship, independently of the festival of 
 the Saturnalia. 
 
 1 Such are in the Museum of the Studii at Naples, and 
 of the most elegant form. 
 
 2 Satire 6. Dryden’s Translation. 
 
 3 Pliny’s Natural History, book xxxiii. chap. 3. Virgil 
 
 admires the effect of gold on marble; “_Pariusve lapis 
 
 circumdatur auro.” 
 
 G 
 
82 
 
 of gilding is also known to have been applied 
 to the statues, which, as the metal was not 
 beaten very thin, must have been an expensive 
 mode of adornment, and the leaves consequently 
 well worth the trouble of peeling off,—a practice 
 that did not escape the notice of Juvenal 
 amongst the vices of his age:— 
 
 .Some pilfering knave will try 
 
 From Neptune’s cheek or great Alcides’ thigh 
 To scrape the gilding,—or from Castor steal 
 All of his plating that their hands can peel 1 . 
 
 Lamps, each bearing several lights, called 
 Polymyxos 2 , were suspended within the temple, 
 in which numerous statues of exquisite work¬ 
 manship were assembled 3 . The Eleusinian 
 goddess occupied the centre niche, having on 
 
 1 Satire 13. Badham’s Translation. 
 
 4 See Antiq. Hercul. plate 49 to 52; and Martial, lib. xiv. 
 Epig. 39. 
 
 3 In Spence’s Anecdotes it is stated, on the authority of 
 Ficoroni a famous Roman antiquary, that there were in his 
 time 10,600 pieces of ancient sculpture of one sort or other, 
 relievos, statues and busts, in Rome, and 6,300 ancient 
 columns of marble. What multitudes of the last have been 
 sawed out for tables and panelling chapels, or otherwise de- 
 
83 
 
 each side a Canephora, or female figure bear¬ 
 ing a votive basket, executed in bronze 1 ; and 
 near the principal statue were those of Cupid 
 and Hercules. In the centre of the Sacrarium 
 stood an insulated pedestal bearing a gilt 
 wooden figure of Good Fortune, to which 
 deity, as the dispenser of riches and pleasure, 
 particular attention was paid by the Romans. 
 In drawers within a division of this sanctuary 
 were kept the most valuable of the family 
 papers, such as evidences and title-deeds; the 
 archives in the chests of the Tablinum being 
 considered as of the least real importance, 
 documents of great interest could not be care¬ 
 fully preserved in so insecure a spot. The term 
 archives, in its primary signification, expresses 
 
 stroyed! and what may there yet lie undiscovered under 
 ground! When we think of this altogether, we may form 
 some faint idea of the magnificence of Rome in its glory.— 
 p. 224. 
 
 A distinction has been drawn by Dr. Clarke between 
 the ornaments and costume of the Canephorse and Cisto- 
 phori, and those of Ceres, with which they are sometimes 
 confounded. 
 
 G 2 
 
84 
 
 rather a collection of the proofs of ancestry, 
 than title-deeds of estates. 
 
 The Penates, who presided over family af¬ 
 fairs, were originally the manes of the illus¬ 
 trious dead, admitted by their votaries to par¬ 
 take of immortality. The philosopher Seneca 1 
 in a political view recommends the worship of 
 those sons of men, whom eminent services to 
 mankind had advanced to the rank of inferior 
 gods; as it inculcated, in a manner the most 
 sensible, the doctrine of the soul’s immortality, 
 Cicero also, to relieve his mind upon the death 
 of his daughter Tullia, designed to build a 
 temple in honour of her memory as a divinity. 
 In his letters to Atticus he expresses his re¬ 
 solution and impatience to have it speedily 
 erected: but after all his solicitude, it is sup¬ 
 posed this temple was never actually built by 
 Cicero, as no mention of it appears in any 
 ancient writing 2 . 
 
 Cicero, who was of an ancient and honour- 
 
 1 De Leg. ii. 11. 
 
 2 Middleton’s Life of Cicero, vol. ii. p. 189, &c. 
 
85 
 
 able family, had no less than eighteen villas or 
 country-seats, besides his house on the Palatine 
 Hill, which cost him nearly £30,000, and is 
 supposed to have been one of the noblest in 
 Rome 1 . All his villas, excepting his paternal 
 seat at Arpinum, were purchased or built by 
 Cicero himself, and were generally situated 
 near the sea, upon the lower coast between the 
 cities of Rome and Pompeii. The principal were 
 Tusculum, Arpinum, and his Formian, Cuman, 
 Puteolan and Pompeian villas,—all with large 
 plantations and gardens around them. At 
 Antium, thirty miles from Rome, he deposited 
 his most valuable collection of books, including 
 the works of the best Greek authors. His 
 Puteolan house was built after the manner of 
 the Academia at Athens, and was called by 
 that name, having, in addition to the usual 
 
 1 It was bought of M. Crassus, and was adjoining to that 
 in which he had always lived with his father, and which he 
 is afterwards supposed to have given up to his brother 
 Quintus. The purchase of so expensive a house occasioned 
 some censure of Cicero, especially as it was made with 
 borrowed money. 
 
86 
 
 embellishments, a portico and grove for the 
 convenience of philosophical conferences *. The 
 furniture of Cicero’s houses was perfectly suit¬ 
 able to the elegance of his taste and the mag¬ 
 nificence of the buildings. His galleries were 
 adorned with statues and pictures by the best 
 Grecian masters. His vessels and moveables 
 were of the most exquisite workmanship, and 
 of the choicest materials. One article is par¬ 
 ticularly recorded:—a cedar table which existed 
 in Pliny’s time is known to have cost him eighty 
 pounds 1 2 . 
 
 1 Sir J. C. Hobhouse, passing over the interesting re¬ 
 mains of these villas, has pronounced a beautiful eulogium 
 on Cicero, the wisest and best man of all antiquity. “ Every 
 site and relic that can remind us of him must be regarded 
 with that veneration with which he himself contemplated 
 the porticos and seats of the Athenian philosophers; and we 
 treasure up the little dies of the pavement which lie scattered 
 on the Formian shore, and may possibly have been trodden 
 by the saviour of his country, with an affectionate regard 
 scarcely inspired by the master-pieces of ancient art.”— 
 Illustrations of Childe Harold, p. 235. 
 
 2 Natural History, book xiii. chap. 15, in which Pliny re¬ 
 lates many instances of the employment of citron-wood; and 
 Middleton’s Life of Cicero, vol. ii. p. 508, &c. 
 
87 
 
 The Culina. 
 
 The extent of the Roman kitchen was enor¬ 
 mous, being sometimes no less than one hun¬ 
 dred and forty-eight feet in length. An ancient 
 inscription found at Palestrina by M. Akerblad, 
 records a kitchen of that size 1 ; and the dimen¬ 
 sions are not surprising, when the frequent 
 feasts and entertainments, together with the 
 prodigious number of guests, freedmen, &c. 
 that were daily to be fed in the mansion of an 
 opulent Roman, are taken into consideration. 
 
 The kitchen was required to be vaulted; 
 wooden ceilings being carefully avoided, on 
 account of the danger of fire 2 . Caminus and 
 Fornix are commonly used as synonymous 
 
 1 M. SAVFEIVS. M. F. RVTILIVS. 
 
 C. SAVFEIVS. C. F. FLACCVS. 
 
 CVLINAM. F.D.S. S. C. EISDEM. 
 
 Q. LOCVM. EMERVNT. DE. 
 
 L. TONDEIO. L. F. PVBLICVM . 
 
 EST. LONGV. P. CXLVIII S 
 
 LATVM. AF. MVRO. AD. 
 
 L. TONDEI. VOBSV. P. XVI. 
 
 2 Columella, De Re Rustica, lib. i. cap. 6. 
 
88 
 
 terms: but the one strictly implies the hearth, 
 or pavement on which the fire is actually made; 
 and the other, the arch over it, which latter was 
 raised breast high, and of ample size, being so 
 constructed to afford a ready vent for the 
 smoke 1 . So careful indeed were the Romans 
 to avoid the smoke of green wood or fresh 
 faggots, that the brasiers used foi conveying 
 fire from one apartment to another were lighted 
 out of doors, and only introduced into the rooms 
 when well heated. 
 
 The decoration appropriated to a kitchen 
 was a representation of the Fornacalia, or 
 festival in honour of the goddess Fornax, who 
 expressly presided over ovens: this favourite 
 subject was surrounded by abundance of fish, 
 flesh, and fowl, with all the various kinds of 
 food required in grand entertainments. Here 
 was found, painted on the walls, fish ready for 
 dressing, hams, wild boars prepared for the 
 spit, birds, hares, and in short every edible 
 
 1 The Caminus of the Temple of Isis is represented in 
 Ruines de Pompeii, vol. iii. 
 
89 
 
 thing,—not unlike the celebrated Flemish pic¬ 
 tures of dead game, &c. 1 The pavement of the 
 Culina was a fine black composition possessing 
 the peculiar property of imbibing water, so that 
 the floor was always dry 2 . 
 
 The art of cookery was in high reputation 
 at Rome; and its professors were celebrated 
 for making artificial birds and fishes, which 
 exceeded the reality in exquisiteness of taste 3 . 
 It is probable that the Greeks derived some 
 of their skill from the Eastern nations, and 
 principally from the Lydians, whose cooks 
 were celebrated in Athens,—-and some from 
 Egypt *. The Romans obtained much of their 
 
 1 See Ruines de Pompeii, vol. ii. These subjects have 
 found admirers in every age, Rubens, Snyders, Ostade, 
 and almost all the distinguished masters of the Flemish and 
 Dutch schools of painting, employed their pencils on still life: 
 a butcher’s shop, painted by Annibale Caracci, is amongst 
 the pictures presented by General Guise to Christchurch, 
 Oxford. 
 
 2 Vitruvius, lib. vii. cap. 4. 
 
 3 Arbuthnot’s Tables, p. 136. 
 
 4 A few hints on the subject of cookery are to be collected 
 from Homer, and more from Aristophanes; but it appears 
 
90 
 
 culinary skill, with the other fine arts, from 
 the Greeks, and had also many authors on the 
 subject; but their works are unfortunately all 
 lost, excepting that of Apicius, who lived in the 
 reigns of Augustus and Tiberius, and whose 
 name was applied to several dishes composed 
 of different sorts of meat 1 . 
 
 Adjoining the kitchen were offices connected 
 
 that afterwards they had several writers on the art, who are 
 noticed by Athenseus, the author of a miscellaneous work 
 replete with very curious remarks and anecdotes of the 
 manners of the ancients; the best edition of which is that 
 by Casaubon: Athencei Deijmosophistarum Libri XV. Greece 
 et Latine, interprets Jacobo Dalechampio, cum Isaaci Ca- 
 sauboni Animadversionum Libris XV. Geneva, 1597, 2 vols. 
 fol. Ibid. 1612, 2 vols. fol.; the notes occupy the second 
 volume, and are copious and learned, constituting the most 
 valuable part of this edition. * 
 
 1 The treatise “ De Re Culinaria,” which goes under the 
 name of Coelius Apicius, was written, it is supposed by some 
 critics, about the time of Heliogabalus. It has been illus¬ 
 trated by the notes of Dr. Martin Lister, physician to Queen 
 Anne, under the title of “ De Obsoniis et Condimentis, sive 
 de Arte Coquinaria,” London, 1705, 8vo; reprinted by Al- 
 meloveen at Amsterdam in 1709, 12mo; Bernhold also pub¬ 
 lished a new edition at Lubec in 1791, 8vo. 
 
91 
 
 with that department of the household 1 ; as the 
 Olearium, where oil was kept in vast Dolia, 
 vessels of baked clay 9 ; and the Horreum, or 
 storehouse for articles of winter provision. 
 The cellars, of great extent, contained immense 
 quantities of liquors 3 . The Cellse Vinarise were 
 usually placed towards the north,—an aspect 
 
 1 Servius observes upon a passage in Virgil, JEn. I. 726. 
 III.353, that the Culina, or kitchen, was in theAtrium,whence 
 he infers that the term was derived; because on that account 
 it was atrum, black, from the smoke.— Wilkins’s Vitruvius, 
 p. 245. Another and perhaps better derivation is given of 
 the Atrium at page 21, ante, on the authority of Dr. Valpy. 
 
 2 The inhabitants of Italy were formerly more attentive 
 to the mode of gathering the olives than at present. Colu¬ 
 mella, lib. xiii. cap. 9, explains both the method of gather¬ 
 ing the olives and of making the oil. A description given 
 by Cato of the oil-presses used in his time, has been in¬ 
 geniously explained in a treatise, “ De Torculario Catonis 
 Vasis quadrinis,” published at Gottingen in 1764; and it is 
 supposed they were of the same kind as those found in the 
 ruins of Stabia. The last machine has been improved, and is 
 used at present; an engraving of the press is given in the 
 Travels of M. de Salis, translated by Aufrere, 8vo, 1795. 
 
 3 No less than ten thousand casks of Arvisian wine were 
 found in the cellars of Hortensius, the celebrated orator, 
 after his death. 
 
92 
 
 preferred, as not subject to the rays of the 
 sun: from this spot all sewers, dungyards, &c. 
 were carefully removed; and refinement was 
 carried to the remarkable extent of perfuming 
 the cellar for the purpose of giving the wine a 
 superior smell, being that sense from which 
 every viand, solid and liquid, derives what is 
 emphatically called its flavour 1 . The form and 
 size of the vessels were also diligently studied, 
 and Amphora which bulged out too much were 
 rigorously proscribed. 
 
 Many Amphorae have been found at Pom¬ 
 peii, some of them marked with inscriptions 
 in paint, as hercvlanenses. nonio. &c. The 
 Romans, it is well known, recorded the age 
 of their wine by the name of the consul for the 
 year. Juvenal* speaks of 
 
 1 Pliny, Nat. Hist. lib. xiv. cap. 21. 
 
 2 Satire 5. Badham’s Translation. The personal atten¬ 
 tion paid to the vineyard may he learnt from one of Pliny’s 
 letters, in which he says: “ I am at present employed in 
 gathering my vintage, which although small is more plentiful 
 than I expected; but may I venture to say I am employed 
 in my vintage ? when I only now and then gather a grape, 
 
93 
 
 .the produce of some vintage rare, 
 
 When rough and bearded consuls fill’d the chair. 
 
 Above the cellars were granaries, likewise 
 receiving light from the north, an exposure to 
 the sun being apt to breed insects destructive 
 to the grain 1 . 
 
 Behind the kitchen, and facing the south, 
 stood another very essential building, the Pis- 
 trinum, or bakehouse, which from its liability 
 to take fire was quite insulated, and was sepa¬ 
 rated from all other parts of the house by a 
 Mesaulon, or small court 2 . 
 
 visit my wine-press, taste my new wine out of the vessels, 
 and interrupt my domestics, whom I brought from Rome to 
 preside over my rural affairs.” Book ix. Epist. 20. The 
 goat, usually carved or engraved on drinking-cups, was the 
 great enemy to vines, and the sacrifice of the animal to 
 Bacchus was made in allusion to it as a vine-destroyer. 
 
 1 Vitruvius, lib. vi. cap. 9. 
 
 2 Details of the oven, &c. are given in Mazois’ Ruines de 
 Pompeii, tom. ii. Pliny enumerates four sorts of bread: 
 Ostrearii, or loaves baked with oysters; Artolagani, pan¬ 
 cakes, a species of cakes; Speustici, hasty bread, so named 
 from the rapid mode of preparation; and Artopticii, loaves 
 baked in ovens, which derived their name from the furnace. 
 Lib. xviii. cap. 11. The Romans had also a great variety of 
 
94 
 
 The Solarium and Scal^e. 
 
 Stairs leading to apartments on the first 
 and second stories of Roman mansions were 
 distributed in different parts of the house as 
 necessity required. There never existed any 
 principal staircase, because all the chief public 
 and private rooms were disposed on the ground 
 floor 1 . Vitruvius is altogether silent upon the 
 
 cakes, each of which, says Arbuthnot, might make a subject 
 of dissertation for an antiquary :—Tables of Ancient Coins, 
 p. 136. Rome was generally well provided with corn by the 
 care of the magistrates, and it was often given to the pub¬ 
 lic, or sold at a very moderate price. The Curatores Annonse 
 distributed small tickets of wood or lead, which were intended 
 as a receipt for a specific portion of grain. These granary 
 tokens were a frequent largess from the Emperors, and some 
 of the Tesserae are preserved in the Museum at Portici. 
 
 1 It was not till towards the middle of Elizabeth’s reign 
 that staircases formed prominent features in English build¬ 
 ings : before that time they were generally placed in small 
 towers; the steps of solid oak winding round a large newel; 
 the hand-rail wrought in the material of the wall and re¬ 
 cessed. These staircases were called turnpikes; the remains 
 of one may be seen at Easthury in Essex, an untouched 
 model of a Tudor house.— Hunt’s Tudor Architecture, p. 27. 
 
95 
 
 use to which the apartments on the upper floor 
 were destined. It is generally allowed that 
 they were almost wholly appropriated to sleep¬ 
 ing-rooms and store-chambers. He mentions 
 staircases, but does not point out their situa¬ 
 tions 1 . The Roman Scalae were generally of 
 wood, and were not all equally convenient. It 
 has been observed in the course of the disco¬ 
 veries at Pompeii, at Herculaneum, and parti¬ 
 cularly in the remains of the Temple of Serapis 
 at Puzzuoli, that the first steps were made of 
 stone; the others being of wood was one of the 
 causes of the many destructive fires in the city of 
 Rome 2 . The stairs found at Pompeii are of the 
 most inconvenient and hazardous steepness. 
 
 1 Wilkins’s Vitruvius, p. 246, dissertation On the Plan 
 of a Roman House, plate 2. 
 
 2 Gibbon records from Tacitus a memorable conflagration, 
 the guilt or misfortune of Nero’s reign, which continued, 
 though with unequal fury, either six or nine days. In¬ 
 numerable buildings supplied perpetual fuel for the flames; 
 and when they ceased, four only of the fourteen regions of 
 the city were left entire ; these were totally destroyed, and 
 more were deformed by the relics of smoking and lacerated 
 edifices.—Chap. lxxi. 
 
96 
 
 A staircase in a Roman mansion led to the 
 Solarium, a terrace on the top of the house, 
 where towards evening the family generally 
 assembled, to enjoy the perfume of the flowers 
 and the freshness of the breeze, as well as to 
 admire the beauty of the prospect,—Rome from 
 all elevated points, but especially from the Ca¬ 
 pitol, the Pincian Hill, and Mount Janiculum, 
 presenting a most imposing appearance 1 . 
 
 In the earlier periods of Roman history the 
 practice of raising a terrace on the buildings 
 was certainly not in use ; the walls were then 
 weak, and the houses consequently low, capable 
 only of bearing the weight of their roofs: but as 
 soon as they began to build walls of hewn 
 stone, the architects gave greater height to 
 the mansions, and surmounted them with a 
 terrace 2 . Very great care was necessarily re- 
 
 1 Williams’s Italy , vol. i. p. 292. Three fourths of an¬ 
 cient Rome are now occupied by ruins and vineyards. This 
 desert portion, which includes five of the seven hills, is 
 nearest to the Neapolitan road. 
 
 2 Vitruvius, lib. ii. cap. 8; and Pliny, Nat. Hist. lib. xxxv. 
 cap. 14. 
 
97 
 
 quired in the formation of this flat roof, par¬ 
 ticularly in the selection of timber for the pur¬ 
 pose : over the framed work, on a bed of plaster, 
 was arranged the pavement, either of brick, 
 marble, or mosaic, which constituted the floor. 
 Deep cases filled with earth were then placed 
 upon the walls, containing curious shrubs, 
 flowers desirable for beauty of form or colours, 
 and young vines which being tastefully en¬ 
 twined formed agreeable bowers, presenting 
 amidst the luxuriance of foliage all the sweet¬ 
 ness of perfume derived from the variety of the 
 plants. The trellis-work which shaded these 
 lofty terraces was termed Pergula; and as re¬ 
 pasts were occasionally served in the arbours, 
 Coenaculum was a name sometimes given to this 
 spot; but the more general appellation was the 
 Solarium, as it was exposed to the air and sun 1 . 
 
 1 The Solarium was also an arrangement of the monastery. 
 The abbot of Easby is represented to have had a pleasant 
 garden open to the morning sun, with a beautiful Solarium 
 highly adorned in the north-eastern angle of it .—Whitakers 
 Richmondshire. 
 
 H 
 
98 
 
 Spacious aviaries of foreign birds were here col¬ 
 lected, and basins ornamented with fountains 
 supplied water for the plants, which was raised 
 to its height by means of pneumatic pumps 1 . 
 After having served to embellish the garden on 
 the terrace, the water flowed into reservoirs to 
 be used in case of fire. 
 
 The Hortus and Viridarium. 
 
 A Garden, in its primitive sense, once con¬ 
 stituted the whole domain of a citizen. The 
 ancient kings of Rome, according to history, 
 even took pleasure in cultivating their gardens 
 themselves ; but in the time of the Emperors 
 the term Hortus implied a large extent of 
 ground; and the gardens, after the great access 
 of riches to the city, especially in the reign 
 of Augustus, no longer consisted of enclosures 
 ornamented only with a few useful trees and 
 producing merely vegetables for the kitchen. 
 The more opulent Roman citizens then re- 
 
 1 Vitruvius, lib. x. cap. 12; and Pliny, Nat. Hist. lib. vii. 
 cap. 37. 
 
99 
 
 quired pleasure-grounds rivalling the cele¬ 
 brated gardens of the,Hesperides, of Alcinous, 
 or of Adonis 1 ; 
 
 Which one day bloom’d, and fruitful were the next. 
 
 At the garden gates were always placed statues 
 of the tutelar deities,—a sure means, according 
 to popular belief, of preserving the pleasure- 
 grounds from depredation. The gates opened 
 upon a parterre, the walks of which were bor¬ 
 dered with box and picea, a species of yew 2 : 
 further on were lawns of verdant turf bounded 
 by hedges of evergreens, clipped with all the 
 ingenuity of the Topiarii, into forms of animals, 
 and sometimes into letters which displayed 
 the gardener’s name, or that of the owner of 
 
 1 Pliny’s Natural History, lib. xix. cap. 4. 
 
 2 Pliny’s Natural History, lib. xvi. cap. 10. Marcus 
 Terentius Varro, the friend of Cicero, wrote a treatise De 
 Re Rustica, of which Virgil is known to have made use in 
 his Georgies. It contains not only a notice of the state of 
 agriculture, but describes the method of laying-out gardens, 
 and providing luxuries for the table. A translation of this 
 work was published by the Rev. T. Owen, of Queen’s 
 College, Oxford, in 1800. 8vo. 
 
 H 2 
 
100 
 
 the grounds 1 . Here was a large basin to re¬ 
 ceive certain streams, which being brought 
 from the hills by a serpentine channel me¬ 
 andered through the green turf. Every kind of 
 flower was planted round the borders of this 
 basin, but more especially those flowers and 
 shrubs were cultivated of which wreaths and 
 chaplets were composed, agreeably to ancient 
 practice 2 . 
 
 Greece, in four games thy martial youth were train’d; 
 
 For Heroes two, and two for Gods ordain’d : 
 
 Jove hade the olive round his victor wave; 
 
 Phoebus to his, an apple garland gave; 
 
 The pine Palsemon; nor with less renown 
 
 Archemorus conferr’d the parsley crown 3 . 
 
 1 See Pliny’s description of his Villa Tusculana, sup¬ 
 posed to have been on the banks of the Tiber, according 
 to a map of Tuscany by Ortelius of Antwerp; but time 
 has destroyed all remains. The letter to Apollinaris is 
 extremely minute in detail of the beauties of this estate: 
 lib. v. epist. 6. This fashion of forming various figures 
 in hedges was once prevalent in England ; and the motto 
 of the Garter and other devices cut in box were once to be 
 seen in the gardens of New College, Oxford. 
 
 2 Pliny’s Natural History, lib. xxi. cap. 1. 
 
 3 Addison’s translation of Ausonius, in Dialog on Medals, 
 
101 
 
 Grass plots enamelled with violets shed around 
 their fragrance, and a variety of plants, in¬ 
 cluding the rose and the lily, were arranged 
 in beds enclosed by narrow walks, by means 
 of which they were approached and watered 
 when necessary. Beyond the basin of water 
 was a pavilion called “The Delight 1 ,” which 
 was approached by an avenue of trees cut very 
 short so as not entirely to conceal the view of 
 the pleasure-ground. 
 
 A most important part of a Roman garden 
 when laid out on a grand scale was the Hip¬ 
 podrome, or Deambulatory,—a covered road 
 surrounded by plane-trees, bound with creep- 
 ing ivy and wild vines ranging from branch 
 to branch, which clinging to their trunks con- 
 
 p. 130. Horace prefers the parsley, which always pre¬ 
 serves its verdure, to the short-lived lily : 
 
 Let fading lilies and the rose 
 Their beauty and their smell disclose : 
 
 Let long-lived parsley grace the feast. 
 
 And gently cool the heated guest. 
 
 Lib. i. Ode 36. Creech’s Translation. 
 
 1 See Pliny’s Letters, lib. ii. epist. 17. 
 
102 
 
 nected the trees together in the same manner 
 that garlands were formed, or wreaths of laurel 
 disposed for a festival. Juvenal, alluding to the 
 splendid Hippodrome of Domitian, exclaims, 
 
 In vain the long and stately colonnade 
 Tires his sleek mules within its ample shade 1 * . 
 
 Pignorius, an antiquary of Padua, discovered 
 the following inscription, which informed the 
 deambulator when he had walked a mile in 
 the garden: 
 
 IN . HOC . POMARIO . GESTATIONIS . 
 
 PER . CIRCVITVM . ITVM . 
 
 ET . REDITVM . QVINQVIENS . EFFICIT . 
 
 PASSVS . MILLE . 3 
 
 That part of the garden devoted to exercise was 
 also called Gestatio, and Ambulatio 3 . Another 
 
 1 Badham’s Translation. 
 
 The Anglo-Saxon mila, our English mile, is derived 
 from mille passus, the thousand Roman paces; and there 
 is little doubt that they are one and the same measure. 
 
 3 The Romans were fond of exercise as conducive to 
 health, and had at their country seats a covered place in 
 which they could either ride on horseback or be carried in 
 
103 
 
 pavilion wholly of marble, had a green floor, 
 which gave it the appearance of a natural 
 grotto, and the openings being shaded with 
 dense foliage, produced a gloomy effect within 
 the apartment; round it were marble seats, 
 and a water organ of simple and ingenious 
 mechanism 1 . These hydraulic organs are still 
 very common in the gardens of Italy, which 
 are generally laid out in formal taste: the Al- 
 dobrandini Villa at Tivoli presents an existing 
 illustration of the description of an ancient 
 Roman garden, and abounds, like its proto¬ 
 type, with avenues, clipped hedges, basins, 
 fountains, cascades, caverns, and a water or¬ 
 gan ; here a hundred tricks are played off by 
 
 a litter whenever the extremity of the weather prevented 
 exercise abroad. This was called Gestatio, and resembled 
 the Riding-house of the present day, being built up and 
 closed on both sides, to avoid the sun in summer and the 
 rain in winter. Lord Orrery’s Notes to Pliny’s Epistles, 
 vol. i. p. 10. The gardens of the Villa Borghese, near Rome, 
 contain a fine modern example of the Hippodrome. 
 
 1 Pliny’s Letters, lib. v. epist. 6; and Vitruvius, lib. x. 
 cap. 13. 
 
 x. 
 
104 
 
 means of concealed streamlets suddenly sprink¬ 
 ling the visitors 1 . Statues of illustrious men 
 were by no means an unusual ornament of the 
 Roman gardens, as well as the marble Hemi- 
 cycle or semicircular seat 2 . Exotics that re¬ 
 mained exposed during the whole summer, 
 were in winter preserved in green-houses 
 framed with the Lapis specularis 3 . 
 
 The Spheristerium and Aleatorium. 
 
 The Romans prepared themselves for dinner, 
 or principal meal, by violent exercise, which 
 was succeeded by the bath. The more luxu¬ 
 rious, who did not partake of athletic ex¬ 
 ercises, played at Tennis in a court erected for 
 the purpose 4 , or at the Discus, resembling 
 
 1 See also Tappen’s Description of the Panfili Villa, 
 p. 202 ; and Pont. Vill. p. 196. 
 
 2 Mazois’ Ruines de Pompeii, tom. i. plates 3, 7, 33 
 and 34. 
 
 3 Pliny’s Natural History, lib. xix. cap. 5 ; and Martial, 
 lib. viii. epist. 14. 68. 
 
 4 When the younger Pliny mentions his Spheristerium 
 in epist. 6. lib. v. he represents it as having several cir- 
 
105 
 
 Quoits, excepting that the latter is a game of 
 skill, and the Discus was merely a trial of 
 strength. Horace 1 lays down the rules of ex¬ 
 ercise : 
 
 Pursue the chase 2 ; th’ unmanag’d courser rein : 
 
 Or if the Roman war ill suit thy vein, 
 
 To Grecian revels form’d, at tennis play, 
 
 Or at the manly discus waste the day; 
 
 With vigour hurl it through the yielding air. 
 
 The sport shall make the labour less severe. 
 
 The aged and invalids amused themselves 
 
 cular divisions, in which different kinds of exercises were 
 performed. Of these, the general and favorite amusement 
 amongst the Greeks and Romans before they bathed, was 
 the ball; there were four sorts of balls, the size and struc¬ 
 ture of which were not only different, but the manner and 
 degree of exercise varied according to the age, strength and 
 constitution of the players. The several names were the 
 Follis, the Trigonalis, the Paganica and the Harpastum. The 
 first is supposed to resemble the modern tennis, and the last 
 the play of goff; the trigonalis derived its name from the tri¬ 
 angular position of the players ; and the paganica was so 
 called because it was the common exercise of the villagers. 
 
 1 Sat. 2. lib. ii.— Francis. 
 
 2 Pliny, who was a sportsman rather by compliance than 
 inclination, enumerates, amongst his rural expences, the 
 
106 
 
 in an adjoining room called the Aleatorium, 
 from alea, the term for dice ; games of chance 
 were also played with counters or calculi, and 
 with black and white tesserae 1 . 
 
 The Balneum. 
 
 The word Balneum properly signifies a pri¬ 
 vate bath. The Thermae of the Romans were 
 appropriated to the use of the public ; and 
 buildings of this description comprised not 
 only libraries within their walls, but porticos, 
 walks, and other places for exercise 2 . 
 
 It was a custom of the Romans to bathe only 
 before the principal meal, and few mansions of 
 
 venatoria instrumenta, the nets, spears &c. belonging to 
 his hunting equipage, which it was necessary for a person of 
 his rank to maintain. 
 
 1 An account of the private sports and games of the 
 Romans, is given in Arbuthnot’s Tables, chap. 14, and in 
 Rennet’s Antiquities. 
 
 2 Andrew Bacci, physician to Pope Sixtus V., in a treatise 
 “De Thermis. Libri septem,” published at Venice 1571, 
 and again at Padua 1711, fol., has collected almost every¬ 
 thing wanted on the subject. The first edition is rare, and 
 the last has the addition of an eighth book. 
 
107 
 
 a superior class were unprovided with bathing 
 rooms situated in a remote part of the house, 
 as found in the suburban villa discovered at 
 Pompeii 1 . 
 
 Across the peristyle, a moderate-sized court 
 had in its centre a Baptisterium, or basin for 
 taking the cold bath; this was surrounded by 
 a colonnade, the outer walls of which were em¬ 
 bellished with paintings of fruit-trees and fish¬ 
 ponds, and the floor was paved with mosaic. 
 
 Adjoining this court was the Apodyterium, 
 or Spoliatorium, a room to contain the clothes 2 ; 
 and near it also was the Frigidarium, a spa¬ 
 cious hall containing a labrum for the advan¬ 
 tage of cold bathing under cover when pre¬ 
 ferred. The Celia Frigidaria was so disposed 
 that one part remained open, while the other 
 contained a bath of semicircular form, termed 
 
 1 See Mazois’ Ruines de Pompeii, tom. ii. 
 
 2 Pliny mentions that persons in general entered into the 
 Apodyterium and consigned their garments to Caprarii, 
 which were probably pegs so called from their likeness to 
 goats’ horns. 
 
108 
 
 a Hemicycle, in the middle of which was placed 
 the actual receptacle of the water, within a 
 narrow enclosure protected by a low wall, or 
 Pluteum. 
 
 The Hemicycle was ornamented with pilas¬ 
 ters and niches containing statues: the sur- 
 base, of two steps, ran round this portion of 
 the Celia, and was called the Schola, whence 
 persons seated, without partaking of the bath, 
 held philosophical discussions, or poets read 
 their works aloud,—a circumstance mentioned 
 by Horace 1 : 
 
 Full many bards the public Forum choose 
 Where to recite the labours of their muse ; 
 
 Or vaulted baths, that best preserve the sound, 
 While sweetly floats the voice in echoes round. 
 
 Between the Schola and the enclosure of 
 the bath was an open space, termed Alveus, 
 which afforded access to the bathing-place. 
 From the description given by Vitruvius, this 
 passage could scarcely be more than four feet 
 wide, which in fact would give it the appearance 
 
 1 Lib. i. sat. 4.— Francis. 
 
109 
 
 of a canal, whence it took its denomination 
 Alveus; a disposition also indicated in paint¬ 
 ings taken from the celebrated baths of Titus. 
 To the bath, light was always admitted from 
 above, so that the bathers cast no shadows 1 . 
 It may also be mentioned, that ancient cus¬ 
 tom permitted the two sexes to bathe at the 
 same time, until by an order of the Emperor 
 Hadrian the practice was abolished 2 . 
 
 The Tepidarium, or warm bath, contained 
 
 1 Vitruvius, lib. vi. cap. 10. 
 
 2 Antonius Musa, physician to the Emperor Augustus, 
 prescribed the use of the cold bath to his imperial master, 
 and by that means effected the cure of disorders with which 
 Augustus had been previously afflicted, which made Musa a 
 great favourite both with the emperor and with the people. 
 The exercise of cold bathing then became so prevailing a 
 fashion, that men of consular dignity strove to outvie one 
 another in shivering and trembling in the coldest water 
 and in the coldest weather. Seneca valued himself upon 
 the title of Psychroluta, and boasted that he was able to 
 dance in cold water on the first day of January. It is clear 
 he thought this regimen the best method to harden his 
 constitution and to prolong his life. When he was to die, 
 he chose the warm bath with bleeding as most proper to 
 procure an easy dissolution and a happy euthanasia. 
 
110 
 
 two basins large enough to admit of swimming 1 2 ; 
 and was also furnished with a schola, not ex¬ 
 clusively destined for the use of spectators, but 
 was also occupied by the bathers, either for the 
 purpose of wiping after the tepid bath, or to 
 enjoy the temperate atmosphere after quitting 
 the hot stove which adjoined it. 
 
 THE NATATIO, 
 
 or Swimming Bath, discovered at Pompeii 2. 
 
 The Caldarium or Sudatorium was circular, 
 and surrounded by three steps entirely filled 
 
 1 Pliny’s Letters, lib. ii. epist. 17. 
 
 2 See Sir William Gell’s Pompeiana, second series. 
 
Ill 
 
 with narrow niches, each containing a seat. 
 The roof was made in form of an elongated 
 cone, having an opening at the top, through 
 which the steam arising from the hot water 
 used in the Sudatorium escaped 1 . The Laco- 
 nicum, or circular stove for heating this room, 
 and the Sudatorium, are sometimes con¬ 
 founded together, but are easily to be distin¬ 
 guished by attending to the passage in Vitru¬ 
 vius, at the end of the chapter here quoted 2 . 
 The Laconicum merely regulated the heat of 
 the Sudatorium 3 , a destination further proved 
 
 1 Vitruvius, lib. vi. cap. 10, says, “The air is admitted 
 through an aperture in the centre of the roof, whence a 
 brazen shield is suspended by chains. The temperature 
 of the sudatory is regulated by elevating or lowering the 
 shield. ” There is a circular sudatorium at Pompeii,—see 
 Mazois’ Ruines de Pompeii, tom. ii.; and a painting found in 
 the baths of Titus exhibits the circular form of the sudatory. 
 
 2 “Here should be placed the vaulted sudatorium twice 
 the length of its width, which should have at each extremity, 
 on one end the laconicum, on the other end the hot bath.” 
 
 3 The use of the dry bath is said to have been prevalent 
 amongst the Lacedaemonians, and the term is derived from 
 Laconia, the country inhabited by that people.— Wilkins. 
 
112 
 
 by paintings found in the Thermae of Titus, on 
 which the denomination of each object is in¬ 
 scribed. 
 
 Perfumes used after the bath, were deposited 
 in the Elaeotherium or Unctorium, and were 
 contained in small alabaster vases, filled with 
 scented oils, which in fact formed the basis 
 of all perfume 1 . The finest and most fragrant 
 ointment was brought from Syria, and was 
 called Nardum. It was not only used after 
 bathing, but sometimes at public entertain¬ 
 ments,—a practice to which Horace alludes 
 
 1 The oils of which the Romans made use after bathing, 
 were more pure and valuable than those used before ex¬ 
 ercise; and the people were so extremely fond of these oint¬ 
 ments, that the most popular gift any man could bestow, 
 was a present of oil to the public baths. Stobseus, an an¬ 
 cient Greek author, relates that the servants of Archimedes 
 were obliged, at bathing time, to take him by force from his 
 library table, where he studied mathematical figures with 
 such fixed attention, that he continued drawing diagrams 
 with his fingers on his anointed body, while his servants 
 were pouring ointments upon him, and preparing him for the 
 bath .—Lord Orrery’s Essay on the Life of Pliny. 
 
113 
 
 in the ode to Quintius, 11th of his second 
 book : 
 
 While Assyrian essence sheds 
 Liquid fragrance on our heads. 
 
 While we lie with roses crown’d. 
 
 Let the cheerful bowl go round.— Francis. 1 
 
 The furnaces for heating the baths stood in 
 the Hypocaustum, a place of some extent; and 
 being surmounted by several large vessels of 
 
 1 With this particular sort of ointment,—called also un~ 
 guentum spicatum, from the pointed leaves of the aromatic 
 plant of which it was made,—Jesus Christ was anointed, in 
 Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at 
 meat. St. Mark, chap. xiv. verse 5. It had been kept in 
 a box of alabaster; which accords with Horace’s invitation 
 to Virgil;— 
 
 Virgil, ’t is thine with noble youths to feast. 
 
 Yet since the thirsty season calls for wine, 
 
 Would you a cup of generous Bacchus taste, 
 
 Bring you the odours, and a cask is thine. 
 
 Thy little box of spikenard shall produce 
 A mighty cask that in the cellar lies; 
 
 Big with large hopes shall flow th’ inspiring juice. 
 Powerful to soothe our griefs and raise our joys. 
 
 Francis, ode 12, book 4. 
 
 I 
 
 HPBHB 
 
114 
 
 bronze, by that means served to impart the 
 requisite degree of heat to the water. The 
 first vessel most distant from the furnace re¬ 
 ceived the water from a general reservoir, and 
 conveyed it either to the hot or cold baths, to 
 modify the degree of temperature the bathers 
 might require. The second, which only received 
 a part of the heat of the furnace, supplied the 
 Tepidarium. The third vessel stood immedi¬ 
 ately over the fire, and emptied itself into the 
 adjoining Caldarium. Heated steam was cir¬ 
 culated, by means of tubes concealed under 
 the pavement and all round the room in the 
 thickness of the wall, till it found a vent in 
 the Laconicum 1 . 
 
 The Romans had also their separate winter 
 baths, divided, like the others, into hot and 
 tepid, cold ones not being at that season re¬ 
 quired. All the adjoining corridors and de¬ 
 pendent rooms were then properly warmed 
 
 1 See the baths in the suburban villa of Pompeii, of which 
 views will be found in Mazois’ Ruines de Pompeii, vol. ii. 
 
115 
 
 by heated tubes; and, like those attached to 
 the summer baths, were adorned with pictures, 
 statues, bronze lamps, and vessels of silver and 
 of gilt earthenware. Seneca compares the baths 
 of Scipio Africanus, at his villa of Liternum, 
 with the magnificence of the public baths of 
 the city of Rome, long before the stupendous 
 Thermae of Antoninus and Diocletian were 
 erected 1 . Gibbon, the historian of Rome, 
 writing of the public baths, affirms, on the 
 authority of Olympiodorus, that those of Anto¬ 
 ninus Caracalla contained above sixteen hun¬ 
 dred seats of marble, and that more than three 
 thousand were reckoned in the baths of Dio¬ 
 cletian. The walls of the lofty apartments, 
 according to his authority, were covered with 
 curious mosaics, that imitated the art of the 
 pencil in the elegance of design and the variety 
 of colours: the Egyptian granite was beau¬ 
 tifully encrusted with the precious green marble 
 of Numidia. A perpetual stream of hot water 
 
 Epist. 86. 
 i 2 
 
116 
 
 was poured into capacious basins through 
 many wide mouths of bright and massy silver, 
 displaying a scene of pomp and luxury which 
 might excite the envy of the kings of Asia 1 . 
 Wilkins, in his translation of Vitruvius, says 
 there is perhaps no instance remaining of 
 Roman baths which will so well illustrate 
 the description Vitruvius gives of them, as 
 those at Baden in Germany; and his erudite 
 work contains a plan copied from that by 
 Rode in the Berlin edition of the same author. 
 The baths described by Vitruvius were build¬ 
 ings of much less importance than the cele¬ 
 brated Thermae of Domitian, Antoninus, and 
 Diocletian, which contained not only apart¬ 
 ments for bathing, but likewise Exhedrse, 
 Xysta, and every other part of a Greek Pa¬ 
 lestra 2 . 
 
 1 Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chap. xxxi. 
 
 2 Civil Architecture of Vitruvius p. 195. The de¬ 
 scription of the baths of Baden by Poggio in a letter to 
 Niccoli, exhibits an interesting picture of a fashionable 
 watering-place of the fifteenth century.—Shepherd’s Life of 
 Poggio Bracciolini, p. 67. 
 
117 
 
 The Triclinium. 
 
 In summer the Romans had their principal 
 meal between the eighth and ninth hour, and 
 even then it generally broke in upon the night. 
 In winter, the Ccena commenced about the tenth 
 hour: but it is also well known that three 
 meals were served in the course of the day. 
 The first was the Jentaculum, or breakfast in 
 its most literal signification, being only a piece 
 of bread dipped in pure light wine; this precept 
 was, however, sometimes neglected. Horace 
 tells us, that 
 
 Aufidius first, most injudicious, quaff’d 
 Strong wine and honey for his morning draught. 1 
 
 The second repast was the Prandium, a term 
 generally translated dinner, although better 
 expressed by the modern phrase luncheon ; it 
 was always very plain and moderate. The 
 third was the Coena, which resembled most 
 
 1 Francis’s Translation, sat. 4. lib. 2. 
 
118 
 
 the dinner of the present time, as it never 
 commenced until the business and pleasures of 
 the morning were over 1 . The time at Rome 
 being counted from sunrise, the sixth hour 
 fell at noon, and the twelfth ended at sunset. 
 The want of time-pieces was supplied in every 
 considerable mansion by a slave, whose ex¬ 
 press business it was to observe the time 
 of the day, and to give public notice of the 
 hour 2 . 
 
 The Clepsydra, by which the Romans also 
 measured their time, was a contrivance like 
 the hour-glass, once in common use in this 
 
 1 There are indeed two other meals mentioned, the Me- 
 renda and Comessatio; the first of which was a collation 
 served between the time of the prandium and ccena occa¬ 
 sionally, to satisfy hunger; and the latter a jovial supper, 
 held after the coena, where drinking was not unfrequently 
 promoted by every species of wit and merriment, and which 
 sometimes ended in intemperance and riot. 
 
 2 Minute Jacks, in Shakspeare’s Timon of Athens, have 
 been supposed to mean the same thing : 
 
 Cap and knee slaves, vapours, and minute Jacks. 
 
 Timon, Act iii. scene 6. 
 
119 
 
 country; with this difference, that water dropped 
 through the clepsydra instead of sand 1 . The 
 useful invention of clocks worked by wheels 
 is attributed to Boethius, a learned senator of 
 Rome in the reign of Theodoric king of Italy, 
 A.D. 510. Two curious mechanical time¬ 
 keepers are particularly described by his bio¬ 
 grapher 2 . One pointed out the sun’s diurnal 
 and annual motion in the ecliptic upon a move- 
 
 1 There were, it appears, several sorts of clepsydrae for 
 the regulation of time. Towards the conclusion of the 
 sixth century from the building of the city of Rome, B. C. 
 159, a public water-clock was set up in the Forum by 
 Scipio Nasica, which marked the hours of the day, twelve 
 in number, but, according to the season, of unequal lengths. 
 Sun-dials had been introduced from Lower Italy nearly one 
 hundred and fifty years before, by L. Papirius Cursor. In 
 the year 1815, a very ancient sun-dial was discovered upon 
 the Appian Way near Rome : it was cut upon marble, and 
 exhibited the names of the quarters of the heavens in Greek. 
 The dial was exactly calculated for the latitude of Rome, 
 and from circumstances it was supposed to have been the 
 very discus belonging to Herodes Atticus, and described by 
 the architect Vitruvius.—See the account in the Gentlemans 
 Magazine for 1815. 
 
 2 Le Clerc, Biblioth. Choisie. 
 
120 
 
 able sphere, and the other indicated the hours 
 of the day by the expedient of water dropping 
 out of one vessel into another 1 . 
 
 Cardan, an Italian philosopher, ranked the 
 architect Vitruvius amongst twelve persons 
 who, in his estimation, excelled all others 
 in genius, and would not have scrupled to have 
 placed him first in the series if he had delivered 
 nothing but his own discoveries 2 . Vitruvius 
 himself says that he had been carefully in¬ 
 structed in the whole circle of arts and sci¬ 
 ences ; and so exalted an idea did he entertain 
 of his profession, that he insists no man can be 
 an accomplished architect without some know¬ 
 ledge and skill in every one of the sciences : a 
 whole chapter of his fifth book is devoted to a 
 
 1 A clock that strikes the hour, and derives its name 
 from the German Cloca, a bell, was unknown in Europe 
 till the twelfth century. 
 
 2 De Subtilitate, lib. xvi. The twelve persons were Euclid, 
 Archimedes, Apollonius Pergaeus, Aristotle, Archytas of 
 Tarentum, Vitruvius, Achindus, Mahomet Ibn Moses the 
 inventor of algebra. Duns Scotus, John Suisset surnamed 
 the Calculator, Galen, and Heber of Spain. 
 
 ■n 
 
121 
 
 treatise on harmony according to the doctrine 
 of Aristoxenus 1 . 
 
 In the rules which this celebrated architect 
 has prescribed for the construction of the Tri¬ 
 clinium, or dining-room, the length of the room 
 is described as occupying twice its breadth, 
 and is directed to be divided into two parts; 
 the upper end destined for the table and 
 couches for the guests, while the lower part 
 
 1 De Architectura, lib. v. cap. 4.—Aristoxenus, the most 
 ancient author on music whose works are known, studied 
 under Aristotle in the fourth century B. C. His Harmonics 
 were first published together with those of Ptolemy; and a 
 Latin version of both by Gogavius at Venice in 1562. 
 “Aristoxeni Harmonicorum Elementorum Libri III.” to¬ 
 gether with the Works of seven other Greek authors on 
 music, were afterwards printed with a Latin version by the 
 learned Meibomius at the Elzevir press at Amsterdam in 
 1652, and dedicated to Christina Queen of Sweden. This 
 is a very celebrated critical work, in which all subsequent 
 authors on ancient music place implicit faith. It is from 
 these commentaries, says Dr. Burney, that we are able to 
 decipher the musical characters used by the Greeks in their 
 notation, which had, by the negligence of the transcribers 
 of ancient MSS., been previously altered and corrupted. 
 
122 
 
 was to remain open for the service of the at¬ 
 tendants and for the exhibition of interludes, 
 which formed an essential part of every grand 
 entertainment. 
 
 The Ionian dance and the charms of poetry 
 were introduced during dinner by way of sooth¬ 
 ing the mind. The odes recited were accom¬ 
 panied by the lyre, the attribute of Apollo and 
 the Muses. 
 
 The odes were divided into stanzas, or 
 strophes; the dancers turning to the left or 
 
123 
 
 right at the termination of the measure. It 
 surely cannot be difficult to conceive that this 
 music, with all its simplicity, by its strict uni¬ 
 son with poetry might operate more power¬ 
 fully in public exhibitions than the artificial 
 melody of modern times. 
 
 The noblest kind of ode sung at the banquet 
 is indicated by the instruction given by Pene¬ 
 lope to the Bard : 
 
 Phemius, let acts of gods and heroes old. 
 
 What ancient bards in hall and bow’r have told. 
 Attemper’d to the lyre, your voice employ; 
 
 Such the pleas’d ear will drink with silent joy 1 . 
 
 1 Pope’s Translation of the Odyssey, book 1. 
 
 There were three sorts of musical instruments, according 
 to Cassiodorus (Op. ii. p. 507), called Percussionalia, Ten- 
 sibilia, and Inflatila. The percussionalia were silver or brazen 
 disks, which when struck with some force, yielded a sweet 
 ringing. The tensibilia were cords tied with art, which, 
 on being struck with a plectrum, soothed the ear with a 
 delightful sound; as the various kinds of cytharae. The 
 inflatila were wind instruments, as tubae, calami, organa, 
 panduria, &c. 
 
124 
 
 A particular Triclinium, or dining-room 1 , was 
 used during the summer season; and there were 
 other rooms equally appropriated to autumn, 
 spring, and winter. The enhancement of gra¬ 
 tification was diligently studied by varying the 
 apartments at each successive period of the 
 year ; and the several arrangements belonging 
 to each were so carefully ordained, that every 
 triclinium had a number of tables of different 
 kinds 2 , and each table its particular dishes, 
 vessels, and attendants 3 . To order a dinner, 
 was an office which required the exercise of 
 judicious propriety. Horace says, 
 
 1 Triclinium is a word derived from the Greek, and 
 literally signifies three beds or couches; but it is also applied 
 to the apartment containing the couches upon which the 
 Romans were accustomed to recline at their meals. Pitiscus, 
 Lexicon Antiq. Rom. 
 
 2 The Roman tables were circular; and inlaid marble 
 tables, particularly with the beautiful green marble of Tse- 
 narus, were highly prized. 
 
 3 Vitruvius, lib. vi. cap. 7; and Martial, lib. vii. epig. 48. 
 
125 
 
 If not exact and elegant of taste. 
 
 Let none presume to understand a feast 1 . 
 
 The entertainment consisted of three courses; 
 and as apples were always brought up in the 
 last course, so were eggs in the first, whence the 
 common sentence, “Ab ovo usque ad mala,” 
 From the egg to the apple ; or, From the begin¬ 
 ning to the end of the feast. 
 
 The first course, called Anteccena, or Gus- 
 tatio, consisted of eggs and different kinds of 
 shell-fish : 
 
 Eggs, large and white, they bring us every day 
 Warm from the recent nest of twisted hay 2 . 
 
 At the Coena, or second course, were served 
 the choicest dainties, amongst which the pea¬ 
 cock, a bird of high culinary consequence, was 
 essential 3 . The principal dish, or Caput Coense, 
 was never suffered to be carried from table un¬ 
 tasted. 
 
 1 Lib. ii. sat. 4. Francis’s Translation. 
 
 2 Juvenal, sat. 11. Badham’s Translation. 
 
 3 Cicero pleasantly says, he had the boldness to invite 
 Hirtius to dine with him, even without a peacock. 
 
126 
 
 The third course, or Mensa Pomorum, was 
 the dessert, a service of apples and the various 
 sorts of fruit in season. Juvenal promises his 
 friend, that 
 
 Apples, which with Picenum’s might compare. 
 
 Shall meet the Signian and the Syrian pear 1 . 
 
 Although table-cloths were not used, it appears 
 that every guest was provided with a napkin : 
 the description of the feast of Nasidienus, in 
 the eighth satire of the second book of Horace, 
 notices it; 
 
 Varius from laughing scarcely could refrain, 
 
 But put the napkin to his mouth in vain. 
 
 Another instance of manners may be men¬ 
 tioned on the authority of Silius Italicus, a poet 
 in the reign of Vespasian: whenever the Ro¬ 
 mans lay down to table, the gods were con¬ 
 stantly addressed in prayer: 
 
 Nor touch’d the meat, nor tasted was the wine. 
 
 Till every guest implor’d the pow’rs divine. 
 
 This at least, says the Earl of Orrery, was the 
 conduct of a Roman entertainment when ma- 
 
 1 Sat. 11. Badham. 
 
127 
 
 naged with order; and no other is to be found 
 in the writings of Pliny, whose morals were 
 too delicate to admit of intemperance 1 . 
 
 The Carver, Structor, or Scissor, was a ser¬ 
 vant whose express duty it was to dismem¬ 
 ber the articles of the repast: another, or 
 perhaps the same, was employed to set it out 
 in order. Juvenal, in his fifth satire, which is 
 particularly descriptive of a Roman dinner, 
 says: 
 
 Behold the carver, who with rare grimace 
 And pompous air, capers from place to place. 
 
 The meats arranging at the master’s call. 
 
 And with a rapid knife dismemb’ring all; 
 
 For’t is no light affair, believe me, how 
 Hare, fowl or pheasant are dissected now 2 . 
 
 The art of carving meat was taught on wooden 
 models, a circumstance to which the same 
 author alludes in his eleventh satire, where 
 Trypherus, a celebrated cook and perfect 
 master of his profession, is mentioned, 
 
 1 Pliny’s Epistles, vol. i. page 57. Lord Orrery’s Trans¬ 
 lation. 
 
 2 Badham’s Translation. 
 
128 
 
 Whose pupils, with blunt knife and pompous air, 
 
 Slice down the wooded boar, the kid, the hare ; 
 
 His matchless art the oryx and gazelle 
 And huge flamingo, oft dismember’d, tell, 
 
 While through the clattering feast he goes his rounds, 
 And the elm banquet through Suburra 1 sounds. 2 3 
 
 The dining-halls of Lucullus, a Roman cele¬ 
 brated for his love of splendour, were distin¬ 
 guished by the different names of the gods ; 
 and it is a well-known circumstance in his 
 biography, that when Cicero and Pompey at¬ 
 tempted to surprise him by an unexpected 
 visit, they were perfectly astonished at the ex¬ 
 treme costliness of a feast which had been 
 speedily prepared for them upon the simple 
 announcement of Lucullus that he would dine 
 in the Hall of Apollo 5 . Asarotos (Ecus, or the 
 unswept room, was a name once given to a tri¬ 
 clinium, on account of the singularity of the 
 
 1 One of the streets of Rome. 
 
 2 Dr. Badham has here very happily expressed the sense 
 of the original, although the particular items of the Roman 
 bill of fare were most untractable for a translator. 
 
 3 Plutarch’s Life of Lucullus. 
 
129 
 
 design of the mosaic pavement, which by the 
 caprice of the artist was made to represent all 
 kinds of fragments of a feast, carelessly dis¬ 
 posed, as if they had actually fallen from the 
 tables, and conveying an idea that the floor 
 of the room had not been swept since the last 
 repast 1 . 
 
 Around the upper part of the dining-room, 
 to a certain height, the walls were hung with 
 rich drapery: it was this kind of hanging, 
 which by its fall, it will be remembered, dis¬ 
 turbed the feast of Nasidienus, described by 
 Horace 2 . The embellishment of the remaining 
 part of the room had an air of considerable 
 grandeur, being at the same time of a character 
 perfectly suitable to the use and peculiar desti¬ 
 nation of the apartment. Chaplets and wreaths 
 surrounded by ivy and vine branches divided 
 the walls into compartments, bordered with 
 every variety of fanciful ornament. In the 
 
 1 Pliny’s Natural History, lib. xxxvi. cap. 25. 
 
 2 Lib. ii. sat. 8.;—a description of a miser acting ex¬ 
 travagance. 
 
 K 
 
130 
 
 centre of each panel or large square division 
 of the walls of the room, were exquisitely 
 painted the graceful figures of young Fauns 
 and Bacchantic females bearing thyrsi, vases, 
 cups, and all the accompaniments of elegant 
 festivity 1 . The deep frieze above the columns 
 was divided into pictures, each of them sur¬ 
 mounted by one of the signs of the zodiac, and 
 representing the viands most esteemed in the 
 particular month indicated by the sign. Under 
 Sagittarius were painted prawns, shell-fish, 
 and birds of passage ; beneath Capncornus, 
 lobsters, sea-fish, the wild boar and game; 
 below Aquarius, ducks, plovers, pigeons and 
 water-rails, &c. &c. In a triclinium placed 
 beneath a trellis-work, at Pompeii, a frieze 
 was discovered the decorations of which were 
 composed of all sorts of eatables 2 . 
 
 The couches of the dining-room were called 
 
 1 Pittura d’ Ercolano and the Pompeiana contain engra¬ 
 vings of very many examples of these beautiful figures. 
 
 4 Now scarcely discernible. See the house of Acteon, in 
 Mazois’ Ruines de Pompeii. 
 
131 
 
 Triclinaria, to distinguish them from the Cubi- 
 cularia used for sleeping on, and were made of 
 bronze inlaid with ornaments of pure gold and 
 silver: the tortoise-shell was also employed in 
 the manufacture of these sumptuous seats of re¬ 
 pose. Upon the enriched frames of the couches 
 were spread mattresses of Gaulish wool, and 
 cushions stuffed with feathers and covered with 
 embroidery of variegated flowers in gold and sil- 
 ver thread, chiefly manufactured at Babylon. 
 
 The Triclinaria, as their name implies, origi¬ 
 nally accommodated three persons on each, and 
 in the dining-room all the couches were of the 
 same form and decoration. The ladies used 
 the same mode of reclining at table as the 
 men. Suetonius relates that at an entertain¬ 
 ment given by Caligula, the emperor placed 
 all his sisters, one by one, below himself, the 
 empress his wife lying above him 1 . 
 
 1 After the round citron tables became fashionable, the 
 triclinia were changed for a stibadium, one single large 
 couch in the shape of a crescent, or of the Grecian sigma, 
 whence it sometimes borrowed its hame. These couches 
 
 K 2 
 
132 
 
 The size of the table, as well as ol the 
 couches, was proportioned to the number of 
 guests, and incredible luxury was exhibited in 
 these articles of furniture, although in the 
 earlier periods of history the Romans were 
 deemed frugal. Juvenal exclaims, 
 
 Those times, those simple times, no tables knew. 
 
 Save of the wood which our own forests grew; 
 
 If some old chestnut, which the blast had borne 
 For many an age, from the hill’s side was torn. 
 
 That tree supplied, hewn from its ample stem, 
 
 A table, unadorn’d, but priz’d by them 1 . 
 
 In the remote times of the republic, there 
 was so little even of silver in the city of Rome, 
 that the senators mutually lent their plate 
 whenever they gave an entertainment. “The 
 Romans, it appears, live upon a very familiar 
 footing together,” once said the ambassadors 
 from Carthage ; “we have been treated at 
 all the great tables in Rome, and everywhere 
 
 also were named from the number of guests that they held, 
 as the hexaclinon for six persons, the heptaclinon for seven, 
 &c.—Rennet’s Roman Antiquities. 
 
 1 Badham’s Translation. Sat. 11. 
 
133 
 
 served upon the same silver But from 
 the time that Scipio Africanus brought the 
 spoils of Carthage and Numantia to the city, 
 and after Lucius Scipio brought to Rome 
 the treasures of Antiochus the Great, more 
 gold and silver was to be seen on the table 
 and in the dining-room of a patrician than 
 formerly could have been collected throughout 
 the whole republic. 
 
 The Romans then strove to surpass one 
 another in the beauty and elegance of the 
 several pieces which composed a service of 
 plate: the manufactures of superior taste or 
 articles of virtu came into request, and at 
 length the works of Acagras and Mys, both 
 celebrated artisans in silver, were purchased 
 at an enormous price, their names being suffi¬ 
 cient to denote the superiority of the work¬ 
 manship 1 2 . Licinius Crassus, the celebrated 
 
 1 Pliny’s Natural History, lib. xiii. cap. 2. 
 
 2 Mys had been employed to represent the battle of the 
 Centaurs and Lapithae on a shield belonging to the statue 
 of Minerva sculptured by Phidias. 
 
134 
 
 orator, is recorded to have had in his possession 
 silver vessels which cost him no less than a 
 hundred and sixty-six crowns the pound, and 
 a pair of beakers, for which he had paid above 
 four thousand crowns, wrought by Mentor, an 
 artificer who excelled in engraving flowers. 
 At a later period two vases with figures in 
 relievo, the workmanship of Zopirus, were sold 
 for about five thousand crowns. In the ampli¬ 
 tude of the vessels their taste was also shown ; 
 Drusillanus Rotundus, one of the retainers of 
 the Emperor Claudius, ordered an immense 
 dish to be cast for his use, which weighed five 
 hundred pounds, and eight smaller ones of 
 fifty pounds each: for the express manufacture 
 of these expensive articles a workshop was 
 erected. 
 
 Cups and other vessels, when made of Co¬ 
 rinthian brass and executed by old masters of 
 repute in their trade, were estimated at a higher 
 rate than even gold. The collectors of these 
 precious works of art became so refined in their 
 taste as to affect to be able to distinguish readily 
 
135 
 
 the age and genuineness of rare pieces, as well 
 as the particular hand of the artisan whose 
 workmanship they were professed to be 1 . 
 
 The passion of the Romans for cut stones, 
 cups of onyx with figures in relief, &c., was 
 carried to the same height of extravagance as 
 the other branches of their prodigious luxury. 
 “We must have golden couches and furniture 
 of precious stones,” says the stoic philosopher 
 Seneca 2 , “to distinguish ourselves from the 
 common herd.” Amongst the most valuable 
 description of drinking cups were those com¬ 
 posed of a kind of murrhina, which are said 3 
 to have been porcelain from China or Japan 4 . 
 That these cups were brought by the Romans 
 from the remote parts of the East, Pliny him- 
 
 1 Pliny’s Natural History, lib. xxxiv. cap. 2. 
 
 2 Epist. 110. Seneca’s houses are acknowledged to have 
 been the most magnificent in Rome. 
 
 3 Pliniani Exercitationes in Caii Julii Solini Poly hist. &c., 
 p. 114. See also Mariette, Recueil des Pierres grav. du Cab. 
 du Roi, p. 218 et seq. 
 
 4 The term porcelain is modern, and derived from the 
 Portuguese porcelana, a cup. The manufactory at Etruria 
 
136 
 
 self relates, and that the murrhinse excelled 
 gold in value, is also beyond a doubt. 
 
 The state of Rome under the Emperors pre¬ 
 sented a powerful contrast to the primitive 
 times when even men of rank ate off dishes of 
 Campanian pottery; in times when the consul 
 iElius Catus rejected a present of a service of 
 silver plate from the ambassadors of iEtolia, 
 who found him at his dinner with dishes of 
 iron on the table 1 . 
 
 Every Roman, even in later times, was not 
 possessed of that refined taste which Cicero 
 considered requisite to the character of a no¬ 
 bleman. In his celebrated invective against 
 Piso, who was of illustrious ancestry, he vehe- 
 
 in Staffordshire, established by the late Josiah Wedgwood, 
 has made many of the forms of the ancient vases familiar 
 in modern times. It produced a fac-simile of the Barberini 
 Vase, and beautiful imitations of the vase found in the ruins 
 of Hadrian’s villa at Tivoli. The original of the former is 
 in the British Museum, and that of the latter at Warwick 
 Castle. 
 
 1 See Arbuthnot’s Tables, chap, xiii., a part of the book 
 entirely devoted to an estimation of the plate and jewellery 
 of the Romans. 
 
137 
 
 mently denounces his domestic establishment 
 as not becoming a man of spirit and a gentle¬ 
 man. Cicero continues his reproaches by a 
 circumstantial detail of his ordinary manner of 
 living. “There is nothing splendid about him, 
 nothing elegant, nothing fine; there is not a 
 piece of chased plate in his house: his dishes are 
 of the largest size, and that he may not seem to 
 slight his countrymen, they arePlacentineware; 
 his table is covered not with delicate dishes, but 
 with plenty of salt meat: the servants who 
 wait upon him are all shabby, and some of 
 them old; one person is employed both as cook 
 and porter : there is not a baker in his house, 
 nor a cellar in it: his bread and his wine are 
 bought at the shop and the tavern : his guests 
 are crowded together, five, and sometimes 
 more, on one of his little couches, while he has 
 one wholly to himself; they drink as long as 
 he serves them from the upper couch, and when 
 he hears the cock crow, he immediately orders 
 the table to be removed 1 .” 
 
 1 Duncan’s Cicero, vol. ii. p. 125. This oration was 
 made in the second consulship of Pompey and Crassus. 
 
138 
 
 Gibbon relates that a description of the city 
 of Rome which was composed in the Theo- 
 dosian age, enumerates one thousand seven 
 hundred and eighty houses, the residences of 
 wealthy and honourable citizens. Each palace, 
 continues the historian, was equal to a city, 
 since it included within its own precincts 
 everything which could be subservient either 
 to use or luxury,—hippodromes, temples, foun¬ 
 tains 1 , baths, porticos, shady groves and avi¬ 
 aries 2 * * 5 . 
 
 The estates of the Roman senators at this 
 period were not confined to the limits of 
 Italy; their possessions extended far beyond 
 
 1 Lord Orford, who was arbiter of the public taste in the 
 
 age in which he lived, considered a fountain in the court¬ 
 yard of a great house as a proper accompaniment to archi¬ 
 tecture and as a work of grandeur in itself. Fountains and 
 
 cypresses, he says, particularly become buildings. They are 
 common at this day in the neighbourhood of Rome, where 
 
 Each gushing fount a marble cistern fills 
 Whose polished bed receives the falling rills. 
 
 5 Gibbon’s Rome, chap. xxxi. This elegant author writes 
 on the authority of Nardini the antiquary and Claudian the 
 poet. 
 
139 
 
 the Ionian and iEgean Seas to the most distant 
 provinces. Several of the richest Romans re¬ 
 ceived from their estates an annual income of 
 four thousand pounds of gold, above 160,000/. 
 sterling, without computing the stated pro¬ 
 vision of corn and wine, which, had they been 
 sold, might have equalled in value one third of 
 the money. Compared to this wealth an ordi¬ 
 nary revenue of one thousand or fifteen hundred 
 pounds of gold might be considered as no more 
 than adequate to the dignity of the senatorial 
 rank, which required many expences of a public 
 and ostentatious kind 1 . 
 
 A Roman senator travelled with the same 
 pomp that attended the earlier English mon- 
 archs 2 ; in a journey into the country, the 
 
 1 Gibbon’s Rome, chap. xxxi. This curious account of 
 Rome in the reign of Honorius is found in a fragment of 
 the historian Olympiodorus. Several examples are recorded 
 at this degenerate period of nobles who celebrated the year 
 of their pretorship by a festival which lasted seven days, 
 and cost above 100,000/. sterling. 
 
 2 It was the custom of the sovereigns of England, until 
 the middle of the seventeenth century, to devote the summer 
 
140 
 
 whole body of his household marched with him, 
 and, like the advanced guard and rear of an 
 army, were marshalled by a domestic who bore 
 a rod as an ensign of authority, and who 
 arranged the numerous train of slaves and at¬ 
 tendants. The baggage and wardrobe moved 
 in the front, followed by the cooks and inferior 
 officers employed in the service of the kitchen 
 and of the table. The main body was composed 
 of a promiscuous crowd of servants, encreased 
 by the concourse of dependants, and the rear 
 was closed by the favorite band of eunuchs dis¬ 
 tributed according to the order of seniority 1 . 
 
 The extreme magnificence of one Roman 
 mansion gave rise to a proverbial expression in¬ 
 months to progresses through different counties. But these 
 journeys produced considerable inconvenience to the farmers, 
 who were not only compelled to furnish provisions to the 
 purveyors, hut were withdrawn from the labours of the 
 harvest to aid with their horses and wagons in the fre¬ 
 quent removals of the Court and of the multitude which 
 accompanied it.— Lingard’s History, vol. v. p. 136. 
 
 1 Gibbon’s Rome, chap, xxxi., whose authority for circum¬ 
 stances relative to the journeys of the Romans is Seneca, 
 
141 
 
 dicative of opulence and splendour. The marbles 
 of the Anician palace , was used to designate 
 the pre-eminence of the Anician line amongst 
 the senators of Rome 1 . Architecture, having 
 attained in the reign of Augustus the utmost 
 summit of perfection of which it seemed ca¬ 
 pable, was at this time in its decline. The 
 architects of the reign of Constantine and the 
 subsequent era, being deficient in knowledge 
 of the principles of the science, found it more 
 
 Epist. cxxiii. The English Court when moving on a pro¬ 
 gress was formerly attended by three orders of harbingers 
 who had the distribution of lodgings ;—a knight harbinger 
 provided for the accommodation of the king and members of 
 the Royal family; a gentleman harbinger for the great 
 officers of the Court; and a yeoman harbinger for the rest 
 of the retinue. The offices of gentleman and yeoman har¬ 
 binger were not abolished till 1782. 
 
 1 One hundred and sixty-eight years before the Christian 
 era this family was ennobled by the pretorship of Anicius, 
 who gloriously terminated the Illyrian war by the conquest 
 of the nation and the captivity of their king. From the 
 reign of Diocletian to the final extinction of the Western 
 Empire, the Anician name shone with a lustre which was 
 not eclipsed in the public estimation by the majesty of the 
 imperial purple.— Gibbon's Rome, chap. xxxi. 
 
142 
 
 easy to employ splendour of decoration than a 
 nice adjustment of forms and proportions 1 . 
 
 Architecture as it existed during the Au¬ 
 gustan age, and immediately before that period, 
 is usually distinguished by the term antique ; 
 but after the commencement of the fourth cen¬ 
 tury, the prevailing style, by licentious modifi¬ 
 cations, had begun to exhibit marks of di¬ 
 minished grandeur*. The domestic architecture 
 
 1 Vasari says that the ruin of the arts was accomplished 
 by Constantine’s removal of the seat of the empire from 
 Rome to Byzantium, because he carried with him into 
 Greece not only all the best sculptors and other artificers 
 of that age whom he could procure, but also an infinity of 
 statues and other ornaments of the most exquisite work¬ 
 manship.—Vol. i. p. 215. 
 
 2 Critics in the Grecian orders remark that the triumphal 
 arch of Severus is less perfect than that of Titus, and that 
 the monument of Constantine’s triumph dver Maxentius is 
 charged with columns, statues and other ornaments pur¬ 
 loined from the arch of Trajan and irregularly placed.— 
 Dr. Milner’s Treatise on Ecclesiastical Architecture, p. 12. 
 Holdsworth says, the three most celebrated triumphal arches 
 in Italy are all either Trajan’s or ornamented from Trajan’s, 
 and alludes to those at Ancona and Benevento, as well, as to 
 that of Constantine at Rome.— Spence's Anecdotes, p. 257. 
 
143 
 
 of the middle ages, says Hallam, did not attain 
 any perfection even in Italy, where, from the 
 size of her cities and social refinements of her 
 inhabitants, greater elegance and splendour in 
 building were justly to be expected 1 . 
 
 The three Grecian orders, as they are ge¬ 
 nerally called, the Doric, the Ionic, and the 
 Corinthian,—styles which constitute the beauty 
 and magnificence of classical architecture,— 
 are defined by the columns and entablature, 
 and received their distinctive appellations long- 
 after their original invention. 
 
 There are no examples of the Greek Doric 
 at Rome; this style was never deemed proper 
 for domestic architecture, in which the Tuscan, 
 a Roman invention, appears to have super¬ 
 seded it. Of the latter it is exceedingly difficult 
 to collect anything ancient; excepting the sim¬ 
 ple form of the capital and base of the column, 
 no ancient entablature exists 2 . In antique 
 
 1 State of Europe during the Middle Ages, vol. iii. p. 424. 
 
 2 Forsyth, one of the best of modern authorities, says, 
 “The Doric appears at Rome in very few monuments, and 
 
144 
 
 examples the Doric column is without a base, 
 and the entablature is always more massive 
 than that of the other orders, the strength of 
 the column preparing it for a greater burthen. 
 The Psestan Doric, of high antiquity, differs 
 from that of the Parthenon; each has its ad¬ 
 mirers, and both are acknowledged to be admi¬ 
 rably adapted to their respective situations 1 . 
 
 so Latinized that we lose the original order; and of the order 
 called Tuscan, nothing is to be found in these nor I believe 
 in any ruins. The total disappearance of this order I would 
 impute to its own rules. In Tuscan edifices the inter-colum- 
 niations were so wide, that wood became necessary to form 
 the architrave, and a mixture of brick rendered the whole 
 fabric more destructible .”—Remarks on Italy, p. 154, &c. 
 
 1 Amongst the various remains of ancient architecture, 
 none perhaps have so grand an effect as the Doric temples in 
 Sicily and at Psestum, though from their general look of 
 massiveness, and from the columns being without bases, 
 none are more opposite to what are usually considered as 
 light buildings. But may it not be doubted whether the 
 giving bases to those columns, and consequently a greater 
 degree of lightness and airiness to the whole, might not 
 proportionably diminish that solid massive grandeur which 
 is so striking to every eye?— Price’s Essay on thePicturesque, 
 vol. ii. p. 242. 
 
145 
 
 The Ionic order is next in point of antiquity, 
 and is perhaps most preferable for domestic 
 buildings 1 . Dr. Clarke traces the origin of 
 the volute and capital of this order to a scroll 
 which occurs on Greek vases, and was a symbol 
 of water; but it is more probably derived from 
 Egypt, where architecture had been carried to 
 a high degree of perfection. The best specimens 
 of the Greek Ionic volute are found in Asia 
 Minor, where the fronts and flanks of the 
 columns are different in their forms. The an¬ 
 cient bases of this order have no square plinth 
 
 1 Sir Henry W otton, a gentleman eminent for his learning 
 and knowledge of the fine arts as they existed in the reign 
 of James I., and who wrote a treatise on the Elements of 
 Architecture, which was afterwards translated into Latin 
 and prefixed to the Works of Vitruvius, gives the follow¬ 
 ing definition : “The Ionique order doth represent a kind of 
 feminine slenderness ; yet, saith Vitruvius, not like a light 
 house-wife, but in a decent dressing hath much of the ma¬ 
 tron. The body of this column is perpetually channelled like 
 a thick plaited gown; the capital dressed on each side not 
 much unlike women’s hair in a spiral wreathing; the cornice 
 indented; the frize swelling like a pillow, and therefore by 
 Vitruvius not inelegantly termed Pulvinata.” 
 
 L 
 
146 
 
 beneath them. Dentils, members of the cornice 
 belonging to the Ionic order, are generally 
 omitted in the remains at Athens. 
 
 Architecture, says Sir Uvedale Price, is the 
 divinity that raises the porches of cottages, and 
 the rude posts that support them, into porticos 
 and colonnades 1 . The dentils are sculptured 
 in the cornice, to represent the ends of rafters 
 or secondary timbers forming the ornamental 
 coffering of the ceiling; and upon which the 
 corona, or upper member of the cornice, rests. 
 These are considered by Vitruvius to be as 
 characteristic of the Ionic order as the capital 
 of the column itself. 
 
 The Corinthian order was that to which the 
 Romans Under the Emperors were most partial. 
 Although of Greek origin, examples of it are 
 rare in Greece; but at Rome the remains exhibit 
 
 1 Essay on the Picturesque, vol. ii. p. 385. The porches 
 and posts of the one, answer those purposes as effectually 
 as the porticos and columns of the other; projecting roofs, 
 sheds with brackets and rails, have in another style the 
 effect of cornices and balustrades.— Ibid. p. 384. 
 
147 
 
 great variety, from those of the temple of Jupiter 
 Stator in the Forum, to those of the peripteral 
 temple at Tivoli 1 . The ancient Egyptian co¬ 
 lumns furnish a probable derivation of the 
 capitals of the Corinthian order: it is known 
 that the foliage of the lotus (the type of the 
 Nile) and palm leaves were employed in the ca¬ 
 pitals of the columns of the temples of Egypt; 
 the use of the latter is supposed to have arisen 
 from a prevailing opinion that the tree rose 
 under any weight in proportion to the degree of 
 depression 2 . At Rome, laurel and olive leaves 
 
 1 Sir Uvedale Price says, the temple at Tivoli has as 
 much of the chief principles of general beauty as the par¬ 
 ticular principles of architecture will allow: it is circular, 
 and surrounded by columns detached from the body of the 
 building: it is light and airy; of a delicate frame ; in a 
 great measure free from angles, and comparatively small. 
 As a further proof of its beauty, Claude has repeated it 
 much more frequently in his landscapes than any other 
 building .—Essay on the Picturesque, vol. ii. p. 273. 
 
 2 Forsyth gives it as his opinion that the Corinthian order 
 can be traced in the Egyptian ruins of Koun Ombos and of 
 Esne, which are older than the Greek story of the Basket 
 and Tile .—Remarks on Italy, p. 313. 
 
 L 2 
 
148 
 
 were used, as well as those of the acanthus, 
 of which the capital was most usually formed; 
 the cornice of the Corinthian order is distin¬ 
 guished in the best examples by modillions 
 or mutules, small brackets under the corona. 
 The tasteful character of the order is preserved 
 in the portico of the Pantheon of Hadrian at 
 Rome; but the finest specimen of the Greek 
 Corinthian is the choragic monument of Lysi- 
 crates, and the most ancient is the temple of 
 Apollo Didymseus. 
 
 The Bishop of Salisbury, in one of his earli¬ 
 est productions, has given a very beautiful de¬ 
 finition of the three several styles by their 
 poetical analogy. 
 
 Amongst the Dorians, says the learned au¬ 
 thor, architecture carried with it the austerity 
 of their national character which displayed it¬ 
 self in their language and music. The Ionians 
 added to its original simplicity an elegance 
 which has excited the universal admiration of 
 posterity. The Corinthians, a rich and luxu¬ 
 rious people, not contented with former im- 
 
149 
 
 provements, extended the art to the very verge 
 of vicious refinement. And thus—so connected 
 in their origin are the arts, so similar in their 
 progress and revolutions—the same genius pro¬ 
 duced those three characters of style in archi¬ 
 tecture, which one of the most judicious critics 
 of Greece remarked in its language. The 
 Dorians exhibited an order of building like the 
 style of their Pindar, like Eschylus, like Thucy¬ 
 dides. The Corinthians gave their architecture 
 that appearance of delicacy and effeminate re¬ 
 finement which characterizes the language of 
 Isocrates ; but the Ionians struck out that 
 happy line of beauty, which, partaking of the 
 simplicity of the one without its harshness, 
 and of the elegance of the other without its 
 luxuriance, exhibited that perfection of style 
 which is adjudged to their great poet and his 
 best imitators. Such an art, amongst such a 
 people, could not but produce the most ex¬ 
 quisite models of beauty and magnificence 1 . 
 
 Essay on the Study of Antiquities, 8vo, 1782, p. 10. 
 
150 
 
 Referring to the period of Roman history 
 between the reigns of Caracalla and Diocletian, 
 it is generally admitted that buildings, as to 
 their general plan, exhibited only the remains 
 of the great and magnificent ideas which per¬ 
 vaded those of a previous date. They were 
 indeed gigantic as to proportion ; yet in detail 
 may be discovered, amidst cost and ornament, 
 poverty of design and meanness of execution 1 . 
 The description of the palace erected by order 
 of Diocletian in Dalmatia, about seven miles 
 from Salona his native town, will convey some 
 idea of the state of domestic architecture at 
 that period 2 . The edifice, with its detached 
 buildings, covered an extent of ground con¬ 
 sisting of between nine and ten English acres. 
 The ground-plan was quadrangular, and the 
 building was flanked by sixteen towers. Two 
 
 1 See Gunn’s Inquiry into Gothic Architecture, p. 3. 
 
 2 Diocletian voluntarily resigned the imperial crown on 
 May 1st, A.D. 304, at Nicomedia in Asia Minor, and re¬ 
 tired to Salona, where he resided as a private gentleman 
 during nine years after his abdication. 
 
151 
 
 of the sides were nearly six hundred, and the 
 other two nearly seven hundred feet in length 1 . 
 The whole was constructed of a beautiful free¬ 
 stone, little inferior to marble itself. Four 
 avenues intersecting each other at right angles 
 divided the several parts of this edifice, and 
 the approach to the principal apartments was 
 from a stately entrance, still denominated the 
 Golden Gate. The approach was terminated 
 
 1 This mansion was erected for an emperor’s retirement, 
 and did not possess the stately dimensions of an imperial 
 palace. Two houses of English noblemen in Buckingham¬ 
 shire almost equal it in extent. Stowe House, built by 
 Sir Richard Temple, K.B. who died in 1697 ; the central 
 part of this edifice extends 454 feet, but including the 
 wings, added by his son Lord Cobham, 916 feet. The front 
 of Ashridge, erected by John William seventh earl of 
 Bridgewater, between 1808 and 1817, includes a length 
 of above 1000 feet. Wentworth House, in Yorkshire, con¬ 
 sists of an irregular quadrangle enclosing three courts, with 
 a principal front extending in a line upwards of 600 feet. 
 At Blenheim, in Oxfordshire, the house built to perpetuate 
 the memory of the military services of John duke of 
 Marlborough in 1704, consists of a central edifice connected 
 by colonnades with two quadrangular, wings, each contain¬ 
 ing an open court, the whole being in extreme length 850 
 teet, and covering seven acres of ground. 
 
152 
 
 by a peristyle of granite columns, on one side 
 of which was a temple to Esculapius, and on 
 the other an octagonal temple to Jupiter: the 
 latter of these deities Diocletian revered as the 
 patron of his fortunes, the former as the pro¬ 
 tector of his health. By comparing the re¬ 
 mains of the palace with the precepts of Vi¬ 
 truvius, the several parts of the building, the 
 atrium, basilica, baths, and bedchamber, the 
 Cyzicene, Corinthian and Egyptian halls, have 
 been described with some degree of proba¬ 
 bility 1 . Their forms are various, their pro¬ 
 portions just; but it appears that they were all 
 
 1 See Ruins of the Palace of the Emperor Diocletian at 
 Spalatro in Dalmatia, containing 61 plates engraved by 
 Bartolozzi and others, published by Robert Adam in 17 64, 
 in large folio. The brothers Robert and James Adam 
 erected a mansion at Bow Wood in Wiltshire for John earl 
 of Shelburne. To this edifice his son William marquess 
 of Lansdowne, the collector of the Lansdowne MSS. now 
 in the British Museum, added three hundred feet of building, 
 designed by the same architects upon the model of a wing 
 of the palace at Spalatro. Some of the architectural pecu¬ 
 liarities of Diocletian’s palace are also transferred to the 
 mansion of the Marquess of Bute at Luton Hoo in Bedford¬ 
 shire, erected from designs by Robert Adam. 
 
153 
 
 attended with two imperfections, very repug¬ 
 nant to modern ideas of taste and conve¬ 
 nience. Their stately rooms had neither win¬ 
 dows 1 nor fire-places : they were lighted from 
 the top, for the building seems to have con¬ 
 sisted of no more than one story ; and they 
 received their heat by means of pipes that 
 were conveyed along the walls. The range 
 of principal apartments was protected towards 
 the south-west by a colonnade 517 feet long, 
 forming a very noble and delightful walk when 
 the beauties of painting and sculpture were 
 added to those of the prospect. 
 
 It has been suggested, that in the remains 
 of Diocletian’s palace there are certain forms 
 and ornaments which partake of the Gothic 
 style of architecture 2 . It is also said, that 
 the ruins of Theodoric’s palace at Terracina 
 
 1 Fenestra, usually translated window, as well as the 
 German word Fenster, signifies, not the opening of the 
 house through which the light enters, but the board which 
 shuts it up and darkens the house. 
 
 2 Dallaway’s Observations on English Architecture, p. 4. 
 
154 
 
 evidently show that the edifice had been ori¬ 
 ginally constructed on the model of similar 
 buildings of the classical ages, placed in situ¬ 
 ations which resembled it 1 2 . Gibbon mentions 
 the palace of Theodosius as the oldest speci¬ 
 men of Gothic. 
 
 In the ancient villas of the Romans, says 
 Forsyth, the buildings were low, diffused over 
 the park, and detached. In the modern, they 
 are more compact, more commodious, and rise 
 into several stories. Some of their fronts are 
 coated with ancient relievi, and their porticos 
 composed of ancient columns 8 . The many 
 extensive modern palaces in Rome are named 
 after the families to which they belong; but 
 hardly one can be said to have any real archi¬ 
 tectural merit, although they are not in their 
 general appearance devoid of grandeur. They 
 commonly contain three, four, and five stories 
 in height, including the mezzanine; to each 
 
 1 Memes’ Memoirs of Canova, p. 8. 
 
 2 Remarks on Italy, p. 173. 
 
155 
 
 • story is a range of windows, enriched with * 
 heavy architraves and with French sashes. 
 The walls are built chiefly with brick, and 
 stuccoed, adorned with members of stone or 
 marble, and the angles usually fortified with 
 rusticated stone-work; at the top they finish 
 with a cornice resting on consoles; over that 
 are dripping eaves, and the roofs are covered 
 with pantiles. On the front, generally in the 
 centre, is a large gate-way, through which 
 people and carriages enter an inner court. 
 Very frequently the sides of this quadrangle 
 are more elegant than the facade itself, being 
 embellished with different orders of archi¬ 
 tecture executed in marble, which form so 
 many loggie or open galleries, as well for the 
 reception of statues, bassi relievi, and other 
 works of art, as to communicate with the 
 chambers on the several floors. The interior 
 of the palaces consists of a suite of apartments 
 of various extent, but generally rectangular in 
 their forms. These communicate with each 
 other by door-ways in a direct line. The 
 
156 
 
 ceilings, either coved, panelled, or domed, are 
 painted with subjects from profane or sacred 
 history. The walls are adorned with pictures 
 by the most esteemed masters, and often hung 
 with damask and tapestry. Large mirrors, 
 together with superb tables of lapis lazuli, 
 mosaic, porphyry and other fine marbles, oc¬ 
 cupy the piers between the windows, and 
 around the rooms are placed rare cabinets and 
 richly gilt furniture. The floors are frequently 
 of inlaid marble, of plaster elegantly painted, 
 or of brick only. 
 
 Palladian walls, Venetian doors, 
 
 Grotesco roofs and stucco floors. 
 
 The state apartments on the first floor contain 
 the richest display of pictures and sculpture, 
 while the upper and lower stories are inhabited 
 by the family according to the season of the 
 year 1 . 
 
 The principal design of this Essay being 
 
 1 Tappen’s Professional Observations on the Architecture 
 of France and Italy , 8vo, 1806, page 189. 
 
157 
 
 a commencement of a history of the domestic 
 architecture of Great Britain, long in contem¬ 
 plation, a very brief notice of the sites and re¬ 
 markable remains of villas or mansions that 
 have been discovered in England is here given, 
 to show the origin of the luxurious habits 
 primarily introduced into this country by the 
 Romans: these may be traced in the vestiges 
 of the earliest of our monastic establishments. 
 The convents of England, in certain parts of 
 their plan, greatly partook of the Roman man¬ 
 ner of building, and occupied two or more 
 courts in their general arrangement. The lau¬ 
 datory sentence inscribed at a very early period 
 on the monastery at York, 
 
 ut rosa flos florunt, 
 
 sic cst nomus ista fcomorum, 
 
 implies in the strongest manner that the Abbot 
 of St. Peter’s was no less satisfied than was 
 the Emperor Nero, when he had accomplished 
 the erection of a house fit for a gentleman. 
 
 The Church, emulous of state, laid the foun¬ 
 dation of a rival empire, and adopted similar 
 
158 
 
 titles and offices to those of the imperial court 
 of Rome 1 . A striking similarity between the 
 plan of the religious houses and that of the 
 Roman villa is to be found in the cloisters or 
 covered walks about the monastery 2 , for the 
 better communication from one place to an¬ 
 other. At St. Albans, the site of the Roman 
 Verulam, the cloisters were fenced with grating 
 or lattice-work, and the middle plot enclosed 
 
 1 Bishopric implies the dominion of a bishop ,—rie sig¬ 
 nifying sovereign authority. The appurtenances are all of 
 princely denomination: he has his palace and his throne: his 
 chancellor, his treasurer, &c., are offices alike in name and 
 power with those in the court of an emperor. In the number 
 of domestics, the ancient prelates were not less ostentatious : 
 Cardinal Wolsey had about five hundred persons in his 
 household, according to his chequer roll.— Cavendish. 
 
 2 Thomas de Marlborough, who erected the cloister at 
 Evesham, is said in a contemporary account to have given 
 it the form of a corridor. He likewise made a bath in the 
 cloister before the gate of the monastery. The monk who 
 recorded this fact also mentions that the same abbot re¬ 
 newed an inscription on the great altar without looking 
 into a book —sine libro. — Tindal’s Hist, and Antiq. of the 
 Abbey of Evesham, p. 29. 
 
159 
 
 a shrubbery; they were all built with oak, and 
 covered with shingles 1 . The cloisters of this 
 rich and powerful convent were at a later 
 period glazed with painted glass, the pictures 
 representing a series of scriptural subjects with 
 verses attached 2 . 
 
 At Ashridge, also a convent in Bucking¬ 
 hamshire, there is mention of an ambulatory 
 or paradise; and lord Orford, after a visit to 
 Newstead Abbey, writes, “The monks for¬ 
 merly were the only sensible people that had 
 really good mansions 3 .” 
 
 The Romans first landed in Britain fifty-five 
 
 1 Newcombe’s History of the Abbey of St. Albans, p. 121. 
 Dr. Stukeley fancied the Rows at Chester to be a remain 
 of the Roman porticos.— Itinerarium Curio sum, p. 56. 
 
 2 Newcombe’s History, &c., p. 369. A copy of all these 
 subjects is to be seen in the Bodleian library at Oxford, 
 MS. Laud. E. 4. This practice of adorning the walls with 
 verses, &c., had begun in the time of Abbot de la Mare, who 
 presided in the reign of Edward III. Painting is the first mode 
 of instruction, and writing is an additional improvement. 
 
 3 Walpole’s Correspondence ; —Letter to the Earl of 
 Strafford, vol. ii. p. 179. 
 
ICO 
 
 years before the Christian era ; but it was 
 not till long after, that they made any perma¬ 
 nent settlement in this country, or had even 
 penetrated into the interior, which probably 
 did not happen till the reign of Claudius, 
 A.D. 41. From the first invasion by Julius 
 Caesar, the Romans continued in Britain four 
 hundred and seventy-five years, and during 
 the greater part of this time they remained in 
 a state of peace and tranquillity 1 . 
 
 1 The memory of the Romans is preserved in England by 
 many local traditions. Norwich is an instance, being sup¬ 
 posed to have risen after the fall of Castor, a Roman station. 
 
 Castor was a city when Norwich was none; 
 Norwich was built of Castor’s stone. 
 
 At Ribchester in Lancashire, the Rerigonium of Antoninus’s 
 Itinerary, a Roman station of considerable magnitude, 
 where many altars, coins, &c. have been found, is preserved 
 a tradition in lame verse : 
 
 It is written upon a wall at Rome, 
 
 Ribchester, rich as any town in Christendom. 
 
 The stations and garrisons of the Roman legions prove very 
 often the foundation of towns and cities in other provinces 
 as well as Britain. 
 
1G1 
 
 A colony so fertile, and abounding in beauti¬ 
 ful situations, it can hardly be doubted, was 
 in course of time inhabited by many Roman 
 adventurers, who migrated hither with their 
 families, and built villas or country seats, where 
 they lived in some degree of elegance. The 
 Romanized Britons also built houses 1 , temples, 
 courts and market-places in their towns, and 
 adorned them with porticos and baths, with 
 mosaic pavements, and with every Roman im¬ 
 provement 2 . 
 
 The late Samuel Lysons, Esq. F.S.A., whose 
 personal exertions in the discovery of Roman 
 remains entitle him to great respect as an au¬ 
 thority, infers, from various ancient authors, 
 that the Romans erected magnificent edifices 
 in this country, very considerable remains of 
 
 1 Agricola, the Roman governor of Britain, very early 
 introduced architecture. Tacitus relates that he built por¬ 
 ticos and baths in this island. Ch. xxi. 
 
 2 See History of the Anglo-Saxons. Mr. Sharon Turner 
 illustrates this part of his subject on the authority of 
 Eumenius the orator. Vol. i. p. 223. 
 
 M 
 
162 
 
 which he concludes existed so late as the reign 
 of Henry II. Girald of Wales, chaplain to that 
 monarch, and whom Camden quotes as an 
 author of credit, speaks of very magnificent 
 remains existing in his time at Caerleon in 
 Monmouthshire, once the metropolis of Wales, 
 and the Isca Silurum of the Romans 1 . 
 
 The extensive discoveries made by Mr. 
 Lysons at Woodchester, near Stroud in Glou¬ 
 cestershire, are sufficient to show that the 
 ancient authors were perfectly correct; and 
 there can be little doubt that the plans, at 
 least, of many Roman residences might yet be 
 traced, although the superstructures have been 
 more completely effaced in England than in 
 other provinces of the Roman empire. The 
 greatest part of them were destroyed for the 
 
 1 Itinerarium Cambria, lib. i. cap. 5. Sir Richard Colt 
 Hoare, Bart., in 1S06 published the Itinerary of Archbishop 
 Baldwin through Wales, A.D. 1188, by Girald de Barri, 
 translated into English and illustrated with views, anno¬ 
 tations and a life of Giraldus Cambrensis. Sir Richard 
 regards him as one of the brightest luminaries that adorned 
 the annals of the twelfth century. 
 
purpose of erecting castles, churches, convents, 
 and other edifices, with the materials 1 . 
 
 The Roman villas—houses situated in the 
 country—were usually on one floor, and, if 
 they belonged to persons of consequence, were 
 of very great extent 9 , and were enriched with 
 
 1 The very frequent discoveries of mosaic pavements, 
 and of fragments of walls painted in the Roman manner 
 in fresco, are evidences that Roman buildings of some ex¬ 
 tent, if not of elegance, actually did exist here. From these 
 examples it is probable that the Anglo-Saxons formed their 
 style of architecture. Whatever is attributed to the Anglo- 
 Saxons certainly partakes in no small degree of a debased 
 Roman manner. This style, known by its massive co¬ 
 lumns and semicircular arches, prevailed during the Anglo- 
 Norman period of our history, till the reign of Richard I. 
 The Anglo-Saxons were diligent disciples of their Roman 
 masters in architecture, as well as in every other art and 
 science. The fact of St. Wilfrid, Archbishop of York, 
 engaging Roman workmen to execute his buildings in 
 England, is recorded by the Venerable Bede and William 
 of Malmsbury; and the castle of St. Angelo, the citadel of 
 Rome, may have been the model for the Anglo-Norman 
 round towers, or keeps of the castles, which were usually 
 raised on a mount. 
 
 2 A Roman villa, according to Columella, consisted of 
 three parts, Urbana, Rustica, and Fructuaria,—the first for 
 
 M 2 
 
164 
 
 splendid decoration of every kind, although in 
 their external elevation they appear to have 
 been generally plain and with few architectural 
 embellishments. The mansion consisted of 
 several colonnades, with open courts running 
 through the centre of the building, and large 
 halls and suites of rooms branching out on 
 either side. The decidedly Roman remains at 
 Woodchester, as described', bear resemblance 
 to such a plan ; but as it is known that the form 
 of the houses was frequently varied to adapt 
 them to the climate of the country in which they 
 were built, the plans of Roman villas in Britain 
 can hardly he expected to agree in every par¬ 
 ticular with those in the immediate vicinity of 
 the city of Rome, 
 
 Midst Gabii’s groves, Volsinium’s woodland height, 
 
 Or the steep cliffs of Tibur’s lofty site. 
 
 the proprietor’s use, the second for the ordinary servants 
 and for the cattle, and the last including storehouses for 
 corn, &c. 
 
 1 An Account of Roman Antiquities discovered at Wood¬ 
 chester. 1797, folio. 
 
From the magnitude of the building at 
 Woodchester, and the enriched style of its de¬ 
 corations, it is supposed not to have belonged 
 to a private individual, but to have been more 
 likely a public edifice built for the residence 
 of a Propraetor, or at least of the Governor of 
 this part of the province 1 , if not occasionally 
 inhabited by the monarch himself, as it is 
 known that several of the Roman emperors 
 visited Britain and continued here a consi¬ 
 derable time. 
 
 ‘ Chester,’ ‘ Cester’ and ‘ Caster,’—words de- 
 rivedfrom castrum, a camp,—generallypoint out 
 a Roman station; and the adjunct is supposed 
 to have been applied by the Anglo-Saxons only 
 where there were actually Roman remains in 
 existence. Woodchester is in a beautiful situ- 
 
 1 Gloucestershire was included in the Roman province 
 Flavia Csesariensis, which reached from the Thames to the 
 Humber. The seventh Roman legion, which bore the name 
 of Claudius, was stationed at Glevum, or Gloucester; hut the 
 city is supposed to have been denominated by the Anglo- 
 Saxons Claudiocestria, as it is called by some of our histo- 
 torians .—Lysons in Archccologia. 
 
166 
 
 ation, abundantly supplied with water, and 
 within a short distance of important stations 1 . 
 
 The discovery of a villa at Bignor in Sussex, 
 near a Roman track-way known by the name 
 of Stone Street 2 , about five miles northward 
 from Arundel, confirms the fact of the Romans 
 having lived in Britain with some degree of 
 splendor. The apartments in these remains 
 exceed in number what have been commonly 
 found, although only a part of the building is 
 supposed to have been discovered. The general 
 style and arrangement of the ornaments which 
 prevail in the pavements of this villa, differ 
 from any previously found in this kingdom, 
 and have also the appearance of much greater 
 antiquity. 
 
 1 The number of Roman stations in Britain, mentioned 
 in the Itinerary of Antonine, is one hundred and thirteen, 
 none of which are far beyond the Wall of Severus ; that of 
 Richard of Cirencester comprises one hundred and seventy- 
 six, some a considerable distance northward of the Wall; and 
 the names of many others have been lost or obliterated. 
 
 2 Street, or Stratum. This road is mentioned in the 15th 
 Iter of Richard of Cirencester. 
 
Many of the enrichments of the mosaic 
 work bear resemblance to those of the pave¬ 
 ments found at Pompeii; and there is reason 
 to suppose the foundation of this villa may 
 be referred to the period of the Emperor 
 Titus 1 . 
 
 Openings were made in the ground at Bignor 
 at several periods from the year 1811 to 1815. 
 A pavement 31 feet 11 inches by 30 feet was 
 first discovered: the design of the mosaic, in 
 good taste, is adorned with various figures better 
 executed and of better materials than any which 
 had before been discovered in this country. 
 This is supposed to have been the pavement of 
 a triclinium, or dining-room ; and couches for 
 the guests are imagined to have occupied a 
 space which was found paved with red brick 
 tesserae between the more ornamented part of 
 the floor and the walls of the room. The walls 
 themselves, it appeared, had been painted on 
 
 1 Archccologia, vol. xviii. Account by Samuel Lysons, 
 Esq. In the same volume are engraved plans of several of 
 the Roman villas here mentioned. 
 
168 
 
 fine plaster, of which many fragments were 
 found. The corridors seem to have been of 
 much larger dimensions at this villa than any 
 previously discovered in this island. The Co¬ 
 lonnade, or Portico, extended 150 feet on the 
 northern side, and 100 feet on the western side, 
 and was found to be 10 feet wide, making an 
 ambulatio of 227 feet in extent. In one of the 
 rooms on the western side, 17 feet by 14 feet 
 6 inches in dimension, was an open fire-place 
 about 22 inches in width : in another room 
 was also an open fire-place, but of smaller size. 
 No fire-place of this kind had been elsewhere 
 discovered in the remains of a Roman villa ; 
 and here no chimney, by which the smoke might 
 have been conveyed away, was found. 
 
 At Colesbourn, near Northleach in Glouces¬ 
 tershire, Mr. Lysons discovered the remains 
 of a villa in which was a room not paved with 
 mosaic, hut, what is remarkable, nearly the 
 whole of what remained of the wall on one side 
 was covered with painting on fine plaster. This 
 is believed to be the only fragment of the kind 
 
169 
 
 hitherto discovered in this island in its original 
 position. 
 
 On the lower part of the wall several figures 
 and parts of a building, rather rudely executed, 
 were distinctly to be traced: beneath, a re¬ 
 presentation of a sort of curtain, of an orange 
 colour, extended to the bottom of the wall. The 
 remains of which this room formed a part, are 
 imagined to be the site of a villa of a Roman 
 of some rank and authority in the neighbouring 
 station Corinium, now Cirencester, which is 
 supposed to have been built by Vespasian, and 
 is situated on the river Churn at the meeting 
 of the Foss-way, Akeman Street and Iknield 
 Street. Near Colesbourn, the Roman road has 
 a curious appearance, from the undeviating line 
 which it pursues 1 . 
 
 At Withington, about nine miles from the 
 
 1 The Roman roads in England were elevated with sur¬ 
 prising labour to the height of ten feet, and sometimes even 
 more : they were formed of materials often brought from 
 a considerable distance, such as chalk, pebbles, and gravel; 
 and the most important were paved with stones, which are 
 visible to this day. 
 
170 
 
 same station, and about fourteen miles from 
 Glevum, or Gloucester, the remains of another 
 villa were discovered in the year 1811. The 
 very curious mosaic pavement found here is 
 now open to public inspection in the British 
 Museum 1 . 
 
 The design of this pavement exhibits an 
 allegorical subject more frequently introduced 
 than any other in works of this kind,—the 
 poet Orpheus with his lyre, in the act of 
 charming with a magic spell the beasts of the 
 forest by which he is surrounded. Three 
 pavements containing the same subject, the 
 great era of music, had already been discovered 
 in England 2 ; but in neither of them were the 
 
 1 It was presented to the British Museum by Henry 
 Charles Brooke, Esq., the proprietor of the estate on which 
 it was found. 
 
 2 At Woodchester in Gloucestershire, and at Horkstow 
 and Winterton in Lincolnshire. Horkstow, the seat of 
 Admiral Shirley, is within a short distance of the Roman 
 road leading from Lindum, or Lincoln, to the Humber; 
 and Winterton is considered to be the Ad Ahum of the 
 Romans. 
 
animals, the subjects of the laws of harmony, 
 so well delineated as in this, in the gallery of 
 the Museum 1 . 
 
 In the same national collection of anti¬ 
 quities is another mosaic pavement, which was 
 taken up entire, in the year 1805, near the 
 Loth bury gate of the Bank of England, and pre¬ 
 sented to the British Museum by the Directors. 
 
 A Roman tessellated pavement, found below 
 the surface of the street opposite the portico 
 of the East India House, is now deposited in 
 the library of that establishment. The design, 
 formed with ancient simplicity, represents 
 Bacchus reclining on the back of a tiger, with 
 a thyrsus erect in his left hand and a drinking 
 cup in his right; his brow is wreathed with 
 vine leaves, and his mantle falling from his 
 shoulders is thrown carelessly round his waist. 
 The whole subject is delineated with much 
 freedom and in appropriate tints' 2 . 
 
 1 See Archaologia, vol. xviii. for interesting particulars 
 of the discovery. 
 
 * The most common mark left by the Romans in all 
 
172 
 
 Many other discoveries made in Britain 
 regarding this extraordinary people might he 
 mentioned, such as images of the gods, various 
 utensils belonging to their worship, and relics 
 
 places which had been once within the bounds of their 
 empire, is their coins : these are continually discovered, 
 and in various kinds of receptacles. The opinions of anti¬ 
 quaries are divided in assigning a cause for what may seem 
 so useless a waste of money : but it is to be considered that 
 most of the coins thus found are of little intrinsic value ; 
 and it has been conjectured that the barbarians who de¬ 
 stroyed the towns or villas did not know, or despised the 
 use of copper money, and therefore left it amongst the ruins. 
 The Roman coins found are chiefly copper, bad and worn, 
 and they are generally scattered equally over the surface 
 of the ruins of the town: thus at Castor in Norfolk, the 
 ancient Venta Icenorum, it is said they may be found after 
 every shower. It is also an opinion that it was customary 
 to bury money. Horace hints at this usual secretion of 
 treasure : 
 
 But prithee, whence the pleasure, thus by stealth 
 
 Deep in the earth to hide thy weight of wealth ? 
 
 Lib. i. sat. 1. 
 
 Coins, as well as seals and medals, besides exhibiting 
 specimens of their peculiar art, mark the progress of ar¬ 
 chitecture, the different stages of which are seen also in 
 the varied structure of sepulchral monuments ; and while 
 
173 
 
 of their pottery', specimens of their domestic 
 convenience, all furnishing proofs of particular 
 sites having been occupied by the Romans. 
 
 Some antiquaries have concluded that the 
 buildings raised upon the tessellated pavements 
 were slight, that they were only constructed of 
 
 they severally contribute to assist each other, all unite in 
 the illustration and embellishment of history, poetry and 
 philosophy.— Burgess on the Study of Antiquities, p. 33. 
 See also Addison on Medals, p. 23; and concerning the 
 architectural ornaments of ancient seals, Warton on Spenser, 
 vol. ii. p. 194. 
 
 1 A very interesting account of various Roman antiquities 
 found near London Bridge in 1831, was communicated to 
 the Society of Antiquaries by A. J. Kempe, Esq. It con¬ 
 tains a list of nearly thirty potter’s marks, which in several 
 instances are the same as those found on vessels discovered 
 in other parts of Britain, in Germany, and in Gaul. The 
 Samian vessels, used by the Romans at table, Pliny says, 
 were manufactured, in Italy at Arretium, Surrentum, Asta, 
 Pollentia and Tralles; in Spain at Saguntum ; and in Asia 
 at Pergamos and Mutina. The thinness to which the clay 
 was drawn out upon the lathe, was the test of excellency 
 in the ancient potter’s art. Tiles which were found at the 
 same time, Mr. Kempe supposes to be the work of the 
 Britons when they were beginning to adopt Roman arts 
 and customs.— Archceologia, vol. xxiv. p. 190. 
 
174 
 
 timber 1 , and never more than one story high. 
 Roman houses in this country, says Mr. King, 
 consisted of a nest of small chambers, and in 
 general contained not much more than one 
 good room for the accommodation of a centu¬ 
 rion, a tribune, or other resident. His opinion 
 is, that few magnificent remains excepting of a 
 military kind were left here by the Romans, 
 and he doubts if any superb structures of theirs 
 ever did exist here : the number of fragile 
 pavements is a proof, he concludes, of the 
 slightness of the superstructures 2 . That learned 
 author made it a leading principle to refer 
 
 1 Pillars of wood might be sometimes erected in the 
 atrium of a Roman villa. Horace, writing of a splendid 
 mansion, certainly uses the word postis, instead of columna, 
 in Ode I. lib. iii. 
 
 Cur invidendis postibus, et novo 
 Sublime ritu moliar atrium ? 
 
 On columns raised in modern style 
 Why should I plan the lofty pile, 
 
 To rise with envied state?— Francis. 
 
 - King’s Munhnenta Antiqua, 1799, vol. ii. p. 163,—a 
 work which entitles the author to the reputation of a learned, 
 
175 
 
 every ancient work to the Anglo-Saxon period 
 of history, and rejected, without sufficient con¬ 
 sideration, evidence which satisfied his con¬ 
 temporaries. That the tessellated floor merely 
 indicated the site of a Roman general’s tent, 
 is an opinion which has been maintained, be¬ 
 cause it happens to be known that from the 
 time of Julius Caesar, throughout the lower 
 empire, it was customary to pave the prae- 
 torium of the Roman camp with mosaic tiles 1 , 
 —a circumstance by no means affording ex¬ 
 clusive proof that such pavements must have 
 been only the area of a tent 2 . 
 
 In the remains of a Roman villa discovered 
 at Northleigh, near Woodstock in Oxfordshire, 
 
 able and industrious antiquary, although he sometimes de¬ 
 viated into speculations which he was not able to establish. 
 
 1 The Romans are said to have been so fond of these 
 ornamental floors, that they even laid them in some of their 
 ships. 
 
 2 The Rev. Thomas Warton, an elegant writer and very 
 judicious antiquary, considered these curious pavements as 
 decided marks of Roman houses, and strongly objected to 
 the opinion of Hearne, who was distinguished for his ardour 
 
iii the year 1813 1 , is a Hypocaust 8 almost as 
 perfect as when it was originally built, together 
 with its prsefurnium, or place where the fire 
 was made, and a complete specimen of the 
 square brick funnels which lined the walls and 
 penetrated the floor into the hypocaust, still 
 preserved in their original state 3 . 
 
 A Roman Bath in perfect preservation was 
 
 in researches of this nature, that such remains indicated 
 the military post of a Roman general.— History of Kid- 
 dington, p. 67. 
 
 1 By the Rev. Walter Brown. Of this villa a plan hy 
 H. Hakewill was published in 1816; and another in Skel¬ 
 ton’s Oxfordshire, 1817, by the same gentleman. 
 
 2 A subterraneous furnace serving to heat the baths &c. 
 of the Romans : vide p. 113 ante. This method is still used 
 in the modern hot-house. 
 
 3 The Hypocausts, which are frequently found in this 
 country, with their flues for the conveyance of heat, are of 
 two kinds. A delineation fully elucidating the construction 
 of one sort is engraved in the Vetusta Monumenta, published 
 by the Society of Antiquaries, vol. i. p. 57, also in the 
 Archceologia, vol. ii. p. 6. and vol. vi. p. 11; and the second 
 kind of hypocaust will be readily understood by consulting 
 the plates which illustrate the Antiquities of Woodchester, 
 Nos. xxiii. xxv. and xxvii. 
 
177 
 
 discovered in the year 1822 by the diligent 
 researches of Sir Richard Colt Hoare, Bart., at 
 Farley in Wiltshire 1 . 
 
 Roman remains of remarkable interest have 
 also been found at the following places, all 
 supposed to be indications of domestic edifices 
 of some consequence*:—at Colchester and 
 Ridgewell in Essex; at Canterbury in Kent; at 
 Bromham in Bedfordshire, and High Wycombe 
 in Buckinghamshire; at Cotterstock, Castor 5 
 and Heyford, near the Watling Street, in North¬ 
 amptonshire ; at Roxby, Denton and Grant¬ 
 ham in Lincolnshire ; at Mansfield Woodhouse 
 
 1 Of this a plan and view are given in the Gentleman’s 
 Magazine for February 1823. 
 
 2 In Northumberland is found the greatest number of 
 Roman earthworks, buildings and inscriptions, at the several 
 stations bordering on the Wall of Severus, particularly at 
 Housesteads, which is called by Dr. Stukely the Palmyra 
 of Britain; and in Cumberland the Roman altars and in¬ 
 scribed stones are almost equally abundant, inconsequence 
 of the numerous military stations contained in that county. 
 
 3 Castor, as its name implies, is the site of a Roman station, 
 the Durobrivae of Antonine’s Itinerary. Many curious 
 vestiges of the occupancy of the Anglo-Romans have been 
 
 N 
 
178 
 
 in Nottinghamshire; at Wymondham in Leices¬ 
 tershire ; at Stunsfield and Wigginton in Ox¬ 
 fordshire ; at Cirencester in Gloucestershire, 
 and at Caerwent, near Chepstow, in Monmouth¬ 
 shire; at Littlecot and Pitmead in Wiltshire ; 
 at Thruxton and Bramdean in Hampshire ; and 
 at Frampton in Dorsetshire. 
 
 Several fragments of a Roman temple were 
 dug up at Bath ; and walls at Leicester are 
 supposed to be part of a temple, the materials 
 of which they are composed being decidedly 
 Roman. 
 
 This Essay—already, perhaps, carried to an 
 unnecessary length—may be terminated in the 
 impressive words of Sir Thomas Browne 1 . “The 
 treasures of time lie high, in urns, coins, and 
 monuments, scarce below the roots ol some 
 
 found here. Mr. Artis of Milton, in the year 1820, devoted 
 much research in exploring the vicinity, and succeeded in 
 bringing to light several interesting objects, as hypocausts, 
 tessellated pavements, pottery, sculptured stones, coins, &c. 
 
 1 Hydrotaphia. 
 
179 
 
 vegetables. Time lias endless rarities and 
 shows of all varieties ; which reveals old things 
 in heaven, makes new discoveries in earth, and 
 even earth itself a discovery. That great an¬ 
 tiquity America lay buried for a thousand 
 years; and a large part of the earth is still in 
 the urn unto us.” 
 
 THE END. 
 
 PRINTED RY RICHARD TAYLOR, 
 RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET*