The Life in Ancient Times: Discoveries of Pompeii, Ancient Greece, Babylon & Assyria. T. L. Haines

      WALL PAINTING DISCOVERED AT POMPEII.

      There are few houses in Pompeii in which the paintings are more numerous or better preserved than in that which we are examining. The second bed-chamber on the right has several. In this room may be observed a space hollowed in the wall to receive the foot of a bed or coutch. The walls are white, with a red podium, and are surmounted by a cornice from which springs the vault. The upper part is painted with lines, between which are depicted griffins in repose, baskets with thyrsi, branches of herbs, and other objects.

      The lower part of the walls is divided into larger compartments by candelabra supporting little globes. In each compartment are eight small pictures, representing the heads and busts of Bacchic personages, in a very good state of preservation. On the left is Bacchus, crowned with ivy, his head covered with the mitra, a sort of veil of fine texture which descends upon his left shoulder. This ornament, as well as the cast of his features, reveals the half feminine nature of the deity. Opposite to him is the picture of Ariadne, also crowned with ivy, clothed in a green chiton and a violet himation. She presses to her bosom the infant Iacchus, crowned with the eternal ivy, and bearing in his hand the thyrsus. Then follow Bacchic or Panic figures, some conversing, some drinking together, some moving apparently in the mazes of the dance. Paris, with the Phrygian cap and crook, seems to preside over this voluptuous scene, and to listen to a little Cupid seated on his shoulder.

      In the chamber on the opposite side of the atrium, fronting that just described, were also four pictures, two of which are destroyed, the walls having apparently been broken through, not long after the destruction of Pompeii, by persons in search of their buried property. Of the other two, which are almost effaced, one represents an aged Faun, holding in his hands a thyrsus and a vase; the other a young woman conversing with an African slave. A wooden chest seems to have stood close to the left-hand wall.

      The left ala, or wing, has its walls painted in yellow and red compartments, with a black podium. In the middle of each was a valuable painting, but these, with the exception of the greater part of one fronting the entrance, have been almost destroyed. The one saved represents Apollo, who has overtaken Daphne, and is clasping her in his arms, while the nymph, who has fallen on her knees, repels the embraces of the deity. A malicious little Cupid, standing on tiptoes, draws aside the golden-tissued veil which covered the nymph, and displays her naked form. On the left of the same apartment is a picture, almost effaced, of Perseus and Andromeda; and on the right another with three male figures, of which only the lower part remains.

      The right ala, which, however, from its capability of being closed with a door, does not properly come under that denomination, seems, from various culinary utensils of metal and earthenware found in it, to have served as a kitchen, or rather perhaps as a store-closet.

      The tablinum, opposite the entrance, and, as usual, without any enclosure on the side of the atrium, has a small marble threshold, and on its floor little squares of colored marbles surrounded with a mosaic border. The yellow walls, divided into compartments by vertical stripes of red, white, and black, were beautifully ornamented with the usual architectural designs and flying figures. On each side were two larger pictures, of which only that on the left of the spectator remains. It represents Leda showing to Tyndareus a nest containing the two boys produced from the egg. A stucco cornice runs round the wall, above which a flying nymph is painted on a white ground, between two balconies, from which a man and woman are looking down. There are also figures of sphinxes, goats, etc.

      A wooden staircase on the left of the tablinum, the first step being of stone, led to the floor above. On the right is the passage called fauces, leading to the peristyle. On its left-hand side, near the ground, was a rudely traced figure of a gladiator, with an inscription above, of which only the first letters, PRIMI, remain. On the left wall of the fauces, near the extremity, and level with the eye, is another inscription, or graffito, in small characters, difficult to be deciphered from the unusual nexus of the letters, but which the learned have supposed to express the design of an invalid to get rid of the pains in his limbs by bathing them in water.

      At the extremity of the fauces, on the right, there is an entrance to a room which has also another door leading into the portico of the peristyle. The walls are painted black and red, and in the compartments are depicted birds, animals, fruits, etc. Two skeletons were found in this room. In the apartment to the left, or east of the tablinum, of which the destination can not be certainly determined, the walls are also painted black, with architectural designs in the middle, and figures of winged Cupids variously employed. On the larger walls are two paintings, of which that on the right represents the often-repeated subject of Ariadne, who, just awakened from sleep, and supported by a female figure with wings, supposed to be Nemesis, views with an attitude of grief and stupor the departing ship of Theseus, already far from Naxos. On the left side is a picture of Phryxus, crossing the sea on the ram and stretching out his arms to Helle, who has fallen over and appears on the point of drowning. The form of this chamber, twice as long as it is broad, its vicinity to the kitchen, and the window, through which the slaves might easily convey the viands, appear to show that it was a triclinium, or dining-room.

      The floor, which is lower by a step than the peristyle, is paved with opus Signinum, and ornamented only at one end with a mosaic. On one of the walls, about ten feet from the floor, is the graffito, Sodales Avete (Welcome Comrades), which could have been inscribed there only by a person, probably a slave, mounted on a bench or a ladder.

      The viridarium, or xystus, surrounded with spacious porticoes, was once filled with the choicest flowers, and refreshed by the grateful murmur of two fountains. One of these in the middle of the peristyle is square, having in its centre a sort of round table from which the water gushed forth. The other fountain, which faces the tablinum, is composed of a little marble staircase, surmounted by the statue of a boy having in his right hand a vase from which the water spirted, and under his left arm a goose. The statue is rather damaged.

      Many objects were found in the peristyle, mostly of the kind usually discovered in Pompeian houses. Among them was an amphora, having the following epigraph in black paint:

      COUM. GRAN. OF. ROMÆ. ATERIO. FELICI.

      which has been interpreted to mean that it contained Coan wine flavored with pomegranate, and that it came from Rome, from the stores of Aterius Felix.

      The portico is surrounded by strong columns, and seems to have had a second order resting on the first, as may be inferred from some indications to the right of him who enters from the fauces. The walls are painted red and black, with architectural designs, candelabra, meanders, birds, winged Cupids, etc. There are also fourteen small pictures enclosed in red lines, eight of which represent landscapes and sea-shores, with fishermen, and the other six fruits and eatables. On the wall on the right side is the following graffito, or inscription, scratched with some sharp instrument:

      IIX. ID. IVL. AXVNGIA. PCC. ALIV. MANVPLOS. CCL.

      That is: "On the 25th July, hog's lard, two hundred pounds, Garlic, two hundred bunches." It seems, therefore, to be a domestic memorandum of articles either bought or sold.

      Around the portico are several rooms, all having marble thresholds, and closed by doors turning on bronze hinges. On the right hand of the peristyle, near the entrance, is a private door, or posticum, leading into the Street of the Theatres, by which the master of the house might escape his importunate clients.

      The rooms at the sides of the peristyle offer nothing remarkable, but the three chambers opposite to the tablinum are of considerable size, and contain some good pictures. The first on the right has two figures of Nereids traversing the sea, one on a sea-bull the other on a hippocampus. Both the monsters are guided by a Cupid with reins and whip, and followed by dolphins. Another painting opposite the entrance is too much effaced