DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61387#0070
38
THE RUINS OF POMPEII.
stories below. Here also is the house called the Casa delle Danzatrici^ or
the house of the female dancers, from some pictures which it contained.
After passing these objects, we arrive at a point where another little
street, or rather lane, called the Vicolo di Narcisso, diverges from the Strada
Consolare, and running more directly north, forms an acute angle with it.
At the point of junction, called by the Romans bivium^ is a fountain, and
behind it a low square vaulted erection, which is sometimes supposed to
have been a public cistern for supplying it. The
FOUNTAIN IN TRIVIIS NEAR THE GATE OF HERCULANEUM.
sacrifice to the Lares Compitales, or deities who
annexed cut will convey
an idea of it. The cir-
cumstance of there be-
ing a door in one of the
sides of the building mili-
tates against the notion
of its having been a re-
servoir ; but to what
other purpose it may
have been applied it is
impossible to say. The
figures painted on this
building, now entirely
effaced, represented a
presided over the high-
ways ; to whom also was dedicated a small altar that stands beneath.
Resuming our walk along the Strada Consolare, we come to a bakehouse
on the left, adjoining the house of Sallust. As may naturally be supposed,
shops of this sort are of frequent recurrence at Pompeii, though some of the
larger houses are provided with private bakeries. All of them very much
resemble one another, differing only in size. One or two of them show, by
the comfortable air of the attached dwelling, that the proprietor must have
been a well-to-do man. The annexed photograph represents that which we
have just mentioned. In the background is the oven with the furnace
underneath, and at the side of the wall two mills for grinding the corn; for
there seems to have been no separate trade of a miller at Pompeii. The
mills here depicted may serve to explain the whole process. In the one in
front, the lower millstone only is seen, in the shape of a cone. The upper
millstone, a large fragment of which may be seen on the further mill, was
fitted exactly on this, by means of a strong iron pivot on the top of the
THE RUINS OF POMPEII.
stories below. Here also is the house called the Casa delle Danzatrici^ or
the house of the female dancers, from some pictures which it contained.
After passing these objects, we arrive at a point where another little
street, or rather lane, called the Vicolo di Narcisso, diverges from the Strada
Consolare, and running more directly north, forms an acute angle with it.
At the point of junction, called by the Romans bivium^ is a fountain, and
behind it a low square vaulted erection, which is sometimes supposed to
have been a public cistern for supplying it. The
FOUNTAIN IN TRIVIIS NEAR THE GATE OF HERCULANEUM.
sacrifice to the Lares Compitales, or deities who
annexed cut will convey
an idea of it. The cir-
cumstance of there be-
ing a door in one of the
sides of the building mili-
tates against the notion
of its having been a re-
servoir ; but to what
other purpose it may
have been applied it is
impossible to say. The
figures painted on this
building, now entirely
effaced, represented a
presided over the high-
ways ; to whom also was dedicated a small altar that stands beneath.
Resuming our walk along the Strada Consolare, we come to a bakehouse
on the left, adjoining the house of Sallust. As may naturally be supposed,
shops of this sort are of frequent recurrence at Pompeii, though some of the
larger houses are provided with private bakeries. All of them very much
resemble one another, differing only in size. One or two of them show, by
the comfortable air of the attached dwelling, that the proprietor must have
been a well-to-do man. The annexed photograph represents that which we
have just mentioned. In the background is the oven with the furnace
underneath, and at the side of the wall two mills for grinding the corn; for
there seems to have been no separate trade of a miller at Pompeii. The
mills here depicted may serve to explain the whole process. In the one in
front, the lower millstone only is seen, in the shape of a cone. The upper
millstone, a large fragment of which may be seen on the further mill, was
fitted exactly on this, by means of a strong iron pivot on the top of the