DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1083#0011
146 POMPEIANA.
respecting the houses of the ancients; for
the casual mention by others of various
parts of their dwellings cannot be consi-
dered precise; and even the very detailed
description we have from Pliny of his
villas, although that of an advocate, yet
being written in a letter to a friend, and
intended rather to give an idea of their
comforts and beauties, than architectural
arrangement, of course would not be so
exact as that of one whose profession was
architecture, and intention to give an
accurate account of such edifices as were
best adapted to the customs of his time,
with their proper and most approved
proportions.
Pompeii offers advantages to the more
modern antiquarian, of which his prede-
cessors were not in possession. It contains
houses, built and inhabited by Eomans of
the time in which Vitruvius wrote. By
his assistance we may therefore at least
hope to ascertain pretty nearly the name
respecting the houses of the ancients; for
the casual mention by others of various
parts of their dwellings cannot be consi-
dered precise; and even the very detailed
description we have from Pliny of his
villas, although that of an advocate, yet
being written in a letter to a friend, and
intended rather to give an idea of their
comforts and beauties, than architectural
arrangement, of course would not be so
exact as that of one whose profession was
architecture, and intention to give an
accurate account of such edifices as were
best adapted to the customs of his time,
with their proper and most approved
proportions.
Pompeii offers advantages to the more
modern antiquarian, of which his prede-
cessors were not in possession. It contains
houses, built and inhabited by Eomans of
the time in which Vitruvius wrote. By
his assistance we may therefore at least
hope to ascertain pretty nearly the name