Gell, William: Pompeiana: the topography, edifices and ornaments of Pompeii ; the result of excavations since 1819 ; in two volumes (Band 1) (London, 1832)

60 POMPEIANA.

the recumbent posture, derived through the
Greeks from Asia, could only have been
adopted a little previously to that period.

The open court is paved with a species
of hard cement in which pebbles have been
set, and, in the centre of it, is placed a tho-
los or dodecagonal building having no walls,
but consisting, originally, merely in a roof
supported by twelve piers. It was paved
with white marble, and, from the situation
and substance of the piers, it seems pro-
bable the roof consisted of light timbers
meeting in an apex in the centre, and with
projecting eaves. The roof of the tholos at
Puteoli was supported by marble columns.

The court being a parallelogram, and
the tholos of such a form that its angles
might be inscribed in a circle, its distance
from the lateral porticos was only four feet.
In the centre may have been some sort of a
support to the roof, but no traces of it re-
main. The excavators related that a hand
holding a globe was found in this spot—cer-
tainly it was discovered in some part of the
building. Some have imagined a statue in
the centre.