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

168 POMPEIANA.

ciful and lively decorations. The opposite
wall is differently, yet not less fantastically
covered with still more imaginary, but not
inelegant, porticos and erections. A door,
entering into a cubiculum, in which, among
other objects, we find a cock painted with
the caduceus of Mercury, supplies the place
of a picture. This tablinum might be ima-
gined a dark chamber, and that it received
only a reflected light from the atrium and
peristyle ; and, in the restoration, its proper
effect has not, perhaps, been given; but
Vitruvius explains the circumstance, clearly
showing that the tablinum was to be higher
than the atrium, in order that the light might
enter through the windows above.

The inner peristyle, enclosing a sort of
court, probably planted with flowers, and
sometimes called a viridarium, consists of
Doric columns, standing upon a sort of
podium, painted, like the lower part of the
pillars, red. The capitals have a fanciful
moulding in the echinus, also coloured with
the same. In the garden a tortoise had been
kept, and the shell of the animal was found
on the spot.