DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16632#0145
The Roman Empire
117
inside. The atrium, which was the heart of the whole, and around which the various
buildings were grouped, was a roofed and floored court with a good light above the
piscina—the impluvium—meant to let in the rain-water. A proper garden was out of the
question, but flower-boxes were used, either round the impluvium, or forming a kind of
wall, as is seen in the atrium at an African house (Timgad, Fig. 81). The boxes form-
ing the wall are set in a curving line, and are filled with soil and flowers and creeping
plants. But this atrium is only one example; moreover, it stands on the border-line between
peristyle and atrium. At an Italian house they made, as we can see in some of the older
houses at Pompeii, a small garden, for they kept a little strip of ground for plants
FIG. 8l. FLOWER-BOXES IN THE ATRIUM OF A HOUSE AT TIMGAD
against the back wall, out of which a portico opened. At the house of Sallust at Pompeii,
where later a little peristyle house was added to the atrium house, the garden was granted
two strips of ground next to the high wall at the back. An almost equally wide portico
opened on this garden, which was only planted in two narrow borders. It was made to
look wider by paintings on the wall, in the fashion we know. The corner was shut off by
a delightful arbour, a triclinium under a pergola (Fig. 82), which mingled its living creepers
with the paintings, so that the whole produced a pleasing picture (Fig. 83), in spite of
the drawback of the small space. Of course this does not suit an atrium house. We find
much the same at Priene, the Greek colony in Asia Minor. It was only through the
influence of Greek peristyle houses in Italy, with open court and unlimited power of
extension, that the garden was able to penetrate into the town house as an attractive
spot with shrubs, flower-beds, and other beauties and luxuries.
117
inside. The atrium, which was the heart of the whole, and around which the various
buildings were grouped, was a roofed and floored court with a good light above the
piscina—the impluvium—meant to let in the rain-water. A proper garden was out of the
question, but flower-boxes were used, either round the impluvium, or forming a kind of
wall, as is seen in the atrium at an African house (Timgad, Fig. 81). The boxes form-
ing the wall are set in a curving line, and are filled with soil and flowers and creeping
plants. But this atrium is only one example; moreover, it stands on the border-line between
peristyle and atrium. At an Italian house they made, as we can see in some of the older
houses at Pompeii, a small garden, for they kept a little strip of ground for plants
FIG. 8l. FLOWER-BOXES IN THE ATRIUM OF A HOUSE AT TIMGAD
against the back wall, out of which a portico opened. At the house of Sallust at Pompeii,
where later a little peristyle house was added to the atrium house, the garden was granted
two strips of ground next to the high wall at the back. An almost equally wide portico
opened on this garden, which was only planted in two narrow borders. It was made to
look wider by paintings on the wall, in the fashion we know. The corner was shut off by
a delightful arbour, a triclinium under a pergola (Fig. 82), which mingled its living creepers
with the paintings, so that the whole produced a pleasing picture (Fig. 83), in spite of
the drawback of the small space. Of course this does not suit an atrium house. We find
much the same at Priene, the Greek colony in Asia Minor. It was only through the
influence of Greek peristyle houses in Italy, with open court and unlimited power of
extension, that the garden was able to penetrate into the town house as an attractive
spot with shrubs, flower-beds, and other beauties and luxuries.