THE HOUSE OF THE SURGEON 275
rooms (6) and the two alae (8). Back of the tablinum is a
colonnade (16) opening on the garden (20), which originally
had a greater length; the room at the right (19) is a later
addition, as also the smaller room at the other end (21). The
roof of the colonnade was carried by square limestone pillars,
one of which has been preserved in its original form.
The oblong room at the right of the tablinum (10) was once
square, as (9). Both were well adapted for winter dining rooms ;
in summer, meals were undoubtedly served in the tablinum.
The room at the left of the entrance (2) was a shop, at least
in later times. The corresponding room on the other side
(6') was retained for domestic use.
The shop at the right (3) and the back room (4), as well as-
the kitchen with the adjoining rooms at the rear, used as store-
closets and quarters for slaves, were a later addition; 22 is a
light court, to which the rain water was conducted from differ-
ent parts of the roof. Over these rooms was a second story
reached by stairs leading from the colonnade (18). It may be
that this part of the house took the place of a garden in which
previously there was an outside kitchen; that the ground be-
longed to the house from the beginning is clear from the exist-
ence of a door between the rooms 6' and 3, afterwards walled
up, and the appearance of the unbroken party wall on this
side.
The rooms about the atrium had no upper floor, and were
relatively high ; the doors measured nearly twelve feet in height,
and the ceiling of the tablinum was not far from twenty feet above
the floor. In respect to height, this house was not unlike those
of the next period.
In the later years of the city, but before 63, the decoration
was renewed in the fourth style. There are paintings of inter-
est, however, only in the room at the rear (19), which had a
large window opening on the garden. In one of the panels
here we see a man sitting with a writing tablet in his hand;
opposite him are two girls, one sitting, the other standing ; the
latter holds a roll of papyrus. This kind of genre picture is not
uncommon; the type is spoken of elsewhere (p. 467).
In another panel, which was transferred to the Naples