assical traditions to a great extent; for example, the columns stand
on corbels instead of pedestals, the entablatures being much broken,
and the arches spring directly from the capitals of the columns (Fig.
149).

The private houses in Borne were of two kinds: the _insula_ and the
_domus_. The insula was a block of buildings several stories high,
frequently let out to different families in flats. The ground-floor
was generally given up to shops, which had no connection with the
upper parts of the building; and one roof covered the whole. This kind
of house was generally tenanted by the poorer class of tradesmen and
artificers. The other kind of house, the domus, was a detached
mansion. The excavations at Pompeii have done much to elucidate a
number of points in connection with Roman dwellings which had been the
subject of much discussion by scholars, but we must not too hastily
assume that the Pompeian houses are the exact counterpart of those of
ancient Rome, as Pompeii was what may be called a Romano-Greek city.

[Illustration: FIG. 140.--GROUND-PLAN OF THE HOUSE OF PANSA, POMPEII.]

[Illustration: FIG. 141.--GROUND-PLAN OF THE HOUSE OF THE TRAGIC POET,
POMPEII.]

The general arrangements of a Roman house were as follows: next the
street an open space was frequently left, with porticoes on each side
of it provided with seats: this constituted the vestibule, and was
entirely outside the house;[22] the entrance-door opened into a
narrow passage, called the _prothyrum_, which led to the _atrium_,[23]
which in the houses of Republican Rome was the principal apartment,
though afterwards it served as a sort of waiting-room for the clients
and retainers of the house; it was an open court, roofed in on all
the four sides, but open to the sky in the centre. The simplest form
was called the Tuscan atrium, where the roof was simply a lean-to
sloping towards the centre, the rafters being supported on beams, two
of which rested on the walls of the atrium, and had two other
cross-beams trimmed into them. The centre opening was called the
_impluvium_, and immediately under it a tank, called the _compluvium_,
was formed in the pavement to collect the rain-water (Fig. 142). When
the atrium became larger, and the roof had to be supported by
columns, it was called a _cavaedium_.[24] At the end of this apartment
were three others, open in front, the largest, in the centre, called
_tablinum_, and the two side ones _alae_;[2