a rectangular marble tank
to catch and hold the waters from the roof. Great terra cotta urns
covered with flowers stood upon pedestals between the columns; four
marble tables sustained by winged lions surrounded the impluvium, and
near it rose a statuette of Love which on festive days threw a spray of
water.

Actaeon admired the graceful strength of the columns wrought in blue
marble to match the socles of the galleries, which imparted to the light
of the atrium a diffused radiance, as if the dwelling were submerged in
the sea.

Afterward the attendant turned him over to Odacis, the favorite slave,
and she ushered him into the peristyle, an inner courtyard much larger
than the atrium, which astonished the Greek with its polychrome
decoration. The columns were painted red at their bases, and the color
changed above into blue and gold on the fluting and capitals, and was
dispersed over the trellis-work covering the porticos. In the unroofed
part of the peristyle was a deep piscina of transparent water in which
fish darted like flashes of golden lightning. Around it were marble
benches supported by Hermae; tables held by dolphins with knotted tails;
clumps of roses, between the foliage of which peeped white or terra
cotta statuettes in voluptuous positions, and covering the walls of the
peristyle, between the doors of the rooms, were great paintings by
Grecian artists--Orpheus with his heavy lyre, nude and wearing his
Phrygian cap, surrounded by lions and panthers who listened to his songs
with humbled heads, stifling their growls; Venus springing from the
waves; Adonis allowing himself to be cured of his wounds by the Mother
of Love; and other scenes eulogizing the influence of art and beauty.

Actaeon was conducted to the bath by two young slaves, and as he emerged
from this he again met Odacis, who bade him enter the library beyond the
peristyle.

It was a great room paved with mosaic representing the triumph of
Bacchus. The young god, beautiful as a woman, nude, and crowned with
vines and roses, was riding on a panther, waving his thyrsus. The
pictures on the walls illustrated famous passages from the Iliad. The
more voluminous books were ranged on shelves, and the smaller ones
formed bundles placed in narrow willow baskets lined with wool.

Actaeon admired the richness of the library, where he counted more than a
hundred volumes. They represented a veritable fortune. The navigators
received from Sonnica commissi