ayers of burnt brick mortar instead of sand
mortar, and finish up all the rest in the manner described above for
stucco work.

4. The decorations of the polished surfaces of the walls ought to be
treated with due regard to propriety, so as to be adapted to their
situations, and not out of keeping with differences in kind. In winter
dining rooms, neither paintings on grand subjects nor delicacy of
decoration in the cornice work of the vaultings is a serviceable kind
of design, because they are spoiled by the smoke from the fire and the
constant soot from the lamps. In these rooms there should be panels
above the dadoes, worked in black, and polished, with yellow ochre or
vermilion blocks interposed between them. After the vaulting has been
treated in the flat style, and polished, the Greek method of making
floors for use in winter dining rooms may not be unworthy of one's
notice, as being very inexpensive and yet serviceable.

5. An excavation is made below the level of the dining room to a depth
of about two feet, and, after the ground has been rammed down, the mass
of broken stones or the pounded burnt brick is spread on, at such an
inclination that it can find vents in the drain. Next, having filled in
with charcoal compactly trodden down, a mortar mixed of gravel, lime,
and ashes is spread on to a depth of half a foot. The surface having
been made true to rule and level, and smoothed off with whetstone, gives
the look of a black pavement. Hence, at their dinner parties, whatever
is poured out of the cups, or spirted from the mouth, no sooner falls
than it dries up, and the servants who wait there do not catch cold from
that kind of floor, although they may go barefoot.

CHAPTER V

THE DECADENCE OF FRESCO PAINTING

1. For the other apartments, that is, those intended to be used in
Spring, Autumn, and Summer, as well as for atriums and peristyles, the
ancients required realistic pictures of real things. A picture is, in
fact, a representation of a thing which really exists or which can
exist: for example, a man, a house, a ship, or anything else from whose
definite and actual structure copies resembling it can be taken.
Consequently the ancients who introduced polished finishings began by
representing different kinds of marble slabs in different positions, and
then cornices and blocks of yellow ochre arranged in various ways.

2. Afterwards they made such progress as to represent the forms of
buildings,