or the Forum is undergoing a complete restoration. Although fifteen years
have elapsed since the city was last visited by earthquake, the damage
then done to the public buildings has not been entirely repaired. First
the Gods, then the people. The temples of Jupiter, Venus, and Mercury are
completed, but the Forum and Chalcidicum are still in the workmen's
hands."(2)

With this fleeting glimpse at the public life of the city, let us now turn
our attention to its domestic arrangements. Of the many houses which have
been excavated of recent years under the truly admirable superintendence
of Signor Fiorelli, none is better calculated to give us a striking
impression of the working details of an upper-class Roman household than
the private dwelling which is known equally under the two names of the
Casa Nuova and the House of the Vettii;--perhaps the former name has now
ceased to own any significance, since the buildings were laid bare as far
back as the winter of 1894-5. An hour or two spent in a careful inspection
of this house and its contents is to most persons worth four times the
same amount of time occupied in aimless wandering amongst the hot glaring
streets of the city, peeping into this courtyard and that, and listening
to the interminable tales of guide or custodian. If we study the Casa
Nuova intelligently, lovingly and minutely, it will not be long before we
obtain a tolerable grasp of Roman life and manners, which will prove of
immense service and of genuine delight. What then is it, the question will
be asked, that makes the House of the Vettii so valuable as an example of
antique architecture and decoration, in preference to other mansions which
can boast an equal and often a greater distinction? The answer is simple
enough: it is because this particular group of buildings has been allowed
to remain as far as practicable in the exact condition wherein it was
originally unearthed, when its various rooms and courts were once more
exposed to the light of day. For until the clearing of this "new house" a
decade or so ago, no proper opportunity had so far been afforded to the
amateur of our own times of judging for himself the interior of a Roman
dwelling in full working order, and with all its furniture, paintings, and
utensils complete. Up to this, almost every object of value had been
removed at once for safety, every fresco even of importance had been cut
bodily out of its setting and placed in one of those imme