the niche served to receive a little
statue. M. Xystus, or garden. N. Piscina, with a _jet d'eau_. O.
Enclosure covered with a trellis. P. Door to the country and towards
the sea. Q. This enclosure, about fifteen feet wide, appears to have
been covered with a trellis, and must have been much frequented, since
there is a noble flight of steps leading down to it from the upper
garden. It fronted the south, and must have been a delightful winter
promenade.

The arch to the left is the end of the open hall, D, above the
portico; on each side are the terraces, 34, 34, and in the centre are
the remains of the cyzicene hall. Beneath on the level of the portico,
are the several rooms marked F, probably the chief summer abode of the
family, being well adapted to that purpose by their refreshing
coolness. Their ceilings for the most part are semicircular vaults,
richly painted, and the more valuable because few ceilings have been
found in existence. We should attempt in vain to describe the
complicated subjects, the intricate and varied patterns with which the
fertile fancy of the arabesque painter has clothed the walls and
ceilings, without the aid of drawings, which we are unable to give;
and, indeed, colored plates would be requisite to convey an adequate
notion of their effect. In the splendid work which Mr. Donaldson has
published upon Pompeii, several subjects taken from these rooms will
be found, some of them colored, together with eight mosaics, some of
very complicated, all of elegant design; and to this and similar works
we must refer the further gratification of the reader's curiosity.

Such was this mansion, in which no doubt the owner took pride and
pleasure, to judge from the expense lavished with unsparing hand on
its decoration; and if he could be supposed to have any cognizance of
what is now passing on earth, his vanity might find some consolation
for having been prematurely deprived of it, in the posthumous
celebrity which it has obtained. But his taste and wealth have done
nothing to perpetuate his name, for not a trace remains that can
indicate to what person or to what family it belonged. It is indeed
usually called the Villa of Marcus Arius Diomedes, on the strength of
a tomb discovered about the same period immediately opposite to it,
bearing that name. No other tomb had then been discovered so near it,
and on this coincidence of situation a conclusion was drawn that this
must have been a family sepulch