e adorned with such
appropriate elegance, as to show clearly the intellect and resources
of an excellent architect. At the same time some errors of the
grossest kind have been committed, such as would be inexcusable in the
most ignorant workman; as, for instance, the symmetry of parts has
been neglected where the parts correspond; a pilaster is cut off by a
door which passes through the middle of it; and other mistakes occur
which might have been avoided without difficulty. This strange mixture
of good and bad taste, of skill and carelessness, is not very easily
accounted for, but it is of constant recurrence in Pompeii.

[Illustration: ANCIENT BATH-ROOM. (_As discovered_).]

Vitruvius recommends the selecting a situation for baths defended from
the north and northwest winds, and forming windows opposite the south,
or if the nature of the ground would not permit this, at least towards
the south, because the hours of bathing used by the ancients being
from after mid-day till evening, those who bathed could, by those
windows, have the advantage of the rays and of the heat of the
declining sun.

For this reason the Pompeian baths hitherto described have the greater
part of their windows turned to the south, and are constructed in a
low part of the city, where the adjoining buildings served as a
protection to them from the inconvenience of the northwest winds.

Before concluding this account of the Stabian baths, we should mention
that under the portico, near the entrance to the men's baths, was
found a sun-dial, consisting as usual of a half circle inscribed in a
rectangle, and with the gnomon in perfect preservation. It was
supported by lion's feet and elegantly ornamented. On its base was an
Oscan inscription, which has been interpreted as follows by Minervini:
Marius. Atinius, Marii filius, quaestor, ex multatitia pecunia
conventus decreto fieri mandavit. That is: the Quaestor M. Atinius, in
accordance with a decree of the assembly, caused it to be made out of
money levied by fines. The title of "Quaestor" seems to show that this
inscription must have been written after the occupation of Pompeii by
the Romans, but at the same time at a period when the Oscan tongue
continued to be generally spoken. The fines alluded to were probably
levied for breaches of the rules to be observed in the palaestra.

[Page Decoration]

SOCIAL GAMES AND SPORTS.

Jugglers of both sexes, either single or in gangs, were commo