] the family archives, the
statues, pictures, genealogical tables, and other relics of a long
line of ancestors.

Alae, wings, were similar but smaller apartments, or rather recesses,
on each side of the further part of the atrium. Fauces, jaws, were
passages, more especially those which passed to the interior of the
house from the atrium.

In houses of small extent, strangers were lodged in chambers which
surrounded and opened into the atrium. The great, whose connections
spread into the provinces, and who were visited by numbers who, on
coming to Rome, expected to profit by their hospitality, had usually a
_hospitium_, or place of reception for strangers, either separate, or
among the dependencies of their palaces.

Of the private apartments the first to be mentioned is the peristyle,
which usually lay behind the atrium, and communicated with it both
through the tablinum and by fauces. In its general plan it resembled
the atrium, being in fact a court, open to the sky in the middle, and
surrounded by a colonnade, but it was larger in its dimensions, and
the centre court was often decorated with shrubs and flowers and
fountains, and was then called _xystus_. It should be greater in
extent when measured transversely than in length,[9] and the
intercolumniations should not exceed four, nor fall short of three
diameters of the columns.

Of the arrangement of the bed-chambers we know little. They seem to
have been small and inconvenient. When there was room they had usually
a procoeton, or ante-chamber. Vitruvius recommends that they should
face the east, for the benefit of the early sun. One of the most
important apartments in the whole house was the triclinium, or
dining-room, so named from the three beds, which encompassed the table
on three sides, leaving the fourth open to the attendants. The
prodigality of the Romans in matters of eating is well known, and it
extended to all matters connected with the pleasures of the table. In
their rooms, their couches, and all the furniture of their
entertainments, magnificence and extravagance were carried to their
highest point. The rich had several of these apartments, to be used at
different seasons, or on various occasions. Lucullus, celebrated for
his wealth and profuse expenditure, had a certain standard of
expenditure for each triclinium, so that when his servants were told
which hall he was to sup in, they knew exactly the style of
entertainment to be prepared; and