e have alluded, as entering the Via del
Lupanare nearly opposite to the house of Siricus, has been called the
Via del Balcone, from a small house with a projecting balcony or
maenianum. Indications of balconies have been found elsewhere, and
indeed there were evidently some in the Via del Lupanare; but this is
the only instance of one restored to its pristine state, through the
care of Signor Fiorelli in substituting fresh timbers for those which
had become carbonized. The visitor may ascend to the first floor of
this house, from which the balcony projects several feet into the
narrow lane. In the atrium of this house is a very pretty fountain.

The house next to that of the Balcony, facing the entrance of a small
street leading from the Via dell Abbondanza, and numbered 7 on the
door post, has a few pictures in a tolerable state of preservation. In
a painting in the furthest room on the left of the atrium Theseus is
seen departing in his ship; Ariadne, roused from sleep, gazes on him
with despair, while a little weeping Cupid stands by her side. In the
same apartment are two other well-preserved pictures, the subjects of
which it is not easy to explain. In one is a female displaying to a
man two little figures in a nest, representing apparently the birth of
the Dioscuri. The other is sometimes called the Rape of Helen. There
are also several medallion heads around.

In the small street which runs parallel with the eastern side of the
Forum, called the Vico di Eumachia, is a house named the _Casa nuova
della Caccia_, to distinguish it from one of the same name previously
discovered. As in the former instance, its appellation is derived from
a large painting on the wall of the peristyle, of bears, lions, and
other animals. On the right-hand wall of the tablinum is a picture of
Bacchus discovering Ariadne. A satyr lifts her vest, while Silenus and
other figures look on in admiration. The painting on the left-hand
wall is destroyed. On entering the peristyle a door on the right leads
down some steps into a garden, on one side of which is a small altar
before a wall, on which is a painting of shrubs.

Proceeding from this street into the Vico Storto, which forms a
continuation of it on the north, we find on the right a recently
excavated house, which, from several slabs of variously colored
marbles found in it, has been called the House of the Dealer in
Marbles. Under a large court in the interior, surrounded with Doric