Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution . porticos aroundand looking on thepalaestras and walks. °The object of the coun-try arrangement wasobviously to get thisview of the groundsfrom the common dwell-ing room of the would seem not tohave held at a laterdate in the larger villasof the Imperial period,when atrium had be-come less a dwellingroom than an entrancehall, for Pliny says thatin his Laurentine villathe atrium was the firstapartment entered. Inthe suburban villa atPompeii, called the villaof Diomecl (fig. 1), thedescription of Vitruviusholds good;
Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution . porticos aroundand looking on thepalaestras and walks. °The object of the coun-try arrangement wasobviously to get thisview of the groundsfrom the common dwell-ing room of the would seem not tohave held at a laterdate in the larger villasof the Imperial period,when atrium had be-come less a dwellingroom than an entrancehall, for Pliny says thatin his Laurentine villathe atrium was the firstapartment entered. Inthe suburban villa atPompeii, called the villaof Diomecl (fig. 1), thedescription of Vitruviusholds good; for the longapartment, called thegallery, which lookedonto the terrace roundthe palaestra and tothe country beyond, nodoubt served most ofthe purposes of theatrium in a town house,though its form differsentirely both from thosedescribed by Vitruviuselsewhere and fromothers in Pompeii. Unfortunately there are no means of dating thebuilding. For a wealthy mans house it is not large, and the decora-tion, though it is described as tasteful, was inferior to that of many. Fig. 1.—Plan of the villa of Diomed. (From AugustMaus Pompeii.) 1. Steps. 3. Peristyle. 8. Exedra. 12. Dining room. 14. Sleeping room,with anteroom (13). 15. Passage leading to a gardenat the level of the street. 17. Small court with hearth(e) and swimming bath (f). 18. Storeroom. (19. Apodyterium. 20. Tepidarium. 21. Cal-darium.) 22. Kitchen. 26. Gallery, facing a terrace(28) over the front rooms of the lower part. €,f, inclosing a large garden, i, U, I, m. Fish pond. s. Arbor. « Vit., VI, 5, 3. 45745°—SM 1909- -43 664 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1909. other Pompeiian dwellings. One can hardly accept it as a specimenof the si^acious and sumptuous habitations we hear of even underthe late Eepublic. In his chapter especially devoted to country houses Vitruvius isevidently describing only what we should call farmhouses. Hespeaks of the several aspects
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