CHAPTER XXXV

_THE HOUSE OF SALLUST_

The house of Sallust (VI. ii. 4) received its name from an election notice, painted on the outside, in which Gaius Sallustius was recommended for a municipal office. It has no peristyle, and its original plan closely resembled that of the house of the Surgeon. It was built in the second century B.C.; the architecture is that of the Tufa Period, and the well preserved decoration of the atrium, tablinum, alae, and the dining room at the left of the tablinum (Fig. 134, 22) is of the first style. The pilasters at the entrances of the alae and the tablinum are also unusually well preserved; the house is among the most important for our knowledge of the period to which it belongs.

The rooms on the left side (6-9) were used as a bakery. Those in front (2-5) were shops; two of them (2, 3), at the time of the destruction of the city, opened into the fauces (1) and another (5) had two rear rooms, one of which was entered from a side street.

The rooms at the right (31-36) were private apartments added later and connected with the rest of the house only by means of the corridor (29), which with the cell designed for the porter (30) was made over from one of the side rooms of the atrium.

If we leave these groups of rooms out of consideration, it is easy to see that the Tuscan atrium and the apartments connected with it--the tablinum (19), the alae (17), and the rooms at the sides--once formed a symmetrical whole. At the rear was a garden on two sides (24, 24'), with a colonnade. A broad window in the rear of the left ala opened into this colonnade (p. 259), a part of which was afterwards enclosed, making two small rooms (23, 18). At the end of the latter room a stairway was built leading to chambers; in the beginning the house had no second floor.

[Illustration: Fig. 134.--Plan of the house of Sallust.

1. Fauces. 2, 3. Shops opening on the fauces. 4, 5. Shops. 6-9. Bakery (6. Millroom with three mills (_a_), and stairway to upper floor. 7. Oven. 8. Kneading room.) 9. Kitchen. 10. Tuscan atrium, with impluvium (11). 12. Anteroom leading to dining room (13). 17, 17. Alae. 19. Tablinum. 20. Andron, with doors at both ends. 21. Colonnade opening on the garden (24, 24'). 25. Garden triclinium. 29-36. Private apartments, added in Roman times to the older dwelling (31. Colonnade. 32. Garden. 33, 34. Sleeping rooms. 35. Dining room. 36. Kitchen.)]

The andron (20), the wardrobe (17') at the side of the right ala, and the small room back of it (28) were made out of a square room corresponding in dimensions with that at the other end of the tablinum (22). The latter was originally entered from the atrium by a door at _e_, which was closed when the wide door was made at the rear opening upon the colonnade. At the rear of the tablinum is a broad window.

In the corner of the garden is an open air triclinium (25), over which vines could be trained; there was a small altar (_l_) near by. At _n_ a jet of water spurted from an opening in the wall upon a small platform of masonry; the water was perhaps conducted into the rectangular basin (_k_) opposite, the inside of which was painted blue. Only the edges of this portion of the garden, which is higher than the floor of the colonnade, were planted; steps led up to it at _f_ and _g_. A hearth (_p_) was placed in the colonnade at the left, for the preparation of the viands served in the triclinium. The room at the other end of the garden (27) was connected with the street at the rear by a posticum; back of it was an open space (26) with remains of masonry (_m_), the purpose of which is not clear.

The large dining room (13) may once have belonged to the bakery; the anteroom (12) leading to it was made from one of the side rooms of the atrium. The arrangement recalls that of the dining room of which the plan is given in Fig. 124.

The appearance of the atrium in its original form may be suggested by our restoration (Fig. 135). The proportions are monumental. The treatment of the entrances to the tablinum and the alae, with pilasters joined by projecting entablatures, the severe and simple decoration (illustrated in Fig. 261), and the admission of light through the compluvium increased the apparent height of the room and gave it an aspect of dignity and reserve. At the rear we catch glimpses of the vines and shrubs at the edge of the garden; painted trees and bushes were also seen upon the garden wall.

The series of apartments entered through the room at the right of the atrium (29) present a marked contrast with the rest of the house. They are low, the eight-sided, dark-red columns of the colonnade (31), with their white capitals, being less than ten feet high; and the dark shades of the decoration, which is in the fourth style upon a black ground, give a gloomy impression to one coming from the atrium with its masses of brilliant color.

There was a small fountain in the middle of the little garden (32), the rear wall of which is covered by a painting representing the fate of Actaeon, torn to pieces by his own hounds as a penalty for having seen Diana at the bath. At first the colonnade had a flat roof, with an open walk above on the three sides; but when the large dining room (35) was constructed, the flat roof and promenade on this side were replaced by a sloping roof over the broad entrance to the dining room. On the outer walls of the two sleeping rooms (33, 34) were two paintings of similar design, Europa with the bull, Phrixus and Helle with the ram. The rear inner wall of 34 contained two pairs of lovers, Paris and Helen in the house of Menelaus, and Ares and Aphrodite. The room at the corner of the colonnade (36) is the kitchen; the stairway in it led to the flat roof of the colonnade.

[Illustration: Fig. 135.--Atrium of the house of Sallust, looking through the tablinum and colonnade at the rear into the garden, restored.]

This portion of the house probably dates from the latter part of the Republic; it underwent minor changes in the course of the century during which it was used. Previously there was in all probability a garden on this side, into which opened a large window in the rear wall of the right ala, afterwards closed.

The changes made in the stately house of the pre-Roman time are most easily explained on the supposition that near the beginning of the Empire it was turned into a hotel and restaurant. The shop at the left of the entrance (3) opens upon the atrium as well as on the street; the principal counter is on the side of the fauces, and near the inner end is a place for heating a vessel over the fire. Large jars were set in the counter, and there was a stone table in the middle of the room. Here edibles and hot drinks were sold to those inside the house as well as to passers-by. The shop at the right of the entrance was connected with the fauces, the atrium, and a side room (16). The number of sleeping rooms had been increased by changes in several of the earlier apartments, and by the addition of a second floor reached by the stairway in room 18. The private apartments were for the use of the proprietor, and were guarded against the intrusion of the guests of the inn by the porter stationed at the entrance (in 30).

[Illustration: Fig. 136.--Longitudinal section of the house of Sallust, restored.

At the left, the fauces with the counter of the shop; then the north side of the atrium with the entrance of the left ala, the north side of the tablinum, with one of the pilasters at the entrance from the atrium; lastly, the colonnade at the back and the vine-covered triclinium in the corner of the garden.]

This explanation is confirmed by the close connection of the bakery with the house; and the use of the open-air triclinium is entirely consistent with it (p. 404). The arrangement of the house after it had become an inn may be seen in our section (Fig. 136).

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