HOUSES OF CASTOR AND POLLUX

ON the eastern side of the Street of Mercury, and to the northward of that island which we have just described, are three remarkable houses, lying contiguous to one another, These have been named the House of Castor and Pollux, the House of the Centaur, and the House of Meleager.

The House of Castor and Pollux, also called the House of the Quaestor, is the most southern of the three, and was the earliest discovered, that is, between April 1828 and May 1829. The name given to it by the ciceroni of Pompeii must not be regarded as any certain evidence of the owner's rank. It is derived merely from the circumstance of two large chests of considerable beauty and richness of ornament having been found in the public part of the house, which arc supposed to have been meant to receive the moneys paid in on account of the revenue. There must of course have been some superior officer of the revenue in Pompeii to receive the port dues, which in a place of such traffic must have been considerable, as well as other taxes, on the land, the transfer of property, and the various other miscellaneous branches of the Roman revenue. Such an officer, whether a qu stor or not, must have been a person of wealth and trust. When, therefore, we find in an extensive and elegant house, and in the public part of it, where clients and others were accustomed to assemble for the despatch of business, two chests, in strength, magnificence of construction, and size, much beyond that required for the traffic of a private individual, the conjecture is not improbable that they were intended for the receipt of the public revenue, and that the principal officer in that branch of the public service resided here. The house is otherwise named the House of the Dioscuri, or sons of Jupiter, from two pictures of Castor and Pollux in the vestibule. It is, perhaps, one of the richest and most remarkable yet discovered. The front projects upon the Street of Mercury, and forms one of the corners of a quadrivium, or place where four streets meet. It is composed of two parts communicating with each other, each of which has its separate entrance from the above-named street. That to the right is the largest and the most ornamented, and seems to have been meant for the use of the family; the other part being appropriated to servants and offices.

The ground-plan is delineated in the annexed cut. The facade is rich and ornamented with more than usual care, the walls being worked in rustic with fine white marble stucco, and each block edged with an embossed border formed by stamping the wet plaster with a mould a cheap and rapid way of producing a rich effect. The narrow channels which divide the blocks are painted blue. The cornice also which surmounted the principal door, being first roughly carved in the tufa of Nocera, was stuccoed, and the stucco moulded in a similar manner. No high relief could be produced thus; and to give more effect, the intermediate spaces between them have been coloured red, black, and blue, so as, by the apparent depth of shadow, to produce an appearance of greater elevation than the projections possess.

1. Street of Mercury. 2. Principal entrance. Upon one of the jambs of the doorway was painted a Mercury with a large purse in his hand, in the act of running. Here we may pause to consider the rich and varied perspective of the interior where the Corinthian peristyle with its twelve columns, and fountain in the centre of the impluvium, beyond it the tablinum, rich with paintings, and in the further distance the dicula, or shrine of the tutelary deity of the house, combined to furnish a coup-d'oeil of more than ordinary magnificence. 3. Vestibule, paved with opus Signinum. The walls are divided into compartments principally coloured red and yellow, and painted very beautifully with Ground-plan of the House of Castor and Pollux. grotesque designs. Upon either side were spirited paintings of Castor and Pollux the Dioscuri, from whom the house derives one of its names reining in their horses. The door on the right-hand side leads into a small room, 4, probably occupied by the porter, where there are traces of a staircase, 5. 6. Sewer. 7. Atrium. It corresponds with the Corinthian atrium of Vitruvius, and is one of the few examples which remain of that magnificent style of building. The roof was supported by twelve columns placed around the impluvium, formed of the tufa of Nocera, and coated with stucco. They are about twelve feet high and one foot eight inches in diameter. The lower half of the shaft is coloured red, and the flutings are filled up; the upper part is white. The cornice of the atrium is remarkable for containing the dentils of the Ionic order, while the capitals are formed by plain rectangular plinths a singular and unpleasing novelty, for which it is not easy to account in a house distinguished in general for the richness of its decorations. Like that of the entrance, the pavement is of opus Signinum. The impluvium, 8, was ornamented by a small marble fountain, 9, prettily designed, representing a water-plant, upon which reptiles, such as frogs and lizards, are carved. The flow of water was regulated by a bronze key. The basin itself is but a few inches deep, so that when the water was not turned on, persons might walk across it without difficulty. In the central intercolumniation, fronting the tablinum, there is what seems to be the base of an altar, 10, probably appropriated to the worship of the Lares, and on the left-hand side, 11, the customary puteal, or well-cover. This is made of a white calcareous stone, in which the constant friction of the cords used in raising water has worn deep channels. The walls of the atrium remain perfect nearly to their original elevation, as is proved by the existence of the capitals of the Corinthian pilasters.

On the left-hand side of the atrium in the corner next the tablinum, the two large chests, marked 12 and 13, were found, which have given a name to the house., Each of them was raised upon a solid plinth, encrusted with marble. They were made of wood, lined with plates of brass, and on the exterior bound with iron, and decorated with handles, bosses, and a variety of other ornaments, many of which had fallen off by rust and the decay of the wood, and were found lying beneath.

Atrium of the House of the Qu stor; from Pompeiana.'

The locks, handles, and other ornaments were made of bronze. When found, the bottom of these chests was formed merely of several parallel bars of iron, which of course supported a planking, now decayed. Through the interstices of one of them, marked 12, forty-five gold and five silver coins had fallen, and were found at the time of excavation, so as to afford a clue to the use of these remarkable chests. The greater part of the contents however had been extracted in old times; evidently by some person who knew their value, and was at the labour of digging in search of their buried treasure. Owing, however, to some slight error in his measurements, he got into the adjoining room, 22, and greatly increased the difficulty of his task, by thus rendering it necessary to cut through the wall of the atrium, and to extract the money through a small hole in the chest.

The atrium is beautifully painted in the same style as the vestibule, with arabesque designs upon red and yellow grounds. Upon the plinth are flowers, reptiles, and birds pecking at fruit. Above it are painted many excellent figures. We may notice among them Jupiter, seated on his throne, and crowned by Victory; Fortune holding a rudder, her usual emblem; Bacchus with the thyrsus, and beside him a little Faun standing on tip-toe, and endeavouring to catch some drops which fall from a bowl that the God of Wine holds reversed, while a panther, fawning like a dog, pulls at the end of his cloak. The apartment has but one ala or wing, 14, round which there runs a dwarf wall or plinth, 15, which served as a seat. It is probable, from the position of the chests, that those who received or paid the public money were stationed bore. 16. A large recess containing a door which leads into the great court of the, piscina. Among the pictures in this part of the atrium were Ceres, Apollo sounding the lyre, Saturn with his scythe, and here and there landscapes containing small figures, not altogether dissimilar in style to those of Nicholas Poussin. Two of them represent scenes near the sea-shore, with hilly undulating ground, verdant to the margin of the sea, with incidents appropriate to the scenery. In one is told the story of Perseus contend-jug with the kinsmen of Andromeda, who opposed his marriage with the princess after he had delivered her from the sea-monster. In the other, Jupiter is represented carrying off Europa, and several beautiful Cupids appear in different parts of the picture. The whole atrium, exclusive of the recess, is about forty feet square, and the open space in the centre is about seventeen feet in each of its dimensions.

Various rooms of various uses surround the atrium, some lighted from the street by a window, as 17, 19, 20, others entirely dependent upon the atrium, and lighted imperfectly by a window or lattice placed above the door. 17 is conjectured to have been the apartment of the atriensis. It is decorated in the same style and with the same elegance as the atrium. The closet, 19, was probably a storeroom. In 20 there are two small, but remarkably fine pictures; one of Diana descending from heaven, attracted by the beauty of Endymion, with two nymphs in the background; the other of Narcissus. There are other pictures of Bacchantes, flying figures, &c. The pavement is of opus Signinum. 21 and 22 contain nothing worth notice except that in the latter there is a mosaic pavement. 23 is merely plastered with white stucco, in which there are two rows of small holes, apparently meant for brackets to support two tiers of shelves. This therefore is supposed to have been a storeroom, especially as bronze and glass vases were found in it. In 24 the same traces of shelves were found as in 23, and a quantity of provisions, such as nuts, lentils, grains, and figs : it was therefore another storeroom. The thresholds of both these apartments are of white marble, and in one of them the iron pivot upon which the door turned still remains. 25 appears to be a Plinth, or basement, intended to receive something, but of what nature is uncertain.