HOUSES OF PANSA AND SALLUST

THE house which we are now about to describe is, in respect of regularity of plan and extent, the most remarkable contained within the walls. It was evidently the residence of one of the chief men of Pompeii, and from the words PANSAM. D. painted in red near the principal entrance, but now obliterated, has been usually denominated the House of Pansa. It is well observed, however, by Mazois, that the name being in the accusative, this is evidently one of the laudatory inscriptions in honour of an aedile, or some other high officer, common in Pompeii; and that though the aedile Pansa is as likely to have lived here as any other person, there is no dependence on the correctness of the name thus given. We shall continue, however, for the sake of clearness, to use the name under which it is generally known. Several inscriptions bearing the name of Cuspius Pansa, dile, have been found.

By reference to the map, in which it is marked, the reader will see it occupies an entire insula, that is, it is completely surrounded by streets, in the centre of the town, in one of the best situations, close to the baths, and near the Forum. Including the garden, which occupies a third of the whole length, the area on which it stands is about three hundred feet by one hundred : part of this, however, as is usual, is occupied by shops belonging to the owner, and let out by him.

a, the Vestibulum, the inner threshold of which had a mosaic with the inscription SALVE. 1. Prothyrum paved with mosaic. 2. Tuscan atrium. 3. Impluvium. 4. Alae. 5. Open tablinum, paved with mosaic, serving as a passage to the peristyle, 8.There is also however a passage (fauces), 6,beside it; and though the tablinum was left open for the sake of the effect produced by thus making the whole length of the house visible at once, it was probably closed by a bronze or wooden railing, so as only to allow the master of the house or the family to pass through it. The apartments, 7,on each side of the atrium were probably meant for the reception of guests entitled to claim hospitality, who came to the House of Pansa when pleasure or business brought them to Pompeii. We have already stated, that when there was no hospitium, or separate building for the reception of such persons, it was customary to lodge them in the atrium, or public part of the house. The larger rooms, beside the tablinum, marked 7, might serve for winter reception-rooms for clients, winter triclinia, or many other purposes, all equally probable and equally uncertain. 9. The peristyle. 10. Private passage and posticum. On the pier, between the two doors, was a painting representing one of the guardian serpents, of which we shall speak fully in describing the House of Sallust, by the side of which is a projecting brick, to receive a lamp lighted in honour of the Dii Custodes. This painting, from its situation, could only be seen by persons within the house but on the opposite wall there was a cross worked in bas-relief upon a panel of white stucco, in such a way as to be visible to all passers. On this symbol Mazois has founded a conjecture that the owner of the shop may have been a Christian. His words are to the following purport : " Though the fast Christians have represented this symbol of Christianity under the form of a Greek, or equibrachial cross, and the limbs of this cross are of unequal length, I cannot bring myself to see merely some unknown instrument in it, as many persons have done, to whom I have shown this drawing of it. In truth, it is difficult not to recognize in it the Latin cross, which would be nothing extraordinary, since Pompeii was not destroyed till the first year of the reign of Titus. But if it be a cross, how can we explain the juxtaposition, the mixture of this symbol of a new and pure religion with the images and practices of one of the most absurd superstitions of antiquity? It is hard to conceive that the same man could at once bow before the cross of Christ, and pay homage to Janus, Ferculus, Limentinus, Cardin, the deities of the thresholds and the hinges of doors; still more that he should adore it in combination with that emblem of an incomprehensible worship which is close at band. Perhaps at this time the cross was a mysterious hieroglyphic of meaning unknown, except to those who had embraced the Christian faith; which, placed here among the symbols of paganism, as if in testimony of gratitude, informed the faithful that the truth had here found an asylum with a poor man, under the safeguard of all the popular superstitions." On the probability of this conjecture we shall offer no opinion, leaving it to the decision of those who are best acquainted with the minutiae of religious history. If admitted, it would carry the use of the cross to an earlier period than any we believe to which it has yet been traced. But to return from this digression. 11. Basin. 12. Bed chambers. The centre one seems to have been a procaeton, or anteroom, since it communicates with the one beyond it. 13. Is called by Donald. son the library; by Mazois, a pantry, or room to arrange the dishes before they were introduced into 14, the triclinium. 15. Probably winter triclinium. Donaldson calls this room the lararium. 16. Large cecus. We may call this a cyzicene cecus, or hall, since it exactly corresponds with the definition of this sort of apartment given before, in its spaciousness, its northern aspect, and its large opening to the garden. 17. Fauces leading from the peristyle to the garden, to avoid making a passage-room of the cecus. 18. Kitchen. 19. Servants' hall, with a back door to the street, or it may be a stable. 20. Cabinet looking to the garden. 21. Portico of two stories; a clear indication that this house had at least one upper floor. The staircase however has so entirely perished that its site is unknown, although there is some indication of one in the passage (10). 22. Garden : in one corner, 27, is a reservoir supplying a tank, 28.

Hitherto we have been exclusively concerned with the private house of Pansa, but the insula contains a good deal which was not in his own occupation, and which indeed we may conjecture produced him a handsome rental. 23. Four shops, let out to tenants. 24. Shop belonging to the house, probably intended for the sale of the spare agricultural produce of the owner's estates. A slave named dispensator had the charge of it, and seems to have occupied the room behind, which has an entrance both into the shop and atrium. The produce of the farms of the modern Italian nobles is still vended in the same way, in a small room on the ground-floor of their palaces. 25, 29. Two baking establishments, the latter having one of the shops numbered 23. The ground plan will indicate the disposition of the other bakery. In the centre of the large apartment, 26, are three mills, a, a, a, and near them a large table, b. Flanking the entrance to the oven, f are three large vases, and in the left-hand corner is a kneading trough, c, with two coppers placed over furnaces. The apartment, 31, from its communication both with the shop and the bakery, was probably used as a storeroom. The two compartments marked 30 are houses of a very mean class, having formerly an upper story. Behind the last of them is a court, which gives light to one of the chambers of Pansa's house. On the other side of the island are three houses (32), small but of much more respectable extent and accomodation, which probably were also meant to be let. In that nearest the garden were found the skeletons of four women, with gold ear and finger rings having engraved stones, besides other valuables; showing that such inquilini, or lodgers, were not always of the lowest class.

View of the entrance to the house of Pansa.

Our view of this house is taken from the front of the doorway It offers to the eye, successively, the doorway, the prothyrum, the atrium, with its impluvium, the Ionic peristyle, and the garden wall, with Vesuvius in the distance. The entrance is decorated with two pilasters of the Corinthian order. Besides the outer door, there was another at the end' of the prothyrum. to secure the atrium against too early intrusion. The latter apartment was paved with marble, with a gentle inclination towards the impluvium. Through the tablinum the peristyle is seen, with two of its Ionic capitals still remaining. The columns are sixteen in number, fluted, except for about one-third of their height from the bottom. They are made of a volcanic stone, and, with their capitals, are of good execution. But at some period subsequent to the erection of the house, probably after the earthquake, A. D. 63, they have been covered with hard stucco, and large leaves of the same material set under the volutes, so as,to transform them into a sort of pseudo-Corinthian, or Composite order. It is not impossible that the exclusively Italian order, which we call Composite, may have originated in a similar caprice. Of the disposition of the garden, which occupied the open part of the peristyle, we have little to say. Probably it was planted with choice flowers. Slabs of marble were placed at the angles to receive the drippings of the roof, which were conducted by metal conduits into the central basin, which is about six feet in depth, and was painted green. In the centre of it there stood a jet d'eau, as there are indications enough to prove. This apartment, if such it may be called, was unusually spacious, measuring about 65feet by fifty. The height of the columns was equal to the width of the colonnade, about sixteen feet. Their unfluted part is painted yellow, the rest is coated with white stucco. The floor is elevated two steps above the level of the tablinum.