On making our way through this passage we find ourselves in a space still more open than the hall.  It is commonly an unroofed, quadrangular court surrounded by a roofed colonnade, and thence known as the “peristyle.”  Or the colonnade may extend only round three sides, the back being free to the garden.  In the uncovered space lying between the rows of pillars there are ornamental shrubs and flowers, marble tables, a cistern of water containing goldfish, a fountain, and marble basins into which fresh water is spouted from bronze or marble statuettes, from figures of animals, or from masks.  Under the colonnade are marble floors or other more or less rich pavements, decorated walls, and such works of art as the owner most affects.

[Illustration:  FIG. 34.—­PERISTYLE IN HOUSE OF THE VETTII. (Present state.)]

When it seems desirable for shade and coolness, coloured curtains or awnings may be suspended between the columns, so that one can sit or walk with comfort under the cloistered portion.  At the sides are apartments for different purposes.  At the far end, or elsewhere, there is regularly the largest dining-room, often with mosaic floor and generally with pictured walls.  Whereabouts in the house the family or an invited party should dine would depend partly on the number to be present, partly on the season of the year, and partly on some passing inclination.  A house of any pretensions would possess several rooms used, or capable of being used, for this purpose.  Some dining-rooms had what we should call French windows on three sides, permitting the diners to enjoy the view of the garden or the shrubbery outside.

Other large and airy apartments or saloons off the peristyle were used for social conversation, or as drawing-rooms.  Farther back still, approached by another passage or door, there was often to be found a garden, containing an arbour or a terrace covered with a trailing vine, of the kind known in modern Italy as a pergola.  In suitable weather al fresco meals were often taken here, and occasionally there were fixed couches and tables of masonry always ready for that purpose.

Coming back from the garden into the court, we might explore other passages, leading to the kitchen or to the bathrooms of hot, warm, and cold water.  These offices would be respectively situated wherever circumstances made them most convenient.  In the kitchen the part corresponding to our “range” consisted of a flat structure of masonry, on which the fire was lighted.  The cooking pots were placed either upon ridges of masonry running across the fire or upon three legged stands of iron.  The accompanying illustrations will sufficiently show what is meant.  The bedrooms, little better than cells, of the slaves, and also the storerooms, were variously distributed.  Underground cellars were apparently exceptional, although examples may be seen at Pompeii.

[Illustration:  FIG. 35.—­KITCHEN HEARTH IN THE HOUSE OF THE VETTII.]