Having passed up the Via dei Mercurj, beyond the lupanare and the fountain of Mercury at the smaller gate of the house of the second fountain, which is opposite to it, a narrow vicus or alley on the right separates the line of houses, beginning at the arch of Caligula, from the most splendid of all the habitations yet discovered at Pompeii, which has been named the House of the Dioscuri, or Castor and Pollux, from two figures representing those personages on the walls.

In the vicus, opposite to a little private entrance to the lupanare, may be observed the window of an upper chamber of this house, a very rare circumstance in these remains.

The walls of the house of the Dioscuri are, as may be seen in Plate LXI., painted below in large red panels, and above represent in plaster a slightly indented rustication. The red panels ought always to be well examined, on the first moment of their excavation, for inscriptions; as, in one part of this wall, may be found curious Greek alphabets of the imperial times, and, among many other scratched inscriptions, may be distinguished

CAMPANI. VICTORIA. VNA. CVM. NVCERINIS. PERISTIS

and perhaps, with perseverance and the application of a wet sponge, something more of an historical fact or event might be recovered.

SUPPOSED LIBRARY

This chamber, which is entered from the portico of the inner court or peristyle of the house of the Tragic Poet, and lies on the left of it, is nearly of the same dimensions as those opening into the atrium and the tablinum.

If books had been as numerous in the first century after Christ as they have become since the invention of printing, the supposed library of the Tragic Poet of Pompeii would have been but little calculated to contain an extensive collection, but when, from the difficulty of multiplying the copies, books were scarce and valuable, an inestimable treasure might have occupied only an inconsiderable space. In fact, the Herculanean manuscripts were found in a suburban villa in the year 1753, in a room of very small dimensions, which, it is imagined, had once a vaulted roof, to the strength of which has been attributed the preservation of those precious papyri. Some others are said also to have been found in a corridor or portico of the same habitation, which opened into the garden, but whether this had a vaulted roof or not cannot now be known, and that circumstance seems at least very doubtful in the instance of the library.

The extent and apparent consequence of the habitation commonly called that of the Dioscuri, from the pictures of Castor and Pollux in the vestibule, but which some have imagined the house of the Roman quæstor of the city, renders it an object of more than ordinary interest, and the observer is, consequently, disposed to lament that it has not been better preserved, and restored, as nearly as possible, to its original state. This would have cost but a trifling sum, and the lower story, which was the principal apartment, might have afforded an excellent idea of Roman houses in general. The walls of the second story, or what is commonly called the first floor in a modern house, existed in some portions of the dwelling, but in so tottering a state that it was thought necessary to remove them, lest they should ruin the lower part in their fall. A projecting cornice of stone ran in front toward the street of the Mercuries, but it is not clear whether it was situated between the two stories or on the top of the house, though some vestiges of ornament, yet visible on the wall, seem to render the former position probable.

The house of the second fountain of shells is fully equal in interest to the former, and, in some respects, superior. The entrance is from the street of the Mercuries, and the staircase ascends from the vestibule.

There is a second entrance, from the same street, by which a person might arrive at the garden, and the inmost recesses of the house, without passing through the atrium—rather a peculiar circumstance at Pompeii. There is also a second staircase; but the ornaments of this second entry are, by no means, inferior to the rest of the house, so as to render it probable that it was the entry for the domestics.

The compluvium of the atrium is furnished with two mouths for cisterns, and, from one, the communication with the inner fountain, by means of leaden pipes, is visible, probably receiving the water after it had performed its part at the fountain. We have here only one ala on the right, but, on the left, is the faux, and, in the centre, a small tablinum, the size of which is, however, amply compensated for by a deep inner portico of four columns placed on two sides of a court or garden, at the further side of which is a second fountain of vitreous mosaic and shells, in form, taste, and workmanship, very like that in the house adjoining.