In describing the Pompeian houses it is more convenient to designate the principal rooms by the ancient names. In [Fig. 115] we present an ideal plan; in it the names are given to the parts of the house, the relative location of which is subject to comparatively little variation. These parts will first be discussed; then those will be taken up which present a greater diversity in their arrangements.

I. Vestibule, Fauces, and Front Door

The vestibulum was the space between the front door and the street. The derivation of the word (ve- + the root of stare, 'to stand aside') suggests the purpose; the vestibule was a place where one could step aside from the bustle and confusion of the street. In many houses there was no vestibule, the front door opening directly on the sidewalk; and where vestibules did exist at Pompeii, they were much more modest than those belonging to the houses of wealthy Romans, to which reference is so frequently made in classical writers. Roman vestibules were often supported by columns of costly marbles, and adorned with statues and other works of art. Only one vestibule at Pompeii was treated as a portico, that of the house of the Vestals near the Herculaneum Gate. This was once as wide as the atrium, the roof being carried by four columns; but before the destruction of the city two partitions were built parallel with the sides dividing it into three parts, a narrow vestibule of the ordinary type, with a shop at the right and at the left.

The passage inside the front door was called fauces, or prothyron. According to Vitruvius the width of it in the case of large atriums should be half, in smaller atriums two thirds, that of the tablinum; at Pompeii the width is generally less than half. In the houses of the Tufa Period the corners of the fauces where it opens into the atrium were ornamented with pilasters connected at the top by an entablature.

The vestibule and fauces were ordinarily of the same width, and were separated by projecting doorposts with a slightly raised threshold ([Fig. 116]) and heavy double doors. Sometimes, as in the house of Epidius Rufus, there was in addition a small door at the side of the vestibule opening into a narrow passage connecting with the fauces ([Fig. 149]). In such cases the folding doors, which on account of their size and the method of hanging must always have been hard to open, were generally kept shut. They would be thrown back early in the morning for the reception of clients, and on special occasions; at other times the more convenient small door would be used.

In several instances the volcanic dust so hardened about the lower part of a front door that it has been possible to make a cast by pouring soft plaster of Paris into the cavity left by the crumbling away of the wood; there are several of these casts in the little Museum at Pompeii. With their help, and with the well preserved stone thresholds before us, it is possible to picture to ourselves the appearance of the doorway.

Fig. 116.—Plan and section of the vestibule, threshold, and fauces of the house of Pansa.
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The doorposts were protected by wooden casings, antepagmenta, which were made fast at the bottom by means of holes in the threshold (α, α in [Fig. 116]).