Fig. 147.—Longitudinal section of the house of the Silver Wedding.
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The colonnade of this peristyle has been mentioned elsewhere as illustrating the Rhodian form ([p. 260]). The difference in height between the colonnade in front and on the other three sides was accentuated in the decoration. On the walls in front are large red panels separated by architectural designs on a yellow background; the walls under the lower part of the colonnade were painted with black panels, the designs of the narrow intermediate sections being on a white background. The lower third of the columns in front was yellow; at the sides and rear, dark red, like that on the lower part of the high columns in the atrium. Thus a pleasing contrast was made between the portions of the colonnade designed to receive the sunshine, particularly in winter, and the shadier parts; and the higher front served as an intermediate member between the lofty atrium with its stately tablinum and the lower rear division of the house.

The ornamentation of the architrave retains no trace of the decorative forms in vogue at the time when it was constructed. The surface, moulded in stucco, is divided into sections, corresponding with the capitals and intercolumniations, as in the colonnade of the Stabian Baths ([Fig. 89]); in these sections are small figures of birds and animals and other suitable designs, the effect being heightened by the use of color.

That the decoration of the peristyle received its present form before the earthquake is evident from an inscription scratched upon the plaster of one of the columns on the north side:

Nerone Caesare Augusto
Cosso Lentulo Cossi fil[io] co[n]s[ulibus]
VIII Idus Febrarias
Dies Solis, Luna XIIIIX, nun[dinae] Cumis, V nun. Pompeis,—

'In the consulship of Nero and of Cossus Lentulus the son of Cossus,' that is 60 A.D. The dates given in the rest of the inscription are difficult to explain, and the reading of the number after Luna is uncertain. The memorandum seems to indicate that the eighth day before the Ides of February in this year was the market day at Cumae, being Sunday and the sixteenth day after the New Moon; and that the market day at Pompeii came three days later. The inscription is the earliest yet found in which a day of the week is named in connection with a date.

The garden plot enclosed by the peristyle was watered by means of two jets at the front corners, fed by pipes under the floor. In the middle was a slight elevation on which were found two crocodiles, a huge toad, and a frog of a whitish glazed earthenware, apparently made in Egypt. The figures are about sixteen inches long.

Each of the bedrooms at the rear had an alcove for a bed, the ceiling being vaulted over the alcove, flat between this and the door; a distinction between the two parts of the room was made also in the wall decoration and in the floor, of black and white mosaic. The frescoing on the walls of the sleeping rooms presents a brilliant variety of colors; the decoration of the exedra is in yellow. One of the bedrooms has a small side door ([p. 261]). In the large dining room at the right (w) the place for the table is indicated by an ornamental design in the mosaic floor; in the oecus (4) the part of the room designed for the table and couches is distinguished from the rest by a difference in the decoration both of the floor and of the wall.