The rooms of the second story corresponded closely with those underneath, and were entered from the second story of the colonnade; the stairs, partly of wood, started in the kitchen. The appearance of the house as one looked from the garden at the right toward the colonnade may be inferred from our restoration, which gives a longitudinal section ([Fig. 173]); the letters under the section refer to the rooms as they are indicated in the plan.

The house was decorated in the fourth style. On the south wall of the kitchen there is a painting of Fortuna, with the usual attributes, a cornucopia and a rudder resting on a ball. The Genius and the Lares nowhere appear, and as a lotus blossom is painted on the forehead of the goddess, who is thus conceived of as a form of Isis, we may suppose that Acceptus and his wife were adherents of the Egyptian cult. Besides the statuettes of Egyptian divinities there was found in the garden the foot of a marble table with a Greek inscription "of Serapion," an Egyptian name. Acceptus and Euhodia may have come from Alexandria and thence have introduced into Pompeii this type of house, so unlike the native form. The Latin name of Acceptus does not stand in the way of this explanation, for he was probably a freedman, who in Egypt may have had a Roman master.

II. A House without a Compluvium

Fig. 174.—Plan of a house without a compluvium (V. v. 2).
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The accompanying plan ([Fig. 174]) shows the arrangement of a small house on the north side of Nola Street in the fifth Region (V. v. 2). The problem of lighting the atrium (e), the roof of which sloped toward the back, was met in a simple way.

At the rear a light court (f) was constructed, which furnished light and air by means of broad windows, not only to the atrium, but also to the adjoining room g and indirectly to the dining room k, which had a window opening on g.

This arrangement, however, is in part the result of later changes. Originally the room marked g belonged to the court, f, and the house consisted of two parts, separated by a narrow area. The kitchen was then in the low room (i) above which was a correspondingly low chamber, the height of the two rooms being only equal to that of the dining room (k). In later times, however, the hearth was moved to the corner of the atrium (1), the smoke being let out through a small window in the wall. A stairway, partly of wood, led to the upper rooms at the front of the house. Along the street ran a stone bench, protected by a roof projecting over it.