Fig. 175.—Transverse section of the house without a compluvium.
At the left, light court (f), with stairs (h) leading to an upper room over i. At the right, room g, with the window opening into the dining room k.
The water from the roofs fell into the light court f, and was collected in a cistern. We give a transverse section across f and g ([Fig. 175]), showing the arrangement of the roofs, doors, and window at the rear.
On the wall of g is scratched the inscription, Fures foras, frugi intro,—'Let thieves keep out, let honest folk come in!'
III. The House of the Emperor Joseph II
A good example of a house extended over terraces at different levels may be seen on the edge of the hill west of the Forum Triangulare (VIII. ii. 39), that of the Emperor Joseph II, casa dell' Imperatore Giuseppe II. The name was given in commemoration of a visit of this emperor to Pompeii, in 1769, when a special excavation in his honor was made in a part of the house.
The uppermost of the three terraces on which the house is built ([Fig. 176], 1) is at the level of the street (Vico della Regina, [Plan VI]), the lowest (3) in part occupies the place of the old city wall; the middle terrace is adjusted to the intervening slope. The arrangement of the stairways between the terraces and the distribution of the rooms may be more easily understood from an inspection of the plan in connection with the key below than from description.
There was a second story over a part of the rooms on the upper terrace, as indicated by the stairways at e and n and in the corner of u, but the extent of it is not easy to determine. The traces of the upper rooms of the middle terrace, however, are clearly seen, and their arrangement is indicated on the plan (4); the height of θ and κ, which were in one story, was equal to that of the smaller rooms with the chambers above.