Show HOUSES OF THE ROMANS in the early ages of rome the houses were merely thatched cottages after the city was burned by the bauls they were built in n more spacious and convenient style and of more substantial materials but so sf great was the haste to have them erected that no attention was paid to the regularity of the streets every one set down his habitation according to his own taste or fancy the success of the roman arms in greece served to introduce an immense improvement in the roman architecture and toward the au gustau ustan era aze rome might well boast of the magnificence of her buildings during the reign of augustus the improvements seem to have been conducted coa ducted on a very extensive scale and to have justified the emperor in exclaiming that he had found rome of brick and hid had left it of marble still however the streets continued narrow and crooked and the houses were for the most part of wood generally of three stories and very inconvenient A dreadful jul conflagration in the reign of nero reduced the greater part of rome home to ashes but it was soon after rebuilt with increased splendor the streets were made of greater width and laid out with bhore regularity and the height of the houses was wa s restricted to a certain standard every house was ordered to be isolated and to be built of stone so as to be less subject to destruction by fire this also contributed to the health and magnificence of rome though there were many at the time who censured the improvements and pretended that the narrow streets and lofty houses produced an agreeable shade in the heat of summer and rendered the C city ity both pleasant and salubrious the vestibule of the golden palace of nero was so extensive that it had three porticoes coes each a mile in length and which a large basin of water surrounded by so many buildings that they presented the appearance of a town the dome was made in general of dif different kinds of wood such as cedar cypress elm and oak but sometimes of iron or of brass the doors of the temples were often inlaid with ivory and gold they were in general elevated above the street by a flight of steps at least this was the case in the temples and in all probability also in the houses of rome though the doors of the houses of pompeii are found on a level with the footpath the door opened inward like those used by us but among the greeks and in order to confer honor on meritorious it citizens among the romans it was made to open outward hence arose the custom when a person intended going out of a house of knocking on the door to warn those who were passing by to get out ot of the way a circumstance which serves to explain some passages of the dramatic authors of that period when the door was shut it was secured by bolts and locks sometimes two bolts were us used edone one above and the other below the lock seems to have been movable like our padlock knockers or bells appear to have teen leen generally used the gate served as an entrance to the hall three sides of which were supported on pillars the side opposite to the entrance was fitted up as a library where the family archives were kept the hall was the principal bedchamber bed chamber and the spot where domestic manufactures were kere carried on in ancient times it served as the kitchen and the place pace where the family supped cupped it was also the room where the noble families kept the statues of their ano ancestors estors and received company it was ornamented with paintings statues and valuable furniture and was divided by curtains N Y ledger |