40 



"A FLASH HOUSE," IN POMPEII— AND THE 

 GENTLEMEN OF THE CLASSIC RING. 



To one of those parts of Pompeii, which were tenanted 

 not by the lords of pleasure, but by its minions and 

 its victims — the haunt of gladiators and prize-fighters 

 — of the vicious and the penniless — of the savage 

 and the obscene — the Alsatia of an antient city — we 

 are now transported. 



It was a large room, that opened at once on the 

 confined and crowded lane. Before the threshold 

 was a group of men, whose iron and well-strung 

 muscles, whose short and Herculean necks, whose 

 hardy and reckless countenances indicated the 

 champions of the arena. On a shelf, without the 

 shop, were ranged jars of wine and oil, and right 

 over this was inserted in the wall a coarse painting, 

 which exhibited gladiators drinking, so antient and 

 so venerable is the custom of signs ! Within the 

 room were placed several small tables, arranged 

 somewhat in the modern fashion of " boxes," and 

 round these were seated several knots of men, some 

 drinking, some playing at dice, some at that more 

 skilful game called, ^^ dnodecim scripts," which 

 certain of the blundering learned have mistaken for 

 chess, though it rather, perhaps, resembled back- 

 gammon of the two, and was usually, though not 

 always, played by the assistance of dice. The hour 

 was in the early forenoon, and nothing better, perhaps, 

 than that unseasonable time itself denoted the habi- 

 tual indolence of these tavern loungers. Yet, despite 

 the situation of the house and the character of its 

 inmates, it indicated none of that sordid squalor 

 which would have characterized a similar haunt in a 

 modern city. The gay disposition of all the Pom- 

 peians, who sought, at least, to gratify the sense 

 even where they neglected the mind, was typified 

 by the gaudy colours which decorated the walls, 

 and the shapes, fantastic but not inelegant, in which 

 the lamps, the drinking cups, the commonest house- 

 hold utensils were wrought. ' 



