’ 
THE IMPERIAL ATRIUM OF THE FOURTH PERIOD. 39 
found and misunderstanding their significance, held that the rooms had a 
religious purpose and were designed for the use of the Vestals in the prepar- 
ation of the mola salsa, the muries, and the other materials for sacrifice and 
purification which were committed to their charge. The rooms set aside 
for that purpose were, however, as has been said, at the other end of the 
Atrium and were distinct from it. In recent times the rooms have been 
more commonly held’ to be those of a private bakery connected with some 
one of the many extensive establishments which found quarters in the 
Atrium after its abandonment by the Vestals. It is very probable that in 
the last days of the empire the rooms served such a purpose. Since, however, 
the mill and the greater number’ of the stoves are of a very late period, 
any such assumption concerning their original use is unwarranted. They 
were instead, at the time they were built, the center of the domestic life of 
the household. ‘The room in which the stoves are found was the kitchen, 
with which the court adjoining it was closely connected. The exact purpose 
of the room in which the mill was afterwards placed is not clear, but that it 
also was very closely connected with the kitchen is evident from the presence 
of a door® between these rooms. ‘The vaulted cellar in the court was, as is 
plain from its contents, the penus of the household.* The basin near it was 
for the water needed for the ordinary uses of the household. From their prox- 
imity to the penus and to the kitchen, one may safely assume that the statues 
which occupied the niches above the basin were those of the Penates. The 
court on the north was, in all probability, an open air triclinium. In this 
court there was, as has been said,° a second vaulted cellar, resembling in 
every way that in the other court. Though the existence of more than one 
penus is peculiar, no other explanation for the presence of this cellar seems 
possible. It was changed at a later time into a basin for water by the 
insertion of narrow cross-walls. ‘The niches in the back wall of the court 
are but three in number. It is probable, therefore, that the divinities wor- 
shiped here were the Lares with the statue of the ruling emperor between 
them.’ The purpose of the large rooms’ beyond this court is unknown, 
though it is possible that the inner room continued to serve as a sacellum 
for the divinity whose altar had occupied its site in earlier times. The mez- 
zanino® adjoining the court on the south® contained the rooms for the slaves 
of the household. The three larger rooms® belonging to this group, which 
is entered by a narrow stairway from the court below, may have been 
1 Huelsen-Carter, Roman Forum, 212. SP ries 
2 Only two or possibly three of the stoves are early. In the private cult of the Lares the pater familias 
$ This door was blocked up later by the mill and held the central position. The emperor, as 
by a structure on the opposite side. Pontifex Maximus, occupied the same 
‘The penus here described must not be confused relation to the Vestals that the pater familias 
with the Penus Vesta, which was in the did to the household. 
temple and belonged to the cult. The 7Plan D, 13-14. 
Vestals as a household possessed a penus §& Plan D, 23. 
as well as private Penates. See plate vu, ° Plan D, 24-26. 
figs. 1 and 2. 
