THE IMPERIAL ATRIUM OF THE FOURTH PERIOD. aye 
rooms’ beyond the north court were also lengthened to 9.50 meters and were 
connected with the newer rooms adjoining them on the west by a doorway. 
The Group of Rooms on the South: The group of rooms on the south,” 
which resembles in its general features that on the north corresponding to it, 
consisted of three small rooms® opening upon a narrow corridor,‘ at the 
end of which was a single large room.’ This group was entered from the 
central court through one of the older rooms, the front part of which served 
as an entrance corridor both for the new rooms and for the stairway to the 
upper stories. A small door at the rear of the garden afforded more direct 
communication with the rooms at that end of the group.® The three smaller 
rooms were all originally 5.95 meters long. “Two of them, however, were a 
little later shortened by the insertion of a thin wall in the rear, by which a 
passage-way was formed, along the front of which a number of openings 
were left. Through these openings the furnaces of the various rooms were 
supplied with fuel.’ Opening from the corridor upon the garden were two 
windows high above the ground, through which the rooms as well as the 
corridor received their light. The larger room, or hall, at the end of the 
corridor, behind which ran the stairway to the upper stories, also received its 
light from the garden outside through a lofty window. The older room, 
which adjoined the newer group towards the west, was much diminished in 
size by cutting off from it the stairway leading to the second floor. The door 
which led from this room into the court was reduced in width from 2.50 to 
1.75 meters, while that which led into the adjoining room on the west was 
completely closed. Bythese changes the newer rooms gained additional 
privacy and all direct communication with the rooms toward the west was 
cut off. 
At this time the courts at either end of the group of rooms on the east 
were almost wholly rebuilt. The upper part of the court on the north is 
wholly destroyed. Around the top of that on the south runs a row of traver- 
tine corbels similar to those seen in the Pantheon, upon which rested a 
cornice. On the north side of this court was built a vaulted cellar® 1.96 
meters wide and 1.70 meters high, which was entered from the inner corridor 
belonging to the new group of rooms. At the rear of the court was a basin 
for water” 3.75 meters long, 1.77 meters wide, and 60 centimeters deep, 
which emptied into a sewer running to the northwest. At the back and 
1 Plan D, 13-14. ®In the original plan a smaller door was built 
2Plan D, 31-35. slightly to the east of the present one. This 
3 Plan D, 32-34. These rooms are 4.56, 3.40, and door, for some reason, met with such 
4-14 meters wide respectively and 5.95 disfavor that before the completion of the 
meters long. building it was replaced by the other. 
‘Plan D, 31. The corridor was 3.24 meters wide 7 For further description of these hypocausts, see 
and 13.88 long. Pp. 40-41. 
5 Plan D,35. This room was 8.26 meterslong and & These corbels were not intended to support a 
6.90 wide. For its original form, see plan roof, as Jordan supposed. 
A, 10. Traces of its earlier front wall are 9° Plan D, 23 a and plate vu, fig. 1. 
still to be found. Plan D, 23 b. 
