THE IMPERIAL ATRIUM OF THE THIRD PERIOD. 3l 
time of the erection of the new rooms as later,! since the Atrium was then 
divided into two distinct parts. The approach to the new rooms was through 
the garden upon which the central exedra and the smaller courts opened 
directly. 
The large hall, the center of the new group of rooms, which has been 
called the tablinum, though resembling more nearly an exedra, is 8.97 
meters wide and about 12 meters long.” In the center of the ceiling of this 
hall, which is covered at both ends by barrel vaults, was a large opening, 
for which there was probably substituted in the next period a shaft for the 
lighting of the upper rooms. The length of the rooms on the north of this 
hall was 3.55 and of those on the south 3.60 meters. The width* was the 
same in the corresponding rooms on the two sides. The doors were originally 
1.62 meters wide and 2.60 meters high. Their height has been, however, 
somewhat lessened by the raising of the floors, both of the exedra and of the 
rooms themselves. The windows, which open upon the smaller courts, were 
all, it is probable, 1.75 meters wide and 2.45 meters high, although several of 
them have been altered in later restorations. The smaller courts were con- 
nected with the central part of the new group only by the windows into the 
small rooms. Of these courts that on the north is 12.06 meters long and 
8.60 meters wide, while that on the south was smaller, being but 11.80 
meters long and 6.64 meters wide. The walls of the court on the south 
have suffered much from later restoration, especially on the south and west, 
where they have been rebuilt from the level of the later pavement. The two 
smaller rooms* beyond the court on the north, the inner one of which occu- 
pied the site of the ancient altar,° were but 4.11 meters long and 5.56 meters 
wide. 
The purpose of this group of rooms is not clear. Their remoteness from 
the temple makes any connection with its rites improbable. On account 
of the number of the smaller rooms‘ adjoining the exedra, they have been held 
to be the drawing-room and sleeping-rooms of the Vestals. Although the 
number, which corresponds to the number of the priestesses, can scarcely 
be accidental, the isolation of the rooms from the rest of the Atrium with the 
consequent removal of the Vestals from the protection and assistance of 
their attendants, renders them unsuitable for such a purpose. They may 
very well have been, however, the private offices of the priestesses and the 
depository for their records and insignia of office. The smaller courts may 
have been reception-halls or triclinia, such as are often found adjoining the 
garden in Pompeian houses. 
1See plan E. The destruction of the division wall % The width is 4.26, 3.99, and 4.08 meters. 
between the two parts of the Atrium first 4 Plan C, 29-30. 
made the lack of symmetry conspicuous. 5 See p.19. In the wall behind the altar was built 
2 The length on the north side is 12.7 meters, but a small niche, of which mention has been 
on the south side 13 centimeters less. Such made above (p. 19, n. 1.) 
irregularities are not uncommon. 6 Plan C, 32-34, 36-38. 
