14 THE ATRIUM VESTZ. 
In a room at the east end of the house,’ a small part of a more elaborate 
painting was found,’ which suggests in general style the well-known fresco 
of the house of Livia at Prima Porta. The pavements, which have been 
preserved in several of the rooms, do not differ in style from those of the 
Domus Vestalium described above.* 
Construction and Materials: ‘The walls of the republican period are 40 
and 60 centimeters thick. Those of the earliest type are of opus quadratum 
made from smaller blocks of the gray-green cappellaccio,* which is found in 
other early structures in the Forum and on the Palatine. These walls have 
been replaced or added to by others composed of much larger blocks of 
light-yellow and reddish-brown tufa. The walls of the later restorations are 
of concrete faced with opus reticulatum or with brick, and vary in thickness 
from 40 to 75 centimeters. The brick-faced walls, a considerable number of 
which are still to be found, are of two types. In one of these the courses 
of brick are from 3.50 to 4 centimeters wide and the layers of mortar from 
1.50 to 1.75 centimeters. No bonding-courses are used. The bricks, which 
are made wholly from flanged roof-tiles cut or broken in an irregular manner, 
are magenta-red in color and of very fine texture. Walls of this type® are 
found also in the Praetorian Camp and in the earlier buildings below the 
temple of Augustus, as well as in the so-called Flavian rostra.* In the walls 
of the other type, of which but a few remain, the courses of brick are but 
3 centimeters or less thick and the layers of mortar 1.25 to 1.75 centimeters. 
The bricks are yellow or reddish-yellow in color and of remarkably fine 
texture. Walls of this type, which are especially frequent in the facing 
of tombs, where the brickwork was not intended to be covered by stucco 
or marble, are not confined to any one period, though they are usually held 
to have been most common during the reign of Nero or a little earlier. 
1Plan A, xu. 
2 This fresco, though faded, is still visible. 
= Pp. 12-13. 
‘See ps2, 0. 4. 
® The exact date of the walls of this type is yet unsettled. The greater number known to me 
are of the time of Tiberius. Shortly after this period, they give place to an cnr new type. 
* This rostra is, as Huelsen holds, of the period of Augustus. 
