CHAP. XII - House of the Dioscuri

Summary

Having passed up the Via dei Mercurj, beyond the lupanare and the fountain of Mercury at the smaller gate of the house of the second fountain, which is opposite to it, a narrow vicus or alley on the right separates the line of houses, beginning at the arch of Caligula, from the most splendid of all the habitations yet discovered at Pompeii, which has been named the House of the Dioscuri, or Castor and Pollux, from two figures representing those personages on the walls.

In the vicus, opposite to a little private entrance to the lupanare, may be observed the window of an upper chamber of this house, a very rare circumstance in these remains.

The walls of the house of the Dioscuri are, as may be seen in Plate LXI., painted below in large red panels, and above represent in plaster a slightly indented rustication. The red panels ought always to be well examined, on the first moment of their excavation, for inscriptions; as, in one part of this wall, may be found curious Greek alphabets of the imperial times, and, among many other scratched inscriptions, may be distinguished

CAMPANI. VICTORIA. VNA. CVM. NVCERINIS. PERISTIS

and perhaps, with perseverance and the application of a wet sponge, something more of an historical fact or event might be recovered.