EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES

TO

SECTION IV.

The sixth hook of Vitruvius treats of the domesticarchitecture of the Greeks and Romans: perhaps there is nopart of the work of our author which involves so manydifficulties, with such scanty means of surmounting them.Of temples and theatres and other public "buildings thereare many remains; and whenever difficulties occur inillustrating edifices of this kind, we have various specimensto which reference may be made, with the probability thata consideration of the method observed in constructing themwill assist us in throwing light upon the subject. But weare without any authority to which we can refer with thecertainty of obtaining a just conception of the arrangementof their dwellings. The descriptions of the villas of Ciceroand Pliny abound in terms; but little advantage can bederived from them, inasmuch as they convey no idea ofthe magnitude, or the relative position of the several parts.

The ravages of time have nearly exterminated all tracesof the private habitations of the ancients: and the preservationof those remains of ancient dwellings which have recently