_Stoa_ by the Greeks, is a colonnade on four sides, very like the
cloisters of our cathedrals. The view looking through the fauces is
bounded by a small shrine or chapel, called the _Lararium_. It is a
niche raised on a pedestal, flanked by pilasters, and surmounted by a
pediment. Within this were kept the Lares, the sacred household gods,
that accompanied the inhabitants in their flight. No figures of this
sort have ever been found in such places at Pompeii, although many
representations of them remain depicted on the walls. They were
generally represented as young men in short girt tunics, crowned and
holding the drinking horn in one hand. (See Milman’s Horace, p. 168.)
Their appearance was first ascertained by an inscription over the
sculpture of an altar formerly in the Villa Medici, and now at Florence;
a similar altar is in the Vatican, both inscribed LARIBVS AVGVSTIS. (See
Galleria di Firenze, pl. 144 of statue, &c.; Mus. Pio. Clem., vol. iv.,
tav. 45; and Guattani Mon. Ined, vol. ii.; Maggio, 1785). The Lares
presided especially over the domestic hearth. The cornice and
entablature of Lararium are taken from the funeral Triclinium at
Pompeii. The wall behind is a rich Pompeian red, with a yellow ornament,
forming a panel on it, beautifully painted.
The roof of the ambulatory is panelled and decorated according to the
prevailing style of the lighter coloured ceilings at Pompeii. The
devices are formed of very thin lines of the brightest colours upon
white. The Ionic capitals of the columns are from the Basilica. The
shafts of the columns are not fluted at the lower part, the remaining
unfluted surface, together with the mouldings upon the base, are painted
bright red. This is a Pompeian peculiarity. Red is a prevailing colour
at Pompeii, but in the House of the Surgical Instruments, the lower part
of the columns was blue, a dwarf wall between them being painted red.
(Gell, Pompeiana, first series, pl. 25, p. 170.)