[Illustration: Fig. 137.--Plan of the house of the Faun.
A. Fauces of Tuscan atrium. B. Tuscan atrium. C, C'. Alae. D. Tablinum. E, F. Dining rooms. G. First peristyle. H. Exedra with mosaic of the battle of Alexander. I, J. Dining rooms. K. Second peristyle. L. Large room used a wine-cellar. M. Kitchen. N. Bedroom. _a._ Vestibule. _b._ Tetrastyle atrium. _c_, _c'._ Alae of tetrastyle atrium. _e._ Storeroom. _f_, _f'._ Sleeping rooms. _o_, _o'._ Bath. _q._ Gardener's room. _r._ Doorkeeper's room. _v._ Broad niche for three statues. 1-4. Shops.]
The wall decoration, which is of the first style, in the more important rooms was left unaltered to the last, and is well preserved. This decoration, however, does not date from the building of the house. In order to protect the painted surfaces against moisture, the walls in the beginning were carefully covered with sheets of lead before they were plastered. Later two doorways were walled up, and the plastering over the apertures, which was applied directly to the wall surface without the use of lead sheathing, forms with its decoration an inseparable part of that found on either side. When the original decoration was replaced by that which we see on the walls to-day it is impossible to determine, but the change must have been made before the first century B.C. A few unimportant rooms are painted in the second and fourth styles.
An entire block (VI. xii.), measuring approximately 315 by 115 feet, is given to the house; there are no shops except the four in front (Fig. 137). The apartments are arranged in four groups: a large Tuscan atrium, B, with living rooms on three sides; a small tetrastyle atrium, _b_, with rooms for domestic service around it and extending on the right side toward the rear of the house; a peristyle, G, the depth of which equals the width of the large and half that of the small atrium; and a second peristyle, K, occupying more than a third of the block. At the rear of the second peristyle is a series of small rooms (_q-u_) the depth of which varies according to the deviation of the street at the north end of the insula.
[Illustration: Fig. 138.--Part of the cornice over the large front door.]
In front of the main entrance we read the word HAVE (more commonly written _ave_), 'Welcome!' spelled in the sidewalk with bits of green, yellow, red, and white marble. The street door here, quite exceptionally, was at the outer end of the vestibule. It consisted of three leaves (seen in Fig. 139) and opened toward the inside, while the double door between the vestibule and the fauces (A on the plan) opened toward the outside; the closed vestibule was not unlike those of many modern houses. Fragments of the lintel over the outer door, with its projecting dentil cornice, are preserved in one of the shops (Fig. 138).