Dine lying on couches: set three couches round three sides of a low table, the fourth side left open for serving, each couch taking up to three diners propped on the left elbow; the room is named for its three couches, the triclinium.
Peristyles with plantations and walks
Give the house of a man of rank spacious atriums and peristyles, with plantations and walks of some extent in them, as befits his dignity; in a country house put the peristyle first, then the atrium, with paved colonnades opening on to walks.
Vitruvius suits the house to its owner: the farmer needs barns and stalls, the banker secure and showy rooms, the magistrate a lofty entrance court and a peristyle large enough for gardens and walks. The town house puts the atrium next to the front door; the country house turns this round and opens on its gardens.
The houses of Pompeii bear him out: the peristyle at the back of the larger houses was planted with low shrubs and flowers, with fountains, pools and statues, and the House of the Faun has a second, larger peristyle beyond the first.
Related rules
Edge the beds before the portico with box, clip box into figures of animals set facing one another, and in the garden beyond cut it into many shapes, even into the letters of the owner’s name.
Where nothing prevents it, turn the temple and the statue in its cella to face the west, so that those who come to the altar to sacrifice face the sunrise as they face the god.
Set the altar to face the east, and always lower than the statues in the temple, so that those who pray and sacrifice look up towards the god; make it high for Jupiter and the gods of the sky, low for Vesta and Mother Earth.
Ornament the rooms according to their rank and use: the state rooms of the principal floor richest, with the whole entablature, the best ceilings and the grandest chimneypieces and doorcases; the family’s rooms plainer, with the frieze and cornice or the cornice alone; the offices plain.
Lay out a city’s streets so that they do not line up with the directions of the principal winds, which otherwise rush down them cold, violent and unhealthy.
Cite this page Chris Paton, “Peristyles with plantations and walks”, The Textbook of Architecture, https://textbookofarchitecture.com/rule/vitruvius-peristyle-walks. Text, drawings and models licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.