The Palace and Park by Phillips, Forbes, Latham, Owen, Scharf, and Shenton

20. ŒCUS, so called from the Greek word signifying a house, was

sometimes a very spacious chamber to accommodate guests at a more extensive banquet than could be held in the triclinium. Here it is broad but not deep. The upper part of the walls white, the dado black, and the intervening spaces red and black surmounted by a rich architecturally-painted entablature. It consists of architrave, frieze, and cornice. The architrave, or lower portion, green with white garlands; the frieze above this is purple having red panels bordered with yellow, and producing a capital effect; and yellow figures of Sirens, or winged female monsters, which uphold a bold projecting cornice. The perspective delineation of this cornice, with its supports, is very remarkable, especially that of the central projection; a similar boldness of perspective drawing may be seen in Pitt. Erc., vol. iii., p. 109, where the fullest knowledge is evinced of the distribution of light and shade. The black and red divisions of these walls have large broad devices in green and red upon them. The central picture is a collection of silver vessels lined with gold, the variety of forms are well worthy of attention. The pavement of this apartment is inlaid from patterns well known at Pompeii. Zahn, vol. ii., pl. 87.