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Regio
I
House
of the Cryptoportico
This
house takes its name from a luxurious covered corridor
(cryptoporticus).
During the last period of the city it was used as a depot. That's why
about sixty wine amphoras were found here. The house has a small
private bath. The
elegant three-winged underground passage was created to permit a walk
even in case of severe weather conditions. The owner had a copy of a
picture gallery painted on the walls.
The
decoration shows a labyrinth on the skirting board and a wall with
large red slabs (orthostats)
separated by herms. The upper part shows scenes from the Trojan war,
from the Plague
in the Achaean field
to the Funeral games in honor of
Patroclus. At the end of the corridor the visitor found at
the center of the back
wall a representation of the escape of Aeneas from Troy with his father
Anchises and his little son Julus. This scene constitutes the link
between the Greek myth and
the history of Rome: it was after the fall of Troy and the escape of
Aeneas towards the coasts of Latium that his son Julus founded Alba
Longa, from where Rome rose. This story represents the
main theme in Virgil's
Æneid
too.
Among
the several casts found in the garden of this house there is one of a
mother protecting her little daughter and another of a slave with
fetters at his ankle.
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