combining shrubs, fountains, decorative statuettes, and often frescoes on the enclosing walls, reflect the aspiration of the wealthy middle class to
import the villa life of Roman aristocrats into their urban homes. Thus the huge wall-paintings of wild animals which overlook many late-Pompeian
gardens evoke the game- or safari-parks (paradeisoi) of the nobility, a theme which is also echoed by statuettes of dogs attacking wild boar amid the
actual plants and fountains. Some details, such as marble ducks and ibises at the waterside, a bronze fisherman dangling his rod in a fountain, and a
sleeping marble pixie amazingly akin to a modern garden gnome, are almost kitsch. The palm for vulgarity should perhaps be awarded to L. Ceius
Secundus for commissioning a painting of a nymph who appears to empty her bowl of water into a real gutter in the pavement.
Eating and Drinking
Closely linked with the garden were the delights of dining. The U-shaped masonry dining areas (triclinia) found in Pompeian gardens, often
accompanied by clam or snail shells and the bones of meat-animals, confirm that the modern Mediterranean practice of eating out of doors on hot
summer evenings goes back to antiquity. Sheltered by an awning or by a vine-arbour and cushioned by mattresses and pillows, the diners would
recline on their elbows in the Greek manner, picking tidbits from a central table or, like Pliny's guests, from floating dishes in the form of little boats
and water-birds; as night drew on, lamps would be lit in surrounding candelabra, some of them, as in the House of the Ephebe, suspended from the
hands of bronze statues.
Wild Animals Painted In The Garden Of The House Of The Ceii At Pompeii (between AD 62 and 79). Such paintings were inspired by the safari parks
of Hellenistic monarchs and of the republican nobles who imitated them; they introduced an incongruous element of grandeur and exoticism to the
cramped internal garden of a small town-house.