The lower floors were of bricks or concrete and the others, of wood, had been devoured by the volcanic fire, only the stairways remaining.
In this gracious city of amiable and easy-going life, more Greek than Roman, all the lower floors of the plebeian houses had been occupied by petty traders.

They were shops with doors the same size as the establishment, four-sided caves like the Arabian _zocos_ whose furthermost corners were visible to the buyer stopping in the street.
Many still had their stone counters and their large earthen jars for the sale of wine and oil.

The private dwellings had no facades, and their outer walls were smooth and unapproachable, but with an interior court providing the surrounding chambers with light as in the palaces of the Orient.

The doors were merely half-doors of escape, parts of larger ones.

All life was concentrated around the interior, the central patio, rich and magnificent, adorned with fish ponds, statues and flower-bordered beds.
Marble was rare.