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Some authors have contended that the atrium formed part
of the house; and that the vestibulum was the court which
presented itself on entering from the street: others, on the
contrary, make the atrium the great court itself, and the
vestibulum the portico immediately in front of the entrance
into the court. Although Vitruvius speaks of the vestibulum
in general terms, he gives no account of its situation in the
houses of the Romans. He mentions the vestibulum amongst
those parts of a Greek house which constitute the andronitis;
where it seems to mean that part corresponding to the
pastas of the gynaeconitis. The word atrium, in its general
signification, seems to mean any area comprehended between
four walls; and would therefore be equally applicable to
the great court of the house, or to any apartment of
considerable dimensions, under cover. In this latter sense
it is frequently used by the Latin poets. The author of the
Lexicon Antiquitatum Romanarum has discussed the subject
at some length, and is of opinion that the atrium, properly
so called, was a great court, surrounded by porticoes,
corresponding to the aula of a Greek house. There cannot
be any doubt but that such was the atrium of Vitruvius;
because the dimensions which he assigns to some are too
considerable for any apartment in the habitation of an
individual.
The proportions of the atrium were determined in three
several ways. In some the width was made three fifths of
the length: in others it was two thirds: in others the length
was made the diagonal of a square, each of whose sides was
equal to the width. The least width, therefore, which an