3.B.g - The House of D. Octavius Quartio (II, 2, 2)

This is one of the great lordly houses of Pompeii. The vast garden (63x32 meters) is distinguished by two long canals (euripi) in the shape of a “T”. It is presumed that, on the occasion of rituals linked to the cult of Isis, their waters overflowed in artificial inundations that submerged the garden with its plants, in imitation of the annual flooding of the Nile.

Numerous sculptures, some of them displayed here, decorated the two arms of the euripus.

On both sides of the longitudinal canal that flowed through the garden secluded behind high walls were found holes for the stakes that supported the pergolas, creating shady paths. Furrows show where almond, quince and pomegranate trees once grew, planted in parallel rows running through the garden.