Acknowledgement

This research project could not have been carried out without the generous support of the following organisations: The Arts and Humanities Research Council who contributed to a research sabbatical, The British School at Rome who provide library facilities, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, who allowed me to study their remarkable collection of Roman wall-paintings, the Soprintendenza di Archeologica di Roma and the Soprintendenza di Archeologica di Pompei who generously provided access to all the houses and villas represented in this study and provided me with key images, and finally my own University, Southampton Solent who contributed to my research sabbatical and generously supported me throughout this project, in collaboration with the Higher Education Funding Council for England (RAE and and RAE Capability Fund).

There are also several individuals to whom I would like to express my gratitude. Michele Cuypers for her support, encouragement, translation skills and perceptive observations generously given over many years and Professor Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, ex-director of the British School at Rome and Professor Charles Hope, director of the Warburg Institute, both of whom supported my successful AHRC sabbatical application. My grateful thanks also go to : Sarah Hand who assisted with photographic material and picture editing; all the translators as cited in the chapters; Javier Pereda, Ken Stewart and Steve Hogg for their technical support and to Maggie Owen, Alan Turner and Arthur Owen for text editing, and to the following who generously assisted, commented and encouraged : Sanda Miller, Edward Chaney, Graham Coulter-Smith, Will Barnett, Sandra April and Christopher Lightfoot.

And a very big thank you to the following online resources : archive.org ; gutenburg.org ; perseus.tufts.edu ; google and books.google.com ; and yes (dare I say it) Wikipedia for guiding me quickly to relevant sources.