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  It is much to be regretted that there is no explicit description in the
writings of any ancient author of the manner in which the Greeks were
accustomed   to decorate their dwellings.    All the information that can
be
obtained on the subject must be gathered from      the few   scanty notices
and
indirect allusions to be found in the works of the native historians and
poets.
In the absence of the required information, every author has considered himself
at liberty to indulge his fancy, and to risk such conjectures as he thought
reasonable, not hesitating to blend assertion with hypothesis; and too often
condemning all who differed from him in opinion.
   If we may judge of the style of decoration adopted by the Greeks in their
domestic architecture from an acquaintance with the genius of the people,
we
do not hesitate to express our opinion that it was probably distinguished
by
a want of elegance, and a rudeness of execution.        From   the extreme
sim-
plicity of the form of government, and the unostentatious administration
of
justice adopted by the early Greeks, it is not probable that the people
expended much time or money in the decoration of their private houses.
All their attention seems to have been directed to the erection and enrichment
of their public buildings, and particularly of the temples.
   If we examine the laws and institutions of the Greeks, we must be struck
with the evident desire of the lawgivers to maintain among the people a
simplicity of manners, and to exclude all those luxuries which were well
known to enervate the public mind, and to oppress the state when indulged
to excess.   Many of the laws of Lycurgus were of this character, for they
enforced, under severe penalties, an unostentatious, we might say, an austere
life, and prohibited every approach to extravagance. One of the charges brought
against Themistocles was, that he inhabited a house of unusual size and
splendour.   Thus, by the powerful restrictions of law, that love of elegance
and beauty, so fully displayed in the decoration of public edifices, was
re-
pressed; and the people who erected temples which have been the admiration
ind examples of all succeeding ages, satisfied themselves with dwellingi
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