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The dwelling is divided into two distinct but interconnected sectors. It falls into a type of house, common in Pompeii, composed of two sectors or quarters: on one side, the representative quarter, with two atriums and the peristyle; on the other, the minor quarter, used for services and various other functions. The house's facade, featuring two entrances separated by an intervening shop, faces Via dell'Abbondanza. From entrance no. 3, one accesses the main part of the dwelling (the house of C. Julius Polybius, properly called IX, 13, 3, 3). In the fauces is one of the painted electoral programmes that mention C. Iulius Polybius. Right behind, the first atrium (room A) opens up: today it is only a rectangular room with a rough-beaten floor and lacks an impluvium. However, the remains of tiles and roof tiles found during the excavation seem to exclude the hypothesis that we are dealing with a displuviate atrium. It is likely that the room, in 79 A.D., was undergoing renovation due to damage caused by an earthquake prior to the eruption. On the western wall of atrium A, there is the passage to the minor sector of the house (IX, 1.3, 1, 3), and near it, a staircase that leads to the upper floor (room B). On the northern side of the atrium, to the left, there is a painted "false door" that brings light to the room behind it (M) through a narrow slit. A wide central passage leads to a second atrium, which has an impluvium (room O). Around the atrium O, rooms are arranged; between them is room S, whose southern wall has a large breach, a sign that someone must have entered the house shortly after the burial. To the north of the atrium O is an area kept as a garden: on three sides there is a colonnaded portico, while on the fourth, the western side, there is only a wall against which semi-columns are placed. Under the eastern portico, there were four wooden cabinets, whose original appearance has been restored using the casting method. Along the southern side of the peristyle, small rooms open up (including AA and BB). At the back, to the north, the representative rooms are arranged. In the NE corner, a triclinium (room EE), barred with an iron lock, which contained a rich collection of bronze objects. Next are the rooms where the remains of the eruption victims (7 skeletons) were found. More modest is the residential complex with the entrance at number 1 of insula 13, known in the bibliography as the house of M. Sextilius. The atrium (room C), just like the first atrium of the representative quarter (A), was found without a floor and without an impluvium. To the east, there is a staircase that leads to the upper floor (room B). On the northern side, a tablinum opens in the center, and a side passage (G) leads to a small courtyard: a service courtyard (N) on one side of which is a small kitchen, the only one in the entire house, which must have met the needs of the entire G complex. On the wall, there is a large painting depicting the Domestic Lares. There is also a room (R) on the western side of the courtyard that connects with the main part of the house.
House
Portico
