Rooms with two angular couches, drawn together at one end, enjoyed a
remarkably short fortune in Pompeian houses, during the first century BC.
Thanks to their chronological concentration, as well as to their
comparatively high quality and location among luxurious reception rooms,
researching such biclinia allows a privileged insight into the concepts of
prestige, self-presentation and display in the domestic realm. They were a
distinctive feature of buildings in the richest neighbourhood (the Regio
VI) and of the stately mansions on the Southern and Western slopes, leaning
on the old city-walls. Through the analysis of one of the very few rooms
arranged with this shape during the last decades of Pompeii, this paper
tackles the meaningful revival of features eclectically drawn from older
traditions. Duly (and subtly) revised in accordance with a new taste, they
helped to set an illusionary 'elsewhere', and to stage skilful plays
involving light, painting, perspective.