Location of the House (Ins VII, 1-2) .. View of Cardo III looking north, with the House of Galba on the immediate left of the photograph with the Central Thermae on the right. Plan of the House .. ...................................Plan of the House Key: A. Entrance passage B. Kitchen C. Exedra D. Peristyle E. Taberna Description ,, One of only two buildings so far excavated in Insula VII, the House of Galba occupies a small part of what is a much larger area lying beneath a residential part of Ercolano. The house was named after a silver portrait bust of the emperor Servius Sulpicius Galba, found outside the building. (Galba wasthe first emperor of the Year of the Four Emperors and reigned for a period of just over seven months from June, AD68). The bust, of beaten silver, was badly damaged, but is now restored and can be seen in Naples at the National Archaeological Museum. Like several other houses in Herculaneum, the house was built during the Samnite period. The main entrance has yet to be unearthed, but the secondary entrance off Cardo III (pictured centre left) opens onto a passage (A) which leads directly to the partially excavated peristyle (D). Immediately to the left from this entrance is the kitchen area (B) with a latrine (C) to the rear. ,, ,, The pre-Roman peristyle was remodelled sometime in its history; the original tufa Doric columns were stuccoed, and a podium inserted betrween the columns. In the centre of the peristyle is a cruciform piscina (pool). Several rooms open off this peristyle, including an exedra on its eastern side. The property appears to have included a taberna, north of the secondary entrance on Cardo III. Beyond the taberna a flight of stairs led to an upper floor. The accompanying photograph (left) is a view of the properties adjacent to the House of Galba on the southern side of Insula VII which faced onto the Lower Decumanus at its junction with Cardo III. The left of the photograph shows the face of the unexcavated material.

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