Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Compluvium

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

COMPLU'VIUM. A large square opening in the centre of the roof which covered the four sides of an Atrium in Roman houses, and towards which these sides converged for the purpose of carrying down the rain into a reservoir (impluvium) in the floor immediately under it; as is clearly shown by the illustration (Compluvium/1.1), representing the interior of a Pompeian Atrium restored. (Varro, L. L. v. 161. Festus, s. Impluvium. Vitruv. vi. 3. 6.) In a passage of Suetonius (Aug. 92.), the whole of the open space, or area surrounded by the colonnade, is designated the compluvium.

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  Compluvium/1.1