Sacello (Shrine)
Through the unexcavated part of Ostia's regio V runs the Via del Sabazeo, from north to south. At the south end of the road was a secondary gate in the city wall. Outside the gate a small rectangular sacellum or shrine was found in 1983. The little room is surrounded by a wall, pierced by two holes through which water was led. In a corner behind the shrine is a well with a marble well-head. In the vestibule of the shrine is a large square hole, leading to an underground cistern. The actual shrine is preceded by two brick columns. The back wall has an apse. The deities that were worshipped may have been related to water in some way. The shrine has been dated to the first century AD.
Plan of the shrine. From Scrinari-Ricciardi 1996, I, fig. 215.
