Back to menu

Cult rooms in Rome

A few cult rooms were found in Rome, but the reports are old. In 1885 Carlo Ludovico Visconti published the results of the excavation of a house near San Martino ai Monti in Via Giovanni Lanza (to the south of Santa Maria Maggiore).[1] He announced a fuller publication by Enrico Stevenson, but this never appeared. In a courtyard a little temple was found. A door to the right leads to an underground mithraeum. The floor and the inside and outside of the walls were decorated with marble slabs. Niches in the back wall and lateral walls were decorated with stucco reliefs and painted. Today there is no trace of the small temple.



Drawing of the shrine in Via Giovanni Lanza.
Visconti 1885, Tav. III.

A marble statue of Isis-Fortuna was found in a large niche in the back wall (height including the plinth 1.50). It is now in the Capitoline Museums. Traces of gilding were seen, especially on the face. With her left hand she holds a cornucopiae. The lowered right hand holds a rudder resting on a globe and a bunch of grain ears and poppies. On her head is a lunar disc between two snakes. On the disc are grain ears.

In the niches in the lateral walls were marble statuettes and busts, found in the niches (shown in different positions on the drawings). Some were damaged somewhat by fire. Visconti lists Jupiter, Jupiter-Serapis (twice), Diana-Hecate (with traces of polychrome paint), Venus with dolphin and amorino, perhaps Mars, Hercules, two herms of Hercules, a herm of Ariadne or a maenad, a so-called Horus-cippus of green basalt with hieroglyphs, three marble bases that probably supported bronze statuettes of the two Lares and the Genius, an antefix with an eagle and a lightning bolt, four lamps.

The interior of the shrine with the statue of Isis-Fortuna, now in the Capitoline Museums.
Visconti 1885, Tav. IV; photo: Arachne.

In 1744 the remains of a fairly monumental shrine of Bona Dea were found near the church of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere. The descriptions are vague: a square brick structure with niches in the walls, "un tempietto come un tabernacolino". The proximity of a well suggests that the shrine was in a courtyard. Together with the shrine three inscriptions were found.[2] We learn that Marcus Vettius Bolanus ordered the restoration of a shrine of Bona Dea. He erected a statue of the goddess for the protection (tutela) of a tenement building named after him (insula Bolaniana). A certain Cladus, probably a slave of Bolanus, made an aedicula. Bolanus is probably a consul documented in 111 AD. In that case the shrine was restored in the first three decades of the second century.

BON(ae) DEAE RESTITVT(rici?)
SIMVLACR(um) IN TVT(elam) INSVL(ae)
BOLAN(ianae) POSVIT ITEM AED(iculam)
DEDIT CLADVS L(ibens) M(erito)

To the left of this text:

B(onae)
D(e)A(e)

To the right of this text:

S(acrum)

Travertine inscription. EDR161209.
B(onae) D(eae) R(estitutrici?)
CLADVS
D(onum) D(edit)

Travertine statue base or altar. EDR161208.
BONAE DEAE
SACRVM
M(arcus) VETTIVS BOLANVS
RESTITVI IVSSIT

Marble inscription. EDR161207.

In the years 1911-1915 a little shrine was found in the centre of the courtyard of the Horrea Agrippiana in Rome.[3] It is a rectangular room measuring 2.70 x 5.00 meters. The exterior was decorated with plaster, the interior with marble slabs below a brick cornice and red plaster above. Remains were found of marble architectural elements that formed the entrance. On the floor is a black-and-white mosaic with a head of Oceanus in the centre.



View of the courtyard of the Horrea Agrippiana. The shrine (with a modern roof) is to the right.
Photo: Wikimapia.



The interior of the shrine.
Photo: La Repubblica.

In the rear part of the shrine a marble statue base was found with inscriptions on the front and on the right side. Three members of a guild offered a statue of the Genius of the warehouse to merchants (negotiantes). The inscription on the side mentions two curators of the warehouse.



The rear part of the shrine with the statue base.
Photo: American Academy Rome.

[Pro] SALVT(e) GENIVM HORREOR(um)
[a]GRIPPIANORVM NEGOTIANTIB(us)
L(ucius) ARRIVS HERMES
C(aius) VARIVS POLYCARPVS
C(aius) PACONIVS CHRYSANTHVS
IMMVNES S(ua) P(ecunia) D(ono) D(ederunt) 		POSIT(um) DEDIC(atum) V IDVS IVN(ias)
CN(aeo) COSSVTIO EVSTROPHO
L(ucio) MANLIO PHILADELPHO
CVR(atoribus) ANN(i) III (written to the right)
The inscriptions on the front and on the right side.
EDR072736. June 9, 50-150 AD. Bodel prefers [Herc(uli)] Salut(ari) in line 1.
Photos: American Academy Rome and Pronti - Astolfi - Guidobaldi 1978, Tav. XXV.

(1) C.L. Visconti, "Del larario e del mitrèo scoperti nell'Esquilino presso la chiesa di S. Martino ai Monti", Bullettino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale di Roma 13 (1885), 27-38, Tav. III, IV, V.
(2) Two of the inscriptions are now in the Conservatorio di San Pasquale Baylon, Via Anicia 13.
(3) G. Schneider Graziosi, "Genius horreorum Agrippianorum", Bullettino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale di Roma 42 (1915), 25-33; A. Pronti - F. Astolfi - F. Guidobaldi, "Horrea Agrippiana", Archeologia Classica 30 (1978), 31-106; J. Bodel, "Genii Loci ed i mercati di Roma", Epigrafia 2006. Atti della XIVe rencontre sur l'Épigraphie in onore di Silvio Panciera, Roma 2008, 209-238.