Cult rooms

Sometimes special rooms were built for the worship of deities. One of the best examples is the Shrine of Silvanus in the House of the Millstones. It is skipped here, because it has been described in detail on a separate page.

General view of the Shrine of Silvanus.
Photo: Gerard Huissen.

A small cult room that will be familiar to many visitors of Ostia was excavated in the House of Serapis. It was built between and behind two brick piers next to the passage to the adjacent Baths of the Seven Sages (interior measurements c. 1.90 x. 2.05). In the centre of the room is a brick altar. In the back wall, in a shallow niche, is a stucco relief of Serapis. His head is lost, his arms are badly damaged. His left arm was raised and held a sceptre, his right arm was extended downwards. He is sitting on a throne and wearing a long mantle. To his right Cerberus, gatekeeper of the underworld, is resting at his feet. On the god are traces of red and yellow paint. The back of the niche is painted purple and so is the back of the throne. The sides of the niche are painted yellow. The niche is flanked by engaged columns resting on a plinth. These are purple, the short stretches of wall on either side of them yellow.

The shrine of Serapis in the courtyard of the House of Serapis.
Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.

The back wall of the shrine shortly after the excavation.
Photo: Archivio Fotografico Ostia, neg. B 2549.

On the side walls of the room are four purple panels, two on either wall next to each other. They are framed by an inner orange and outer yellow band. Above the panels the plaster has been left white. On the two panels nearest to Serapis the vague outlines can be seen of two figures, which confirm the traditional identification of the figure in the niche as Serapis. The figures were painted yellow. On the left wall is Isis-Fortuna, wearing a veil and a long mantle. On her head is a small rectangular object, in her left arm is a cornucopiae, with her right hand she holds a rudder. On the right wall is Isis, also wearing a veil and a mantle. On her head is a small rectangular object, in her raised left hand is the sistrum (rattle). The right hand and lower part of the body cannot be seen.

Traces of a painting of Fortuna on a side wall of the shrine of Serapis.
Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.

Traces of a painting of Isis on a side wall of the shrine of Serapis.
Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.

Marble statuette of Serapis found in a nearby shop. Photo: Archivio Fotografico Ostia.	Drawing of Isis and Isis-Fortuna. Drawing: Jan Theo Bakker.

A large cult room was installed in the small courtyard of the House of the Sacellum. Unfortunately the function of the ground floor, consisting of rooms on either side of a corridor, is not known. The room has been preserved quite well. The exterior was covered with plaster. In the door is a smooth white marble threshold. The door is flanked by two engaged brick columns, supporting a tympanum. The bricks between the door and the tympanum were painted red, the mortar white. The interior (2.08 x. 3.01) is divided into two parts. The front part, with a cross-vault, is higher than the rear part. The rear part has a barrel vault behind a semicircular brick arch. Along the lower end of the front of this arch was a wide, dark-red band. On either side in the rear part, above the springing of the barrel vault, are three depressions, the central one round, the lateral ones square. In the depressions deities may have been painted or depicted with stucco reliefs.

The sacellum seen from the vestibule.
Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.

Painted masonry above the entrance.
Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.

The interior of the sacellum.
Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.

The three depressions on the right wall, the central one painted red.
Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.

Below the remains of the collapsed ceiling several objects were found. The main find was a terracotta statue of a female deity, seated on a throne. Traces of gilding were seen on her face during the excavation. It is probably Fortuna. The other objects are of marble: the upper part of a Bacchic herm with a male head, the upper part of a double Bacchic herm with the head of a satyr and of a maenad, a female head, and a pine-apple.

Fortuna may have stood between two brick bases that were set against the back wall, in the corners. A tiny wall-niche was hacked out in the centre of the back wall (0.21 high, 0.26 wide, 0.07 deep), perhaps for a lamp burning behind the head of Fortuna. A marble statuette from Ostia with the inscription FORTVNA PRAESTITA ("the defending Fortuna") has been adduced as a parallel for the terracotta statue.

Terracotta statue of Fortuna (?).
Photo: Archivio Fotografico Ostia neg. B511.

Marble statuette of Fortuna Praestita from Ostia.
EDR031495. Photo: ICCD F014605.

Double herm: satyr. Photo: Ostia neg. ScT 88.	Double herm: maenad. Photo: Ostia neg. ScT 88.
Bacchic herm. Photo: Ostia neg. ScT 87.	Female head. Photo: Ostia neg. ScT 89.

To the south of the courtyard is the vestibule of the building. Behind the entrance a low wall-niche was hacked out, opposite the entrance of the courtyard. It begins at a very low height (starting at 0.29 from floor, height 0.52). Was there a painting above the niche?

The niche in the vestibule, opposite the courtyard with the sacellum.
Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.

A similar cult room was found to the east of the House of the Charioteers: Sacellum III,II,11 (c. 3.00 x 3.00). The exterior was decorated with plaster. The entrance is adorned by brick pilasters supporting a tympanum. The room has a barrel vault. A brick podium was set against the back wall, lower podiums were set against the lateral walls. In 1938 a fragment of a marble statue was found inside, possibly belonging to the cult of Dionysus: the lower part of a naked, young man, supported by the stump of a tree from which a Pan-pipe is hanging down. The shrine does not form part of a building, it is next to a row of shops. This could mean that deities of the ward (vicus) were worshipped here (discussed later on).

Sacellum III,II,11.
Photo: Klaus Heese.

Sometimes Ostia feels like a city of mysteries. Why did someone who was attached to the military fleet of Misenum, in the Bay of Naples, build a shrine in a warehouse opposite the theatre in Ostia? The shrine is found in a corner of the colonnade of the courtyard of the Horrea of Hortensius. The upper part of the shrine (c. 3.50 x 3.10) is modern. There are remains of plaster on the exterior and in the interior. In the entrance is a smooth threshold.

The shrine in the Horrea of Hortensius.
Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.

On the floor is a polychrome mosaic-and-opus sectile. In the centre of the central white panel is a disc (diam. 0.44) with a projection ("ray") on each side, and with an inscribed star. On either side is a torch. Wooden benches, for communal meals or votive offerings, may have been placed on wide, black bands to the left and right. Behind the threshold is a long mosaic inscription, meant to be seen from the outside.

The floor of the shrine in the Horrea of Hortensius.
Photo: Parco Archeologico di Ostia Antica.

L(ucius) HORTE(n)SIVS HERACLIDA N(avarchus) CL(assis) PR(aetoriae) MIS(enensis) EX VOTO TEMPLVM FECIT IVLIVS VICTORINVS SACER(dos) TESSEL(avit)

EDR073950.

The shrine was built after a vow by Lucius Hortensius Heraclida, navarchus, captain, of the classis praetoriae Misenensis, the military fleet at Misenum. Sacerdos, priest, Iulius Victorinus took care of the mosaic.

In the centre of the room is the lower part of a masonry altar. A small podium was set against the back wall. Later a large podium was put on top of and in front of it. The large podium and the altar cover part of the mosaic-and-opus sectile (the altar partly covers the disc).

The interior of the shrine. Photo: Daniel González Acuña.

3D drawing of the shrine. Drawing: Jan Theo Bakker.

On top of the large podium the excavators have placed a cast of a small marble altar or cippus that was found across the street, and must come from the shrine. It carries the inscription:

L(ucius) HORT ENSIVS HERAC LIDA N(avarchus) FECIT

EDR106234. Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.

Some ships from the fleet at Misenum were stationed at Ostia. According to Meiggs they probably had to police the harbours and control shipping. The ships may also have taken governors and Emperors to and from the provinces. It is not clear what the relation was between the Misenum fleet and the building. Perhaps we should look at the nearby theatre for an explanation. In Rome the sailors were in charge of the awnings in the amphitheatre and they may have assisted in naval displays. They may have had similar tasks in Ostia. In late antiquity aquatic displays were held in the theatre. Giovanni Becatti suggests that the disc represents the sun and is a reference to the cult of Sol. It is possible that Isis and Serapis were worshipped in the shrine. The cult of these gods was of great importance amongst the soldiers of the Misenum fleet, many of whom were Egyptians. Next to the ordinary navarchi-captains they had religious officials called navarchi, probably in charge of the Isis-feast navigium Isidis. It is an attractive possibility that Heraclida was such a navarchus-priest.

Although not a cult room at all, a curious hybrid form in the Barracks of the Fire-Brigade may be mentioned here. A large latrine was found in a corner of the building. It contains a small shrine dedicated to Fortuna.

The latrine in the Barracks of the Fire-Brigade.
Photo: American Academy Rome.

In the interior of the latrine, next to the entrance, is what may be called a hanging aedicula, an aedicula without a base. The excavators reconstructed it from marble fragments that had fallen on the floor. From bottom to top the aedicula consists of three consoles (starting at height 1.60 from the floor), a bottom slab, two tiny columns, a top slab, and a tympanum (the total height is 1.14). It contained a small statue of Fortuna, witness the inscription on the tympanum:

FORTVNAE SANCT(ae)

Detail of the hanging aedicula.
Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.

A marble altar was found in front of the aedicula (it has now been moved a bit to the right), with an inscription. We learn that Caius Valerius Myron, assistant of the prefect of the vigiles, belonging to the fourth cohort, fulfilled a vow to Fortuna Sancta:

C(aius) VALERIVS MYRON B(ene)F(iciarius) PR(aefecti) COH(ortis) IIII VIG(ilum) FORTVNAE SANCTAE V(otum) S(olvit) L(ibens) A(nimo)

Detail of the altar of Caius Valerius Myron.
Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.

Around 200 AD the Christian author Clement of Alexandria wrote:

	The Romans, although they ascribe their greatest successes to Fortuna, and believe her to be the greatest deity, carry her statue to the privy, thus assigning to her a fit temple.
Clement of Alexandria, Protrepticus 4,45. Translation G.W. Butterworth.

Finally we can mention what may have been a cult room in Building I,I,4. Here a shop on the Decumanus was divided into two rooms. In the partition wall is a row of three rectangular niches. The room with the niches measures c. 2.75 x 4.04. The dividing wall was built of tufa stones and some bricks at a very late date, in the fourth century or even later.

The possible cult room in Building I,I,4. The dividing wall with the three niches is to the left.
Photo: Klaus Heese.

Detail of the three niches.
Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.