Private religion - introduction

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Introduction

For the Romans private religion was something that took place in the name of individuals, families, clans (gentes), and artificially created bodies such as guilds. Any god could be worshipped through private feasts, unless this led to disturbances of the peace in town. Private religion is documented very well in Pompeii, where countless little shrines have been found that are usually called lararia, after two of the most important domestic deities, the Lares Familiares. The shrines may be aediculae, pseudo-aediculae, niches, or mere paintings of deities. An aedicula is a miniature temple, with columns, entablature and sometimes doors, on top of a podium. A pseudo-aedicula is a niche on top of a podium. The wall-niches may have an aedicula-facade - painted or made of stucco, terracotta, marble, or wood -, and a projecting shelf. In the shrines were paintings or statuettes of deities, in front stood permanent or movable altars.

The Lares Familiares protected the entire familia, so also the slaves. They are depicted as dancing youths, wreathed, wearing a tunica, holding vessels: a rhyton (vessel for pouring libations through an opening at the bottom) and a patera (libation-saucer) or situla (bucket). In between the Lares Familiares we often see the protective deity, the Genius, of the paterfamilias, sacrificing at an altar. The place was protected by Genii Loci, depicted as a "male" snake, with comb and beard, and a "female" snake. Many other deities may be present, which are generally believed to have been the Di Penates, who protected the home and were passed down from generation to generation.

A household shrine in the Casa dei Vettii (VI.15.1) in Pompeii: the Genius between the two Lares, above the Genius Loci.
Photo: Wikimedia, Patricio Lorente.

Traces of fire on altars and remains of the last offerings were in a few cases found by the excavators of Pompeii: the drama of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius comes to mind. Strong feelings towards the Lares are suggested by the graffito Ite Lares, "Lares, go!". It was found below a niche with a painting of a snake coiled around an altar in the Casa degli Scienziati.

The niche in the Casa degli Scienziati (VI.14.43) below which the graffito Ite Lares was found.
EDCS-28801063. Photo: pompeiiinpictures.com, Stanley A. Jashemski.

When Germanicus (brother of Claudius) died in 19 AD, inhabitants of Rome worked off their frustration by flinging the statuettes of their Lares Familiares into the street in a mood of anger and destruction: anger directed towards the gods, because they had not been able to prevent the death. Suetonius reports:

Quo defunctus est die, lapidata sunt templa, subversae deum arae, Lares a quibusdam Familiares in publicum abiecti, partus coniugum expositi. On the day when he passed away the temples were stoned and the altars of the gods thrown down, while some flung their Lares Familiares into the street and cast out their newly born children.

Suetonius, De Vita Caesarum, Caligula 5. Translation J.C. Rolfe.

Whether lararium is a word that was already used in the first century AD, we do not know: it is documented for the first time in biographies of Marcus Aurelius, Alexander Severus and Tacitus, all written in late antiquity:

Tantum autem honoris magistris suis detulit ut imagines eorum aureas in larario haberet ac sepulchra eorum aditu hostiis floribus semper honoraret. On his teachers in general, moreover, he [Marcus Aurelius] conferred great honours, for he even kept golden statues of them in his lararium, and made it a custom to show respect for their tombs by personal visits and by offerings of sacrifices and flowers.

Usus vivendi eidem hic fuit: primum, si facultas esset, id est si non cum uxore cubuisset, matutinis horis in larario suo, in quo et divos principes sed optimos electos et animas sanctiores, in quis Apollonium et, quantum scriptor suorum temporum dicit, Christum, Abraham et Orpheum et huiuscemodi ceteros habebat ac maiorum effigies, rem divinam faciebat ... Vergilium autem Platonem poetarum vocabat eiusque imaginem cum Ciceronis simulacro in secundo larario habuit, ubi et Achillis et magnorum virorum. Alexandrum vero Magnum inter optimos et divos in larario maiore consecravit. His [Alexander Severus'] manner of living was as follows: first of all, if it were permissible, that is to say, if he had not lain with his wife, in the early morning hours he would worship in his lararium, in which he kept statues of the deified emperors - of whom, however, only the best had been selected - and also of certain holy souls, among them Apollonius, and, according to a contemporary writer, Christ, Abraham, Orpheus, and others of this same character and, besides, the portraits of his ancestors ... He used to call Vergil the Plato of poets and he kept his portrait, together with a likeness of Cicero, in his second lararium, where he also had portraits of Achilles and the great heroes. But Alexander the Great he enshrined in his greater lararium along with the most righteous men and the deified emperors.

In larario di omnes seu terrae motu seu casu aliquo conciderunt. All the gods in his [Tacitus'] lararium fell down, overthrown either by an earthquake or by some mischance.

Historia Augusta, Marcus Aurelius 3,5, Alexander Severus 29,2 plus 31,4-5, Tacitus 17,4. Translation David Magie.

A household shrine in the Casa delle Pareti Rosse (VIII.5.37) in Pompeii, with statuettes as they were found.
Photo: Boyce 1937, Pl. 31.1.

In the early third century the worship of the household gods was criticized by the church father Tertullian:

Quanto enim inreligiosiores deprehendimini? Privatos enim deos, quos Lares et Penates domestica consecratione perhibetis, domestica et licentia inculcatis venditando, pignerando pro necessitate ac voluntate. For how much more irreligious are you found to be! There are your household gods, the Lares and the Penates, which you possess by a family consecration: you even tread them profanely under foot, you and your domestics, by hawking and pawning them for your wants or your whims.

Domesticos deos, quos Lares dicitis, domestica potestate tractatis pignerando venditando demutando aliquando in caccabulum de Saturno, aliquando in trullam de Minerva, ut quisque contritus atque contusus est, dum diu colitur, ut quisque dominus sanctiorem expertus est domesticam necessitatem. Over your household gods, whom you call Lares, you exercise a household authority, pawning them, selling them, changing them, - sometimes from a Saturn into a cooking-pot, sometimes from a Minerva into a fire-pan, - as each god has become worn out or battered from being long worshipped, or as each master of the house has found his domestic necessity more sacred.

Tertullianus, Ad Nationes 1,10,20. Translation P. Holmes; Tertullianus, Apologeticum 13,4. Translation T.H. Bindley.

In the late fourth century the Christian poet Prudentius ridicules the Genii:

Quamquam cur genium Romae mihi fingitis unum, cum portis, domibus, thermis, stabulis soleatis adsignare suos genios perque omnia membra urbis perque locos geniorum milia multa fingere, ne propria vacet angulus ullus ab umbra? And yet why do I find you pagans imagining but one genius of Rome, seeing that you are wont to attribute to gates, houses, public baths, taverns, each its own genius, and throughout every part of the city at every point imagine thousands of geniuses, so that no corner shall be without its own ghost?

Prudentius, Contra orationem Symmachi II, 445-449. Translation H.J. Thomson.

A law from 392 AD prohibited the worship of the Lares, Genius and Di Penates. This was the time when Christianity became the State religion.

Nullus omnino ex quolibet genere ordine hominum dignitatum vel in potestate positus vel honore perfunctus, sive potens sorte nascendi seu humilis genere condicione ortuna in nullo penitus loco, in nulla urbe sensu carentibus simulacris vel insontem victimam caedat vel secretiore piaculo larem igne, mero genium, penates odore veneratus accendat lumina, imponat tura, serta suspendat. No person at all, of any class or order whatsoever of men or of dignitaries, whether he occupies a position of power or has completed such honors, whether he is powerful by the lot of birth or is humble in lineage, legal status and fortune, shall sacrifice an innocent victim to senseless images in any place at all or in any city. He shall not, by more secret wickedness, venerate his Lar with fire, his Genius with wine, his Penates with fragrant odors; he shall not burn lights to them, place incense before them, or suspend wreaths for them.

Codex Theodosianus 16.10.12.pr. Translation Clyde Pharr.

In the early fifth century AD Hieronymus attacked the household gods, commenting upon the Book of Isaiah. Obviously the pagan house cults had not yet disappeared in late antiquity:

Nullusque fuerit locus qui non idololatriae sordibus inquinatus sit, intantum ut post fores domorum idola ponerent, quos domesticos appellant Lares, et tam publice quam privatim animarum suarum sanguinem funderent. Hoc errore et pessima consuetudine vetustatis multarum provinciarum urbes laborant: ipsaque Roma orbis domina in singulis insulis domibusque, Tutelae simulacrum cereis venerans ac lucernis, quam ad tuitionem aedium isto appellant nomine, ut tam intrantes quam exeuntes domos suas, inoliti semper commoneantur erroris. There was not a place which was not desecrated by the defilements of idolatry, so that they put even behind the doors of the houses those idols which the pagans call the Lares, and that they thus shed the blood of their souls, both publicly and privately. The cities of many provinces are still afflicted by this error and this fatal custom of ancient times; Rome herself, the queen of the universe, in every tenement and in every house, venerates with candles and lamps the image of Tutela, an idol which is so called because the protection of buildings is attributed to it, and one cannot enter or leave a house without having in view the proof of this inveterate error.

Hieronymus, In Esaiam 16,57,7,8 (c. 408 AD). Translation Jan Theo Bakker after abbé Bareille.

On these pages we will take a tour of the different manifestations of private religion in Ostia. Before starting on that, it is useful to bust a little myth: that of the lamp niche. In modern literature it is stated repeatedly that lamps were placed in small niches. I know of only one instance of such niches however. In the Terme del Foro (VII 5) in Pompeii some wall-niches had been blackened by the burning of lamps, of which over a thousand were found in the bath.[1] This must however be an exception. Lamps were found among the contents of many Pompeian private shrines.[2] It is significant that in the catalogue of Pompeian lararia, in which numerous empty niches and numerous niches with religious objects are described, there is not one niche in which only a lamp was found. It is not surprising. By placing a lamp in a niche light would be taken away. Also, a single niche would not be sufficient, containing a few lamps at most. If lamp niches would have existed, there would have been many, installed in many rooms. That is not the case. We may conclude that lamps were placed on the discs of candelabra, on shelves, and on tables.

Sometimes niches can be quite puzzling. In the House of Annius half the depth of a doorway was blocked. In the resulting niche is a shelf with a moulded, painted front. There is nothing to suggest religious use. Was it a bookshelf?

Partially blocked doorway with a shelf in the House of Annius.
Photo: Klaus Heese.

Enigmatic is the location of a statue of Vulcan in the Baths of Mithras. Ii was found in situ in a floor-niche in the underground service area, in which a mithraeum was installed. Behind the mithraeum is a large room where the lower part of the apsidal basin in the west wall of the baths is seen. The niche is behind the apse, to the left of a door leading to a staircase. We might be inclined to link the deity to the ovens that were operated in the service area. However, in the back wall of the niche is a round hole and on the front part of the bottom is a masonry rim. Obviously and surprisingly the niche was supplied with water.

Statue of Vulcan in the Baths of Mithras, in situ in a niche.
Photo: Calza 1938, p. 307 fig. 41.

In general it may be said that, from the architectural point of view of the size and the height in the wall of the evidence, private religion was clearly present: most of the evidence was of considerable size, at eye-level, and therefore noticed quickly. This suggests that private religion was shaped and experienced as a communal, religious anchorage, both for people inside buildings and visitors. The impact becomes particularly clear when compared to what can be seen in many shops, bars and supermarkets in modern Italy. Here a statuette of Mary with the Child and a little lamp is often found, but typically tucked away in a corner and close to the ceiling. These shrines are private in an intimate sense, known to the people working inside, but not presented to others.

(1) J.A. Overbeck - A. Mau, Pompeji in seinen Gebäuden, Alterthümern und Kunstwerken, Leipzig 1884, 203-211, 430-439.
(2) G.K. Boyce, "Corpus of the lararia of Pompeii", Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome 14 (1937), see Index. Supplemented by D.G. Orr, Roman domestic religion: a study of the Roman lararia, BrynMawr College 1972 (Ann Arbor 1980).

Quo defunctus est die, lapidata sunt templa, subversae deum arae, Lares a quibusdam Familiares in publicum abiecti, partus coniugum expositi.	On the day when he passed away the temples were stoned and the altars of the gods thrown down, while some flung their Lares Familiares into the street and cast out their newly born children.
Suetonius, De Vita Caesarum, Caligula 5. Translation J.C. Rolfe.

Tantum autem honoris magistris suis detulit ut imagines eorum aureas in larario haberet ac sepulchra eorum aditu hostiis floribus semper honoraret.	On his teachers in general, moreover, he [Marcus Aurelius] conferred great honours, for he even kept golden statues of them in his lararium, and made it a custom to show respect for their tombs by personal visits and by offerings of sacrifices and flowers.
Usus vivendi eidem hic fuit: primum, si facultas esset, id est si non cum uxore cubuisset, matutinis horis in larario suo, in quo et divos principes sed optimos electos et animas sanctiores, in quis Apollonium et, quantum scriptor suorum temporum dicit, Christum, Abraham et Orpheum et huiuscemodi ceteros habebat ac maiorum effigies, rem divinam faciebat ... Vergilium autem Platonem poetarum vocabat eiusque imaginem cum Ciceronis simulacro in secundo larario habuit, ubi et Achillis et magnorum virorum. Alexandrum vero Magnum inter optimos et divos in larario maiore consecravit.	His [Alexander Severus'] manner of living was as follows: first of all, if it were permissible, that is to say, if he had not lain with his wife, in the early morning hours he would worship in his lararium, in which he kept statues of the deified emperors - of whom, however, only the best had been selected - and also of certain holy souls, among them Apollonius, and, according to a contemporary writer, Christ, Abraham, Orpheus, and others of this same character and, besides, the portraits of his ancestors ... He used to call Vergil the Plato of poets and he kept his portrait, together with a likeness of Cicero, in his second lararium, where he also had portraits of Achilles and the great heroes. But Alexander the Great he enshrined in his greater lararium along with the most righteous men and the deified emperors.
In larario di omnes seu terrae motu seu casu aliquo conciderunt.	All the gods in his [Tacitus'] lararium fell down, overthrown either by an earthquake or by some mischance.
Historia Augusta, Marcus Aurelius 3,5, Alexander Severus 29,2 plus 31,4-5, Tacitus 17,4. Translation David Magie.

Quanto enim inreligiosiores deprehendimini? Privatos enim deos, quos Lares et Penates domestica consecratione perhibetis, domestica et licentia inculcatis venditando, pignerando pro necessitate ac voluntate.	For how much more irreligious are you found to be! There are your household gods, the Lares and the Penates, which you possess by a family consecration: you even tread them profanely under foot, you and your domestics, by hawking and pawning them for your wants or your whims.
Domesticos deos, quos Lares dicitis, domestica potestate tractatis pignerando venditando demutando aliquando in caccabulum de Saturno, aliquando in trullam de Minerva, ut quisque contritus atque contusus est, dum diu colitur, ut quisque dominus sanctiorem expertus est domesticam necessitatem.	Over your household gods, whom you call Lares, you exercise a household authority, pawning them, selling them, changing them, - sometimes from a Saturn into a cooking-pot, sometimes from a Minerva into a fire-pan, - as each god has become worn out or battered from being long worshipped, or as each master of the house has found his domestic necessity more sacred.
Tertullianus, Ad Nationes 1,10,20. Translation P. Holmes; Tertullianus, Apologeticum 13,4. Translation T.H. Bindley.

Quamquam cur genium Romae mihi fingitis unum, cum portis, domibus, thermis, stabulis soleatis adsignare suos genios perque omnia membra urbis perque locos geniorum milia multa fingere, ne propria vacet angulus ullus ab umbra?	And yet why do I find you pagans imagining but one genius of Rome, seeing that you are wont to attribute to gates, houses, public baths, taverns, each its own genius, and throughout every part of the city at every point imagine thousands of geniuses, so that no corner shall be without its own ghost?
Prudentius, Contra orationem Symmachi II, 445-449. Translation H.J. Thomson.