1 Earliest Rome

4 Religious places
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This chapter examines the physical context of Roman religious activity. It aims
to show that temples, altars, sacred precincts and groves were more than just a
'backdrop' to religious ceremony, but were themselves (in their layout, design,
decoration) an important part of religious experience, bearers of religious
meaning. To put it at its most simple, a different context meant a different religious
experience. The chapter starts with the physical context of traditional
Roman civic cult (4.1-5), comparing this with the temples of the cult of
Mithras (4.6). It then looks at the wider 'religious geography' of the city of
Rome (4.7-8), as well as sanctuary sites in Italian towns and countryside
(4.9-11). Finally, after the 'private' religious space of the home (4.12) and
tomb (4.13), it considers Jewish synagogues (4.14) and Christian churches
(4.15).
4.1 The Roman temple-building
In its simplest form a Roman temple-building {aedes) was a 'house' for a statue
of a deify. It was not primarily a centre for a congregation or a place of worship.
Most ritual associated with the temple (particularly animal sacrifice) took place
in the open air - often around an altar, which stood outside the building itself.
The aedes (at least in the case of the smaller temples of the city of Rome) may
normally have been closed and inaccessible to the public.
Sec further: Stambaugh (1978)* and I.M. Barton (1989)*. For the distinction
between an aedes and a temphtm, see 4.4.
4. la The temple ofPortunus at Rome
The small temple of Portunus (a god connected with the harbour) was
founded in the fourth or third century B.C. Its present appearance dates to the
late second or first century B.C. (with considerable later restorations, including
conversion into a church in the ninth century A. D.). In antiquity it would have
looked much less austere than this photograph suggests - with a complete
coating of white stucco, as well as a decorative frieze in stucco (showing candelabra
and festoons).
See further: on the temple of Portunus (once wrongly identified as the