The Sanctuary of the Public Lares, on the eastern side of Pompeii’s Civil Forum, is one of the major religious buildings erected in the city centre during the early imperial period.
It stands between the Macellum and the Temple of Genius Augusti, in an area of the Forum that was extensively transformed during the first decades of the 1st century AD to accommodate new monuments associated with public cult and the celebration of the emperor and imperial family.
The building takes its name from the Public Lares, deities who protected the civic community. Its precise function has long been debated, but the sanctuary was certainly also closely connected with the imperial cult, as shown by its position in the Forum, its monumental design and the numerous niches probably intended for statues of the imperial family.
The Lares, protectors of the community
In Roman religion, the Lares were protective deities.
The best known are the household Lares, worshipped inside houses as protectors of the family and the domestic sphere.
There were also public cults devoted to the Lares of the community, streets and neighbourhoods.
The Public Lares symbolically protected the entire city and its inhabitants.
Their cult thus extended to the civic level a principle deeply rooted in Roman religion: every community and every place required divine protection.
The imperial cult
During the Augustan period, the cult of the Lares also acquired a new political meaning.
Augustus reorganised numerous traditional cults and linked the worship of the Lares to the new imperial order.
In cities throughout the Empire, the cult of the emperor, his Genius and the imperial family was gradually added to older forms of civic religion.
At Pompeii, this process is especially clear on the eastern side of the Forum.
Within a few decades, the Sanctuary of the Public Lares, the Temple of Genius Augusti and the great Portico of Concordia Augusta, known as the Building of Eumachia, were constructed or remodelled.
The entire area thus became one of the principal places where the city publicly expressed its allegiance to the new Roman political system.
A building constructed in place of shops
Before the sanctuary was built, this eastern sector of the Forum was occupied by shops.
Their demolition marked an important change in the organisation of the square.
The earlier Forum still contained numerous spaces directly devoted to trade. As the area became increasingly monumental, many of these functions were moved or concentrated in purpose-built structures such as the nearby Macellum.
The space released could then be used for large public and religious buildings.
The construction of the Sanctuary of the Public Lares therefore represented not only a religious change, but also a profound transformation in the urban image of the Forum.
A sanctuary fully open to the Forum
One of the building’s most distinctive features is its direct relationship with the square.
Unlike many temples enclosed within courtyards or preceded by relatively closed façades, the Sanctuary of the Public Lares was largely open towards the Forum.
Anyone crossing the square could therefore immediately see into the complex.
This design created a strong visual connection between the religious space and the heart of civic public life.
The worship conducted in the building was not secluded: it was literally displayed to the citizens who crossed the Forum each day.
The large central space
The building had a particularly monumental plan.
The Forum gave direct access to a vast central area, around which niches, exedrae and rooms used for worship were arranged.
At the centre stood an altar on which sacrifices could be performed.
The altar’s position is essential to understanding how the sanctuary functioned.
In the Roman world, many public religious ceremonies took place before divine images, in spaces where priests, magistrates and citizens could witness the sacrifice.
The altar was therefore the building’s true ritual centre.
The sacrifices
Sacrifices to the civic Lares and the imperial cult could be performed on the large central altar.
Sacrifice was one of the fundamental acts of Roman religion.
Animals, wine, incense and other offerings were presented to the gods in carefully regulated rituals.
This was not merely an act of personal devotion.
In a public sanctuary in the Forum, sacrifice symbolically involved the entire community.
Magistrates, priests and citizens thus participated in ceremonies that reaffirmed both their relationship with the gods and the city’s place within the Roman political order.
The central apse
A large apse stands at the rear of the building and dominates the entire architectural composition.
One of the sanctuary’s most important images must have been displayed here.
The complete original sculptural programme is not known with certainty, partly because many of the sculptures and wall facings were removed in antiquity.
The apse’s central and monumental position nevertheless shows that it was one of the building’s focal points.
From the Forum, the eye passed through the sanctuary and was naturally drawn towards its monumental rear wall.
The two great exedrae
Two large semicircular exedrae opened on either side of the central apse.
These spaces, too, were intended to hold statues and images of particular importance.
The sequence of central apse, lateral exedrae and numerous niches created a richly theatrical architectural setting.
Modern visitors chiefly see bare masonry, but in antiquity every space was probably occupied by statues, revetments and other decoration.
The sanctuary must therefore have appeared as a true monumental theatre of public worship.
The statues of the imperial family
The building’s numerous niches are generally interpreted as settings for statues of the imperial family.
This is one of the principal indications of the sanctuary’s close connection with the imperial cult.
Images of emperors and their relatives were widespread in the public spaces of Roman cities.
In the Forum, however, they carried particular significance.
Citizens were constantly surrounded there by statues, inscriptions and monuments recalling Rome, the emperor and the local families who governed the city.
The Sanctuary of the Public Lares formed an integral part of this system of representation.
A marble-clad building
The sanctuary’s original appearance was far richer than what survives today.
The structures were faced with marble slabs, giving the building an exceptionally sumptuous and monumental character.
Only a few fragments of this revetment remain.
Much of the marble was removed soon after the eruption of AD 79.
The same occurred in numerous buildings around the Forum.
After the city was buried, some monuments remained at least partly accessible, and groups returned to the area to recover valuable materials that could be reused elsewhere.
This is why many of Pompeii’s public buildings appear far barer today than they actually were.
The Forum as a space of power
The construction of the Sanctuary of the Public Lares must be understood as part of the great transformation of the Civil Forum during the early imperial period.
The square was no longer simply the city’s political and commercial centre.
It increasingly became a space in which the relationship between Pompeii and the Empire was represented.
On the eastern side, almost adjoining one another, stood:
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the Macellum, the principal food market;
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the Sanctuary of the Public Lares;
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the Temple of Genius Augusti;
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the Portico of Concordia Augusta, or Building of Eumachia.
Only a few metres thus separated commerce, religion, politics and the celebration of imperial power.
This concentration provides a particularly clear illustration of how a Roman city functioned.
After Augustus
The chronology of the Sanctuary of the Public Lares is especially interesting.
The building does not appear to date directly from the reign of Augustus, but was erected in the decades after his principate and in any event before the earthquake of AD 62.
It therefore belongs to a period in which the political system created by Augustus was already firmly established.
The cult of the emperor and his family was no longer new, but had become a stable part of public life in cities throughout the Empire.
Pompeii continued to transform its Forum according to this new political and religious language.
The earthquake of AD 62
The great earthquake that struck Pompeii in AD 62 damaged numerous public and private buildings.
The Forum was also affected by the reconstruction work that characterised the final seventeen years of the city’s life.
When Vesuvius erupted in AD 79, several monuments were still undergoing restoration and alteration.
The Sanctuary of the Public Lares therefore belongs to Pompeii’s final phase: a city that had acquired a fully Roman identity but was still repairing the consequences of the earthquake on the eve of the eruption.
Spoliation after the eruption
One of the sanctuary’s most interesting aspects is what happened after AD 79.
The eruption did not immediately turn Pompeii into a completely forgotten place.
Some parts of the city remained recognisable and were reached by people seeking reusable materials.
The sanctuary’s rich marble revetment was almost entirely stripped away.
Many of the statues occupying the niches were probably recovered as well.
Modern visitors therefore have to make a particular effort to imagine the building’s original appearance.
The great surfaces now bare were once covered with precious materials and populated by sculpted figures.
Discovery in 1817
The Sanctuary of the Public Lares was brought to light in 1817, during the campaigns that were gradually uncovering the buildings around the Forum.
Its unusual plan and the loss of most of its original decoration made its function difficult to determine immediately.
Different interpretations of the complex have been proposed over time.
The name used today, Sanctuary of the Public Lares, reflects the traditionally accepted interpretation, but scholars continue to emphasise the building’s very close relationship with the imperial cult.
It is therefore more accurate to understand the sanctuary as part of the complex religious and political system that developed around the figure of the emperor and the divine protection of the community.
Religion and politics in Roman Pompeii
The Sanctuary of the Public Lares is particularly important because it shows how difficult it is to separate religion and politics in the Roman world.
Public religious ceremonies were not a private sphere of life.
Taking part in sacrifices, honouring the city’s protective deities and celebrating the emperor all reaffirmed the order of the community.
The buildings themselves communicated this message.
The sanctuary was fully open to the Forum and directly visible from the place where business, trials, political encounters and commercial activities took place.
Worship therefore formed part of the same urban landscape in which everyday life unfolded.
A monument to reimagine
Today the Sanctuary of the Public Lares may appear less spectacular than other Pompeian monuments because it has lost almost all its marble revetment and statues.
That loss makes it all the more necessary to reconstruct its original appearance in the mind.
It should be imagined as a great building open towards the Forum, clad in marble, with an altar at its centre and a sequence of statues set in the niches, exedrae and central apse.
During ceremonies, priests, magistrates and citizens filled the courtyard, while sacrifices were performed in full view of those crossing the square.
The Sanctuary of the Public Lares VII.9.3 is therefore one of the fundamental monuments for understanding the transformation of the Forum in the imperial period and the way in which civic religion, imperial cult and the representation of power became part of everyday life in Pompeii.
