Pompeii. Street shrine on the corner of Via Pomeriale and Via dei Sepolcri.

Excavated 12th August 1769.

Pompeii street shrine on the corner of Via Pomeriale. 1793.

Detail of street shrine from painting by Jakob Philipp Hackert.

Pompeii street shrine on the corner of Via Pomeriale. Drawing of street shrine, published in 1819.

According to Cooke the shrine was accidentally destroyed in the year 1813 by the carts employed to carry away the ashes.

See Cooke, Cockburn and Donaldson, 1827. Pompeii Illustrated: Vol. I. London: Cooke. (p. 19).

Pompeii street shrine on the corner of Via Pomeriale. The street altar is number 25 on this La Vega plan.

According to La Vega, "From the 5th to the 12th of August 1769. The painting of a large snake on white plaster was discovered, which was left on its site.

On 12 August, near the aforementioned painting, a young man's head was found, slightly larger than life, which is a little missing from the nape of the neck and the tip of the nose.

From the 14th to the 19th of August, near the same site, a clay lamp with a Genius in bas-relief was found, carrying a shield and a lance".

See Giornale degli Scavi di Pompei di Francesco La Vega 1763-1790, part B. no. 25 in Fiorelli G., 1860. Pompeianarum antiquitatum historia, Vol. 1: 1748 - 1818, Naples, p. 116 and Tab. III.

Pompeii street shrine on the corner of Via Pomeriale. Drawing of street shrine, published in 1824.

According to Mazois "this painting was placed at the corner of a crossroads formed by the consular way and the street A (pl. III).

In front of the serpent there is a sealed brick on which offerings were placed, as I have indicated.

This serpent was the simulacrum of the genius who presided over this crossroads (lar compitalis).

In 1813 the carters who transported the excavation land so often caught the corner of the wall on which this painting was, that they made it collapse, and this precious piece no longer exists".

See Mazois, F., 1824. Les Ruines de Pompei : Premiere Partie. Paris : Didot Frères, (Vignette p.33, p. 59 and Tav. X).

Pompeii street shrine on the corner of Via Pomeriale. Plan of location outside Herculaneum Gate published by Mazois in 1824.

According to Mazois "this painting was placed at the corner of a crossroads formed by the consular way and the street A.

See Mazois, F., 1824. Les Ruines de Pompei : Premiere Partie. Paris : Didot Frères, (p. 59 and Tav. III).

Pompeii street shrine on the corner of Via Pomeriale. Inscription details for CIL IV 90a.

The inscription was found "in the right side of the vicolo that lies between the hemicycle of Mamia and the villa said to be of Cicero; near a corner of the picture of the serpent".

Recorded in:

Journal 12 Aug 1769, Vega Vol. 1, 2, p. 116n. 25 (v. Tab. 3, n. 25), RIBAV ibid. p. 154 eod. die Mazois [t. A 12].
Mazois shows only the drawing Vol. 1 p. 33 (see p. 59 and tab. X).

Iorio p. 38 (we could only decipher the word salus);

Bonucci p. 71 (one read among other unrecognizable letters SALV ...).

See Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum Vol. IV, 1871. Berlin: Reimer, p. 12.

Pompeii street shrine on the corner of Via Pomeriale. 1793 painting by Jakob Philipp Hackert.

Pompeii street shrine on the corner of Via Pomeriale. 1804 drawing by Piranesi.

Detail from view along Via dei Sepolcri, showing street shrine on the corner of Via Pomeriale.

See Piranesi, F, 1804. Antiquités de la Grande Grèce: Tome I. Paris: Piranesi and Le Blanc. (Pl. V).

Pompeii street shrine on the corner of Via Pomeriale. 1804 drawing by Piranesi.

Detail showing street shrine on the corner of Via Pomeriale.

See Piranesi, F, 1804. Antiquités de la Grande Grèce: Tome I. Paris: Piranesi and Le Blanc. (Pl. V).

Via Pomeriale. About 1824. The street shrine as shown by Mazois.

See Mazois, F., 1824. Les Ruines de Pompei : Première Partie. Paris : Didot Frères, (p. 28, Pl. X).

Via dei Sepolcri, May 2010. Looking north past the site of the Via Pomeriale, on left, from unnamed vicolo and HGE03, on right.

Via dei Sepolcri, c. 1869. Looking north past the site of the street shrine and Via Pomeriale, on left.

Via dei Sepolcri. December 2006. Looking west towards site of the Via Pomeriale next to the Villa di Cicerone.

Via Pomeriale. December 2006. Looking east towards the site of the street shrine and the Via dei Sepolcri.