1 Earliest Rome

4.10 The forum at Pompeii
4. The civic centre of the town of Praeneste. Although it was redeveloped as part of the
major scheme in the late second century, this area was not (as has sometimes been
thought) a specifically sacred 'lower sanctuary'. In the forum was an open hall {exedra)
with a fountain, on which the Praenestine calendar (3-3h) was inscribed.
5. The function of this room is uncertain. It was probably used for some of the 'civil functions'
of the forum. But the presence here of a mosaic with scenes of the Nile and Egypt
has suggested to some that it was a shrine of Isis (see, for example, Coarelli (1987)
79-82).
The forum at Pompeii
As Roman power and Roman citizenship spread throughout Italy, so too did
Roman religion. The town of Pompeii in Campania is a clear example of this:
its earliest history (about which there is little evidence) perhaps belongs to the
Greek-speaking world of south Italy in the sixth century B.C., but it was certainly
inhabited by local Oscan speakers as it grew into a fully developed town
in the third to second centuries B.C., though, just like Rome itself, much under
the influence of contemporary Greek culture. Only after the Social War
(91-87 B.C.) did the inhabitants receive Roman citizenship and, partly because
they have taken the anti-Roman side in that war, their city was chosen in 80
B.C. as the site for a colonia of Roman retired soldiers. So the Pompeii we see
today - as it was at the time of its destruction in A.D. 79 - is a rich mixture of
Greek, Roman and local Campanian styles and traditions.
The plan of the Pompeian forum illustrates this diversity. The temple of
Apollo, a major cult of pre-Roman times, still occupies a prominent position
at the heart of the city; but the temple of Capitol ine Jupiter, the classic mark of
the Romanised community, dominates the forum itself It is a more controversial
question how far the space of the forum had also been taken over by the
monuments of the worship of emperors. This has been suggested, but as we
argue in nn. 3, 4 below, the indications are not secure. If they are right, we
should note (a) that this Italian city apparently had a cult building for
Augustus during his lifetime, but (b) that these imperial monuments are far
from being grand enough to compete in scale with either Jupiter or Apollo.
See further: M. Grant (1971) 1 5-109 (for excellent pictures); Ward-Perkins
and Claridge (1976) esp. 15-46, 55-61*; Zanker (1987) 26-33; Richardson
(1 988) 88-99, 138-45, 191-210, 261-76, Mau (1899) is still useful. For religion
in Roman coloniae, see below 10.2 and Vol. 1, 328-36. The transformation
of religious and civic space in the eastern part of the Roman empire is
discussed by Price (1984) 133-69, 249-74.
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