Tracing procession routes for the principal cults in Pompeii

Abstract

Pompeii preserves vivid representations of religious processions in frescoes painted on the Shop of the Carpenter’s Procession and in the House of the Wedding of Hercules. Announcements for gladiatorial games as well as a funerary relief recovered from the necropolis at the Stabian gate attest to the presence of processions associated with festivities in the Amphitheatre and the Forum. A further inscription placed inside the Stabian gate describes a Via Pumpaiiana, presumably named for its role as a possible processional route (Greek pompé, procession). These glimpses into processional events suggest that vibrant displays were common in Pompeii, yet the routes that such processions took remain virtually unknown. Using evidence from inscriptions, visual culture, spatial analysis, and Roman religious traditions, this chapter is a preliminary attempt to gather the evidence for processional routes related to the principal cults in Pompeii. From this evidence, it proposes to chart a few tentative routes taken by public religious processions.