Back to menu | Back to clickable plan | Back to topic (Egyptian deities)

Regio III - Insula X - Caseggiato del Serapide (III,X,3)
(House of Serapis)

The House of Serapis forms an entity with the Baths of the Seven Sages and the House of the Charioteers (III,X,1 and 2), and was built in the Hadrianic period, c. 126-127 AD. Shops flanking a vestibule open off Via della Foce. More shops are arranged around a courtyard with high arches. Two staircases led to upper floor apartments.

Between two piers in the south-west part of the courtyard a cult-room (c. 2 x 2 m.) was built in the Severan period. In a niche in the back wall is a stucco relief of the Egyptian deity Serapis, sitting on a throne. On the side walls are paintings of Isis holding a sistrum, and of Isis-Fortuna with cornucopiae and rudder (yellow on a purple background). In the centre of the room is a brick altar. Next to the shrine is a passage to the Baths of the Seven Sages. It is decorated lavishly with stucco reliefs on and below a tympanum, with bucrania (skulls of oxen, a reference to the sacrificial animals) and garlands. It was probably made at the same time as the stucco relief of Serapis.

In a shop in the north-east part of the building a lime-kiln was installed at an unknown point in time (hence the modern name of the road to the east, Via della Calcara). Inside portraits were found of Trajan and Hadrian.



Plan of the building. After SO I.

Photos and drawings



Reconstruction drawing of block III,X by Italo Gismondi. From the north-west.
From left to right: House of Serapis, Baths of the Seven Sages, House of the Charioteers.



The north facade of the building, seen from Via della Foce.
Photo: Daniel González Acuña.



The entrance corridor, seen from Via della Foce.
Photo: Klaus Heese.



The south-east corner of the courtyard.
Photo: Daniel González Acuña.



The shrine of Serapis in the courtyard, seen from the north.
Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.



The shrine shortly after the excavation. Photo: ICCD E040713.


The interior of the shrine in 2022, after restoration work on the paintings.
Photo: Parco Archeologico di Ostia Antica.



Traces of a painting of Fortuna on a side wall of the shrine of Serapis.
Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.



Traces of a painting of Isis on a side wall of the shrine of Serapis.
Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.



The porch leading to the Baths of the Seven Sages.
Photo: Klaus Heese.



Detail of the stucco reliefs on the porch: bucrania and garland.
Photo: Klaus Heese.



Detail of the stucco reliefs on the tympanum of the porch.
Photo: Klaus Heese.



The lime-kiln in the east part of the building, seen through the entrance, from the east.
Photo: Daniel González Acuña.


[jthb - 4-May-2022; the paintings of Fortuna and Isis were discovered by the author in 1984]