The Roman altar, from domestic shrines (lararia) to state and corporate shrines, public monuments adjoining temples, was an integral part of Roman religion and ritual practice. From decoration, to inscriptions, to magnitude, to proportions and orientation, the specific elements of both the public and private altar must be contextualized and considered in terms of a larger architectural program encompassing allied structures, materials, sight lines, function in ritual performance, allegory and allusion in depictions and ornament, and the overall interaction between the altar itself and its surroundings.

The Roman city of Pompeii, due to its excellent state of preservation, provides an archaeologically rich yet geographically bounded site from which a study of the altar, in its public and domestic forms, can best be undertaken and pursued. For this presentation I will focus solely on the domestic altars, the lararia, in Pompeii. Lararia, painted, sculpted or constructed, with their representations, dedications and sacrificial remains, provide some of the best evidence of private devotion and religious belief. In order to explore and better understand how the Romans employed altars, both architecturally and representationally, to convey the views and beliefs of Roman religion, I have chosen to limit my study to the particular group of lararia on which there is some form of duplication of the altar. This group of lararia includes shrines where a permanent altar is set before a painted depiction of an altar, altars on which painted ritual scenes are taking place at an altar, or miniature, portable altars resting on a permanent altar of a lararium.