A SIDE VIEW OF THE TEMPLE OF ISIS

The Temple of Isis rose on a podium. When its excavations were in progress, a large marble hand, two human skulls, and other ritual objects were found there. The decoration on the outside of the temple consisted of white stucco panels and a polychrome frieze of volutes. The walls of the portico were painted with a pattern of red panels, at the centre of which were priests of Isis, framed by architectural elements and small landscape scenes. A statue of Venus and the bronze herm of C. Norbanus Sorex, an actor, were found in the south corner, while a statuette of Isis dedicated by the freedman L. Caecilius Phoebus was found near the west corner. The entrance to the courtyard, flanked by two piers with engaged half-columns, is at the centre of the east side.
A shrine with a fresco, now transferred, depicting a priest before Harpokrates, is in the wall across the way.
A square unroofed building in the southeast corner of the courtyard is the so-called Purgatorium, in which purification rites were held. A staircase leads to a vaulted subterranean chamber, which contains a basin for river water. The facade has a broken triangular pediment and a frieze with two processions of priests converging towards the centre. Mars with Venus and Perseus with Andromeda are shown on the side walls.

The most important of the various altars set up in the courtyard and between the columns of the portico is the one between the Purgatorium and the temple. The remains of the sacrifices were collected in a well that was fenced off in the northeast corner of the courtyard.

A series of living quarters for the priests opens off the south wall of the portico, while the west wing is almost completely occupied by the elevation of the Ecclesiasterion with five arched entrances. This large hall was where those initiated in the cult of Isis met. When it was discovered, the names of Numerius Popidius Celsinus, his father, and his mother Corelia Celsus, could be read on the pavement. The walls are frescoed with five panels of sacred subjects in Egyptian style and representations of Io in Egypt and Io in Argos. The remains of an acrolythic statue were found in front of this room. Two other rooms which communicated with the Ecclesiasterion were clearly used for cult purposes.