Sacellum

Religion in ancient Rome
Marcus Aurelius (head covered) sacrificing at the Temple of Jupiter
Practices and beliefs
libation votum temples festivals ludi funerary practices imperial cult mystery religions
Priesthoods
Pontifices Augures Vestales Flamines Fetiales Epulones Fratres Arvales
Deities
Dii Consentes Capitoline Triad Aventine Triad Indigitamenta underworld gods agricultural gods childhood gods divine emperors
Related topics
Glossary of ancient Roman religion Roman mythology Ancient Greek religion Etruscan religion Gallo-Roman religion Interpretatio Graeca Decline
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In ancient Roman religion, a sacellum is a small shrine. The word is a diminutive from sacrum (neuter of sacer, "belonging to a god").^[1] The numerous sacella of ancient Rome included both shrines maintained on private properties by families, and public shrines. A sacellum might be square or round.^[2]

Varro and Verrius Flaccus describe sacella in ways that at first seem contradictory, the former defining a sacellum in its entirety as equivalent to a cella,^[3] which is specifically an enclosed space, and the latter insisting that a sacellum had no roof.^[4] "Enclosure", however, is the shared characteristic, roofed over or not. "The sacellum", notes Jörg Rüpke, "was both less complex and less elaborately defined than a temple proper".^[5]

The meaning can overlap with that of sacrarium, a place where sacred objects (sacra) were stored or deposited for safekeeping.^[6] The sacella of the Argei, for instance, are also called sacraria.^[7] In private houses, the sacrarium was the part of the house where the images of the Penates were kept; the lararium was a form of sacrarium for the Lares. Both sacellum and sacrarium passed into Christian usage.

Other Latin words for temple or shrine are aedes, aedicula, fanum, delubrum and templum, though this last word encompasses the whole religiously sanctioned precinct.