Ostia Antica is a vast
archaeological site about 30 km from Rome. Once an Ancient Roman port town with
up to 100,000 inhabitants, today Ostia Antica is one of Italy’s most amazing
tourist attractions; its proximity to the city makes it a popular day trip from
Rome or from the nearby Fiumicino international airport.
Instead of the volcanic ash that
enveloped Pompeii near Naples, the ancient coastal city of Ostia Antica simply
silted up after the fall of the Roman Empire, surviving down through the centuries
covered in a thick layer of mud.
With hundreds of well-preserved
buildings and artworks, Ostia Antica could be considered the Roman equivalent
of Pompeii. Unlike Pompeii, however, Ostia was not destroyed by a volcanic
eruption – it simply fell into decay over the centuries. Today, it’s possible
to explore the ruins of ancient theatres, temples, apartment blocks, baths,
brothels and much more. On a tour of Ostia Antica you’ll get a real sense of
what it would have been like to live in a Roman town, strolling down cobbled
streets and wandering through the remains of shops and taverns where the
painted “menu” is still visible on the wall.
The origins of Ostia Antica
Legend suggests that Ostia was one
of Rome’s first military outposts, founded around 620 BC, just over a century
after Rome itself. The town was perfectly positioned to guard against seaborne
invasions at the mouth of the River Tiber leading up into Rome. In fact, the
town takes its name from its coastal location, as the Latin for mouth is “os”
which became “ostium.”
Gradually, over time, Ostia built
its wealth on trade. In the early years, the main cargo was grain - the staple
for flour, bread and beer - from Sicily, Sardinia and Egypt. But as the Roman
Empire expanded, the goods coming through Ostia expanded too. At its height,
ships were bringing in wine from Bordeaux, horses and metals from Cadiz, silk
and spices from the Silk Road to China, treasures of Greece and animals from
Africa. As Rome grew in size, the city needed more and more provisions to feed
its people. The easiest cargo route into the Eternal city was along the River
Tiber, turning Ostia into an enormous domestic and commercial harbor for
Mediterranean merchant ships. By 100 AD, Ostia Antica was a thriving, bustling,
cosmopolitan city and home to over 100,000 people from all over the ancient
Roman Empire.
Surviving frescoes and statues also
show that the city was multi-faith, with one of the oldest synagogues, various temples
and several mithrae for worshippers of Mithras, a religion imported from the
east, especially popular with the military. It’s the daily life of shops,
houses, baths, shipping companies and theatres that we see preserved today.
Ostia Antica today
Today Rome’s ancient port of Ostia
Antica still sprawls over around 10,000 acres of countryside. Fortunately, the
city wasn’t buried in volcanic ash like Pompeii, but the gentle silting up of
the River Tiber gradually moved the shoreline away from the city, land locking
it over 2 miles from the sea and condemning it to history. Over the years,
grass and trees took over with local shepherds using the ruins for grazing or
shelter for their sheep. Luckily, the mud that eventually buried the harbor
also managed to protect it from the worst medieval scavengers looking for stone
to build their houses. So today, you can take a leisurely stroll through the
ruins, exploring the classic Roman grid street system that dates back more than
2000 years to its military foundation.
Wandering around the ruins, entering
streets and courtyards you notice black and white mosaics everywhere. And
thankfully many are still in situ instead of in a museum. But unlike in other
Roman cities, the mosaics in Ostia Antica were more than mere ornamentation,
they were designed as durable pavements and signposting. So you’ll find
the typical geometric patterns adorning the floors of baths while mythical characters
decorate the floors of various houses. And you’ll also find entire pavements
covered in mosaics indicating where rows of shops once stood. These were the
original signs for traders selling to an illiterate population and today offer
a fabulous insight into the shops, guilds and businesses that dotted the city.
Look out for the exotic elephant that advertises the office of traders from
Africa. It’s a great game to see how many you can find and decipher! Near the
theatre is a large, rectangular forum which was once home to the offices of
various shipping companies. To find the right company, you would have to
inspect the mosaics in front to see what services they offered – the trade of
grain, leather, wild animals or…sea nymphs?
Some other buildings of note include
bakeries, brothels and a launderette. You may need the
help of a guide on an Ostia Antica tour to find some of these buildings, as
they’re not easily identifiable, but a couple of the bakeries still have large
grain mills. In the fullo (launderette) you can see the remains of a
basin where they would have once washed clothes. Ostia Antica also has an ancient equivalent of a fast food restaurant
– a tavern where the sink, marble counters and painted menu are still in place.
The fresco shows meat, wine and vegetables, presumably indicating what was on
sale.
adapted from an article in the Italo-American
adapted from an article in the Italo-American
