I love frescoes and Roman mosaics. Ostia Antica has a ton of mosaics. Many of them are in museums but many are in abandoned Ostia Antica right where they were installed by craftsmen 2000 years ago. There are 3 types of mosaics- business signs, decorations in the bottom of baths, and floors in private homes.
Many of the mosaics in Ostia Antica are in the theater complex (below). The theater was actually a multipurpose facility common in Roman cities. The theater is the semicircular structure. Behind it, a temple sits in the middle of a courtyard. The colonnaded building (the portico) on the 3 sides of the courtyard houses offices of the empire and local businesses. Mosaics on the sidewalk around the portico identify the services provided by the business.
This is how it appears to day. The theater is to the right. The temple was on the platform in the middle of the trees. The mosaics are in the large gray strip you can see on the left, which goes around the back and the opposite side..
Business Mosaics:
Most of the mosaics in the theater-portico depict ships. You might expect maritime related enterprises to be well represented in a port city.
The amphora (between the palm trees) was commonly used to transport commodities (fish, grapes or wine, olives or olive oil, maybe grain). So, a shipping company?
The building in the middle might be a lighthouse.
Elephants usually indicate some who imported products from Africa. What do the deer and what might be a boar indicate?
The man appears to be carrying an amphora from a galley (ocean-going) to a smaller boat (river craft?). Maybe this outfit was a middleman taking goods upstream to Rome.
The top word (Navig…) is ship or boat or shipping. The bottom word (Lignar…) is “carpenter.” So, maybe this was a business of ship carpenters or boatwrights. The office would have been in the back between the walls marked by the columns.
The containers on either side are for grain storage. Karalitani might indicate a city in Sardinia, known to be an exporter of grain to Rome.
This is a dolphin eating a squid from a shop that sold fish. The Latin says something like “envious creature, I trample you.” As Roman fishermen saw themselves in competition with dolphins for squid, this is probably an epithet directed against the dolphin.
These guys, called “mentorses,” were responsible for measuring amounts and verifying amounts of grain. This was probably an important business because, to keep poor Roman citizens happy, grain such as wheat was subsidized or distributed free during the Republic and by emperors through much of Rome’s history.
Bathhouse Mosaics:
This is from the bottom of a pool in a bathhouse sponsored by cart drivers.
The main pool in the Neptune’s Bath House.
Close up.
Aristocrat’s Home
One more from a Bathhouse:
Naked man with strigil for scraping sweat, dirt, and oil from skin after exercise or bath in right hand; bucket in left hand. Maybe the man is Epictetus or Epictetus is the owner and the naked guy just indicates that you get a bucket and a strigil as part of admission to the baths. NOTE the ceramic pipes on the right that conducted hot air to heat up steam rooms.
Ostia Antica is known as “Ancient Rome’s seaport.” We went there with our friends Chuck and Monica, then again with Willie and Kathryn. Like Pompeii, Ostia Antica is a snapshot of the Roman Empire. With its population declining for a few hundred years and finally abandoned in the 9th century CE, Ostia Antica was never built over. So, what you see (at least in layout) is pretty much what any Roman emperor would have seen were he to visit this city during his reign. This is what the city looks like today:
At the end of the 3rd century CE, Ostia Antica looked something like this:
In the 3rd century CE, Ostia Antica was Ostia and had been since maybe the 7th century BCE. The best supported archaeological evidence dated to the 3rd century BCE suggests Ostia began as a military encampment at the mouth (“ost” is mouth in Latin) of the Tiber River (which flows through Rome). Gradually, a center of maritime trade grew around the fort. Julius Caesar in particular developed the harbor to handle the import of massive amounts of grain that he distributed to the citizens of Rome thereby ensuring their “cooperation.” By the third century CE, the population reached maybe 100,000. Unfortunately, the Tiber dumped a lot of silt at its mouth making the harbor unnavigable and, eventually, a new port was built a few kilometers north (currently it’s beneath Fiumicino International Airport). Ostia then became a destination for rich Romans to build coastal villas. The population of Ostia began a slow, steady decline with the fall of the Roman Empire. By the 9th century CE, the city was completely abandoned. Oh, and the silt from the Tiber continued to build up until the coastline is now 3 miles west of Ostia. There’s a new beachfront community actually on the beach called Ostia. Hence, Rome’s Ostia became Ostia Antica (=Ancient Ostia).
If you are in Rome and want to visit Pompeii, I would suggest Ostia Antica. Day trips to Pompeii from Rome make for a very long day (3+ hours each way). Pompeii is huge so you may not see as much as you want. Pompeii can be very crowded (again, you may not see as much as your want). Finally, Pompeii’s frescoes and mosaics have been moved to the archaeological museum in Naples. Ostia Antica is maybe an hour away. It’s small but you definitely get the idea of what a Roman city was like. It’s very uncrowded. If you’re in Rome with one day to see a preserved Roman city, I’d go to Ostia Antica. See what you think:
The road into the east gate of Ostia Antica goes through a necropolis or cemetery. This is a a family mausoleum. There would have been a roof and the niches would have contained urns with ashes.
This sign hung over the Porta Romana Gate (east gate into Ostia) proclaiming “THE SENATE AND THE PEOPLE OF THE COLONY OF OSTIA CONSTRUCTED THE WALLS.”
Stores and warehouses.
Theater exterior.
Theater.
Theater decoration.
Road to theater.
Residential street with apartments above; stores, bars, and thermopolia (fast food joints) at street level.
Thermopolium.
What’s for sale today?
Close-up of what is being sold today.
Residential street.
Bread bakery- wheat goes in the top, slaves or donkeys push wooden beams in the holes to turn upper rock, and flour comes out at the bottom of the upper rock.
Public baths.
The hot room (caldarium) at a bath was heated by circulating fire-heated air through these ducts made from clay pipes.
Heating ducts.
This was the house of an early Christian family. How do we know? If you look at the lintel over the column on the left you see…
…what appears to be a “X” over and “P.” These are the Greek letters Chi and Rho, the first 2 letters in CHRISTOS (Greek for Christ). Superimposed, these letters form an early symbol that identified followers of the Christian faith.
Public latrines: This is probably what everyone has been waiting for. (Didn’t see this in Pompeii).
On entry, you got a piece of sponge on a stick for clean-up afterwards.
John and Susan's Excellent Adventure 