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_(5900530118).jpg) Market square of Ostia Antica | |
  Ostia Antica Shown within Italy | |
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| Location | Ostia,Lazio, Italy |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 41°45′21″N12°17′30″E / 41.75583°N 12.29167°E /41.75583; 12.29167 |
| Type | Settlement |
| Area | 150 hectares (1.5 km2)[1] |
| History | |
| Abandoned | 9th century AD |
| Cultures | Ancient Rome |
| Site notes | |
| Ownership | Public |
| Public access | Yes |
| Website | www |
Ostia Antica (lit. 'Ancient Ostia') is anancient Roman city and the port ofRome located at the mouth of theTiber. It is near modernOstia, 25 km (16 mi) southwest ofRome. Due tosilting and the invasion of sand,[clarification needed] the site now lies 3 km (2 mi) from the sea.[2] The nameOstia (the plural ofostium) derives from Latinos 'mouth'.
Ostia is now a largearchaeological site noted for the excellent preservation of its ancient buildings, magnificentfrescoes and impressivemosaics. The city's decline after antiquity led to harbor deterioration, marshy conditions, and reduced population. Sand dunes covering the site aided its preservation. Its remains provide insights into a city of commercial importance. As inPompeii, Ostia's ruins provide details about Romanurbanism that are not accessible within the city of Rome itself.[3]
Ostia may have been Rome's firstcolonia. According to legend,Ancus Marcius, the fourthking of Rome,[4] was the first to destroyFicana, an ancient town that was only 17 km (11 mi) from Rome and had a small harbour on theTiber, and then proceeded with establishing the new colony 10 km (6 mi) further west and closer to the sea coast. An inscription seems to confirm the establishment of the oldcastrum of Ostia in the 7th century BC.[5] The oldest archaeological remains so far discovered date back to only the 4th century BC.[6] The most ancient buildings currently visible are from the 3rd century BC, notably theCastrum (military camp);[7] of a slightly later date is theCapitolium (temple ofJupiter,Juno andMinerva). Theopus quadratum of the walls of the originalcastrum at Ostia provide important evidence for the building techniques that were employed in Romanurbanisation during the period of theMiddle Republic.[8]
Ostia probably developed originally as a naval base, and in 267 BC, during theFirst Punic War, it was the seat of thequaestor Ostiensis in charge of the fleet. During the 2nd century BC its role as a commercial port gradually became prevalent for the imports of grain for the city of Rome, and buildings began to spread outside the castrum.
Ostia was a scene of fighting during the period of civil wars in the 80s BC. In 87 BCMarius attacked the city in order to cut off the flow of trade to Rome, aided by his generalsCinna,Carbo andSertorius, and captured the city and plundered it.[9]
In 68 BC, the town was sacked bypirates,[10] who set the port on fire, destroyed the consular war fleet, and kidnapped two prominent senators. This attack caused such panic in Rome thatPompey the Great arranged for thetribuneAulus Gabinius to pass a law, thelex Gabinia, to allow Pompey to raise an army anddestroy the pirates. Within a year, the pirates had been defeated.[11]
The town was then re-built and provided with defensive walls started underMarcus Tullius Cicero according to an inscription.[12][13]
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Ostia was further developed during the first century AD under the influence ofTiberius, who ordered the building of the town's firstforum.
Due to the small size of the harbour at Ostia,Claudius commissioned a new harbour atPortus on the northern mouths of the Tiber (Fiumara Grande). Insufficiently protected from storms, Claudius' project was later supplemented by the hexagonal harbour built byTrajan and finished in 113 AD.[14] Trajan also developed the harbour ofCivitavecchia (Centum Cellae), a relatively short distance away. These ports took business away from Ostia and began its commercial decline.[14]
Nevertheless, Ostia grew to a peak of some 100,000 inhabitants in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD.[15]
Ostia itself was provided with all the services a town of the time could require; a large theatre, many public baths (such as the Thermae Gavii Maximi, orBaths at Ostia), numerous taverns and inns and a firefighting service. The popularity of thecult of Mithras is evident in the discovery of eighteenMithraea.[16]
Ostia also contained theOstia Synagogue, the earliest synagogue yet identified in Europe.[17] Archaeological and architectural analysis indicates that the synagogue was likely constructed in the late 1st century AD, making it contemporary with the early imperial development of the city. Scholarly reassessment of the building's masonry, foundations, and spatial organization suggests that it was monumental and purpose-built from its earliest phase. The synagogue underwent several renovations between the 2nd and 4th centuries AD, including structural reinforcements, interior reconfiguration, and the installation of aTorah shrine.[18]
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Although it used to be thought that the city entered a period of slow decline afterConstantine the Great made Portus a municipality, indicated by some apartment blocks being replaced by houses of the rich, recent excavations show that the town continued to thrive.[19] Numerous baths are recorded as still operating in the 4th and 5th centuries with major repairs of the city's Neptune Baths in the 370s. During the 4th century, the city spilled over the southern walls to the sea south of Regions III and IV.
The poetRutilius Namatianus reported the lack of maintenance of the city ports in 414 AD.[20] This view has been challenged by Boin who states Namatianus' verse is a literary construct and inconsistent with the archaeological record.[21]
Prosperity in the 5th century is indicated by repairs on baths (26 remained in operation during the 4th century), public buildings, church construction, street repaving, residential and business expansion beyond the perimeter of the south wall (the presence of a small harbour, the Porta Marina on the sea, is attested). A huge 4th century villa east of the Maritime baths was built. The river port on the western edge of the town was expanded with thenavalia, a squarish basin built in from the river. A warehouse on the east side and, behind it, a large bath complex were built.[22]
It became anepiscopal see as part of theDiocese of Rome as early as the 3rd century AD. The episcopal church sponsored by Constantine the Great is located in the south-east of the city.[23][24] The city was mentioned bySt Augustine when he passed there in the late 4th century.[25] On their way back to Africa after Augustine's conversion to Christianity, Augustine's mother,Saint Monica, died in 387 in Ostia.[26] The church (titulus) ofSanta Aurea in Ostia was built on her burial site.
After thefall of the Western Roman Empire in 476, Ostia fell slowly into decay as the population of Rome, 700–800,000 in AD 400 contracted to 200,000 or less in 500 AD. A naval battle, theBattle of Ostia, was fought there in 849 betweenChristians andSaracens; the remaining inhabitants moved toGregoriopolis a short distance away.[14]
South of Ostia many rich villa-estates were developed from the Republican era along the coast road toLaurentum.[27] Pliny described the route towards his villa there: “There are two different roads to it: if you go by that of Laurentum, you must turn off at the fourteenth mile-stone; if by that of Ostia, at the eleventh. Both of them are sandy in places, which makes it a little heavier and longer by carriage, but short and easy on horseback. The landscape affords plenty of variety, the view in some places being closed in by woods, in others extending over broad meadows, where numerous flocks of sheep and herds of cattle, which the severity of the winter has driven from the mountains, fatten in the spring warmth, and on the rich pasturage”.
Today several well-preserved Roman villas south of Ostia have been excavated in the area of Castel Fusano, including theVilla della Palombara excavated in 1989–2008.
The remains were used over the centuries as a quarry formarble for thepalazzi built in Rome.[28]
ThePapacy started organising its own digs for sculptures withPope Pius VII.[citation needed]
UnderBenito Mussolini massive excavations were undertaken from 1939 to 1942[6] during which several remains, particularly fromthe Republican Period, were brought to light. These were interrupted when Italy became a major battlefield of World War II.
In the post-war period, the first volume of the official seriesScavi di Ostia appeared in 1954; it was devoted to a topography of the town byItalo Gismondi and after a hiatus the research still continues today. Though untouched areas adjacent to the original excavations were left undisturbed awaiting a more precise dating of Roman pottery types, the "Baths of the Swimmer", named for the mosaic figure in theapodyterium, were meticulously excavated, in 1966–70 and 1974–75, in part as a training ground for young archaeologists and in part to establish a laboratory of well-understood finds as a teaching aid.
It has been estimated that two-thirds of the ancient town are as yet unexcavated.
In 2014, ageophysical survey usingmagnetometry, among other techniques, revealed the existence of a boundary wall on the north side of the Tiber enclosing an unexcavated area of the city containing three massive warehouses.[29][30]
In 2025, excavations at Ostia Antica uncovered what may be the oldestJewish ritual bath (mikveh) found outsideIsrael, dating to the late 4th or early 5th century. Located within a large Roman house, the bath features a deep immersion pool and anoil lamp with amenorah symbol, supporting its Jewish identification.[31]
The site of Ostia Antica is open to the public. Finds from the excavation are housed onsite in the Museo Ostiense.
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