March 29 – Civitavecchia-Ostia Anitca, Italy. Civitavecchia is the port for Rome but we've spent quite a bit of time there both on tours and on our own so we opted for a shorter tour to Ostia Antica. Founded by King Anco Marzio around the 4th century BC, Ostia Antica was Rome's main commercial port and military base, with a population at its peak of nearly 100,000 inhabitants. Barbarian invasions and malaria led to the decline of city and eventually all the inhabitants abandoned it. Buried for centuries by sand, the city is remarkably well preserved and, although less spectacular than Pompeii or Herculaneum, it gives a more complete picture of the life in the Roman Empire.
We had to drive an hour or so on the highway heading to Rome so Ostia Antica was about one third of the way closer to Rome than Civitavecchia. After leaving the highway we headed east toward the ocean. Like many old ports, Ostia Antica is no longer on the ocean. It's quite a ways inland.
When you first enter Ostia Antica you are not really in the city. You are in the Necropolis. This burial area was for the rich and famous of the city and lines the last part of the road between Ostia Antica and Rome. They wanted to make sure that visitors from Rome knew who the important people were. With an emphasis on the 'were'. This short stretch of the road is known as Via delle Tombe, which needs no translation. It's paved with very large river rock so the going is pretty rough because of the stones rounded edges. Much easier to walk on the side of the road. The foundations of the tombs are still here but everything above that is gone. People were buried here from the 2nd century BC to the late 3rd or early 4th century AD. They have some pieces of sarcophaguses on display setting on the tomb foundations. The ornate carving shows that these were indeed well to do people.
When you are through the Necropolis you quickly come to the Porta Romana, one of the city's three gates. As its name implies it's the gate on the street to Rome. Here the Decumanus Maximus begins; the main road through town. Here was a large block of Insula (the closest thing we have is a condominium). These buildings were divided into smaller housing units and paired with other buildings that housed commercial activities. Sort of like the village concept in Irvine, California. Every 'village' has its own shopping and entertainment area.
The two large buildings you see further down the street are the Neptune (men's) and Amphitride (women's) Baths. Romans loved their bath houses. They were very elaborate affairs with heated baths, steam rooms, cooling rooms and a room that served as a lounge. Mosaics covered the floor of all the rooms. They had ovens that heated the water and created the steam needed for the operations. The floors were lined with terra cotta pipes that carried the steam up into the steam room. You can still see them along the sides of the room. There were separate rooms for the hot baths. The baths probably served as the community center for the city. In the center of the huge structure is an open area for working out called the Palaestra.
A bit further down the street is the city's theater. It was built by Agrippa and the seating area is still in pretty good shape today. As with most ancient theaters the stage and back stage are mostly missing. I think that's partly because the stage was made of wood and was atop the dressing rooms and storage facilities. Some Roman theaters I've seen have intact stage areas but those were made of stone.
The most amazing thing about this theater is that the main entrance tunnel was completely intact from the exterior into the theater. I have never seen on in this condition. The sign nearby said that it was not reconstructed but was found in this condition. The inside has had some restoration work done on the seating area but it is not extensive.
At one time or another through the ages various forms of religion have been practiced here. There are at least 18 temples dedicated to the Persian god Mithras, a house of Diana, there's a Jewish Synagogue and a Christian basilica.
Just outside the theater is a street covered in mosaics and lined with shops. The floors of the shops were also covered in mosaics. Some of them give clues to the stores products. One floor has a mosaic of a ship and a vat with a device that was used to level the wheat that filled the vat, probably sold imported wheat of flour. There was no evidence of an oven so it was not likely a bakery.
Next to the commercial street was another large insula. Our guide mentioned that there were many of them spread throughout the city. There would have to be to house 100,000 people.
Further down was a large open area that was surrounded by public buildings, the Forum, the Captiolium and the Temple of Rome and Augustus. The large temple was constructed by Tiberius in the 1st century AD. They have built a new brick wall to the left of the temple sight to support some pieces of the carvings that were part of the temple in their original relationship to each other. At the base of this new wall they have placed some sculpture fragments from the temple.
Around the Forum area they have replaced some columns that lined the area. There were only two with capitals and those were Corinthian in style. Facing the temple across the Forum is the Capitolium.
We started back through town on Via Della, a street parallel to the one on which we walked in. Just off the Forum at the beginning of Via Della are two very important buildings. On the left is the House of Diana and on the right is the Termopolium. The first is important for obvious reasons, the Termopolium is important because that was what passed for a Restaurant/Café/Bar in Ostia Antica.
As you entered the Termopolium you came into a small room like you'd fine in any nice restaurant, the Matre'd's podium. The next room has a very nice granite bar at the entry. Past the bar is a tiered counter where food and drink would be displayed. It's a fair sized room so there may have been some tables or just an area to stand and talk or drink. Through that room you step down to a large room with a very nice mosaic floor. This was probably the seating area for diners. Past that room you step down again into an outdoor patio probably also a seating area. Inside a small area just before the outdoors is a birdbath like structure that must have been for washing your hands unless it was merely decorative. There are two rooms parallel to the entry and the seating room that appeared to be a kitchen and a prep area. I was struck by the similarities to modern restaurants.
After checking out the Termopolium we crossed the street and climbed the stairs up to the top of Diana's House. It had a great view of the Forum area and the Neptune Bath to the north and another Insula to the south. From this vantage point you can see that this is a really big city.
Right next to these two sites was the Forcia. That's what they call the public latrines. As usual it's side by side seating with no partitions. Men's and ladies' were separate. They had running water under the seats and a small ditch of clean running water in the floor in front of the seats for cleaning your hands.
It was almost time to leave so we walked back on the drive leading to the Museum at the south side of the city. On the way we passed the Via dei Magazzini Repubblicani and Cesar's Bath. The Frigidarium of the bath could be seen from the road. This would be comparable to the cool down room in a modern spa. It has a really nice mosaic floor in black and white. The theme seemed to be teamsters, wagon drivers, and their various duties. The large drain in the center of the room seems to indicate that some substantial amount of water was involved in some way.
From Ostia Antica we drove down to Ostia Lido, the modern seaside city. Our main purpose was to get some gelato. HAL has included three scoops of that wonderful Italian ice cream in our tour. We had some time to look around town and eat our gelato with those tiny, flat plastic spoons that are traditional in Italy.
The evening's entertainment was the Rotterdam Singers and Dancers in "a la Mode", a show with songs from various European countries. It's a good show and the performers did a great job once again.
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