Ostia Antica

Ok, this post starts with an interpretation contest/quiz. Ran across this sign on a pizzeria in Rome. What do you think they are advertising? Post your thoughts in the comments section.

So, Ostia Antica, where is it and what's it's importance. Ostia was ancient Rome's port city on the sea at the mouth of the Tiber river. Unlike Pompeii and Herculaneum, which were resort towns and preserved in an instant by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79AD, Ostia was a working town that more represented real life in the Roman Republic/Empire. Founded in the 4th Century BCE, it reached around 75,000 inhabitants in the 2nd Century AD. It was hit with barbarian invasions and malaria in the 5th Century AD and abandoned. Over the course of time, the silt from the Tiber covered Ostia as the Tiber built up its delta. The mouth of the river now stands 2km from the remains of ancient Ostia. Because it was covered up for so many centuries, it remains remarkably well preserved.

You can see the locations of the ancient course of the Tiber and the location of the sea in relation to the present course of the Tiber.

As you enter into the modern day Ostia site, before you enter through the ancient walls, you walk through the necropoli of Ostia.

The Roman's were great urban planners. Most cities, based on military camp plans contained two intersecting roads, one of them the Decumanus. Here in Ostia, the Decumanus is the longer of the two and runs East-West.

This is a bath complex, which contains a cold room (frigidarium), pool room (tepidarium) and a hot room (caldarium). Notice, how the archeologists have prevented further erosion of the site by capping everything with cement.

Many of the beautiful mosaics remain.

The other main road, is called the Cardo.

Here at the intersection of the Cardo and Decumanus is the back side of the Capitolium, which fronts onto the town Forum.

Near the intersection of the two is also the Ostia Teatro. The difference between Greek theaters and Roman theaters is that the Romans built a backdrop, the remains of which you see as the low running wall at the rear of the stage. The Greeks left the natural scenery be the backdrop.

From atop a building along the Cardo, here's a view of the Tiber today.

As mentioned earlier, Ostia was a real functioning town with back streets, houses, apartments and markets.

Here we see a house with walls painted in what is called "First Style", which consists mostly of rectangular panels. Although many of the houses are fenced off.....

That didn't stop us from climbing in. It was so much fun to be inside these ruins and to walk in the footsteps of the "everyday" ancients.

In the neighborhoods, there are remnants like this millstone.

And, here's a bar on the ground floor of a home.

Here's the bar from the loft of the home. And yes, of course, we were not supposed to be inside.

Here's an oven that still has the marble facing, which is what probably covered most of the buildings here.

The mosaic in a palestra (gym). Must be motivation/ideal for all who worked out there.

Another mosaic in the palestra. Perhaps an early precursor to the Statue of Liberty?

If you had the chance to climb atop a Corinthian capital, wouldn't you do it too?