5/26 Ostia

Ostia is a port city on the Western coast of Italy and is a terrific example of the template the Romans used when consecrating a new piece of land and developing it into a thriving metropolis (relative to the ancient world). One of the most important wide-view narratives that was emphasized today was the sense of the everyday life that a citizen of Ostia would have while living in the city. It was originally founded as one of the five categories of Roman cities:

Castrum – a military camp designed to defend the harbor and port of Rome

Colonia – fully inaugurated through typical rituals…everyone was a citizen with full voting rights

Minicipium – a town where citizens could only vote in local affairs but did have the protection of Roman law

Civitates – communities where people were allied to Rome but not necessary full citizens

Poleis - a pre-existing town taken over by Romans which had the ability to move up in the hierarchy

One of the more amazing aspects of the city to notice upon first walking down the decumanus (principal east/west street) was the multi-level excavation taking place. It was originally built during the Republican period (time of more or less democratic rule with an Emperor) and was then built over during the Imperial period (time after democratic rule that could be equated more along the lines of a kingship). The demarcating line between these two periods is extremely evident, as parts are dug down to reveal the earlier periods with parts remaining from later times right on top so a virtual section of time is visible.

Orientation to the city is not extremely difficult, as a north south axis (called the cardo) and east west axis (decumanus) divides the city and regulates all further subdivisions until the decumanus breaks off axis and runs perpendicular to the coast in the western part of the city. As mentioned before, the Romans used a system of templates and ceremonies to sanctify new land and spread their empire. Rites were performed where sacred items to the people such as locks of hair were buried in sort of a time capsule along with the entrails of sacrificial lambs and local flowers and fruit called the mundus. The rituals were observed, the gods were conjured, and the boundary of the city (pomerium) was dug to separate the wild, natural land from the civil, lawful interior. The Capitolium was established, dividing the main ecclesiastical structure in the forum into three cellas that housed Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva.

These rituals were clearly part of a reason why the Roman Empire lasted for as long as it did: consistency. If they could take this same template and apply it to each and every land they conquer, they could then rule over the people with the same logic, rhetoric, and law. The Romans, although they consistently conquered other lands with machine-like efficiency, were relatively accepting of other religions into their culture. This could be in part due to the Roman religion being one more focused on state rather than divinity and that if they made other cultures feel included into theirs, they would be perhaps more docile when they took over a new land. Ostia was quite the cosmopolitan city due to its port city typology. At certain parts of the city a Mythraic church will be sharing a party wall with a Christian church. This is but one example of the mix of cultures the Romans were quite willing to allow into the complex organism that was Roman society. Even though at times the Romans were ruthless in trying to persecute Christians and rid them from practicing their religion, I would assume the juxtaposition of Mythraic and Christian churches must have occurred at a different point in the timeline of ancient history.

The everyday life of a citizen of Ostia is quite the same as it still is today in modern Rome. A typical street in Ostia would contain institutions that continue today such as a meat market, fish market, vegetable market, trade school, churches, warehouses, and shops selling knickknacks and other goods. These would remain on the ground floor while apartments would be stacked on top, much like any modern city. Ostia often includes sophisticated garden apartment complexes quite similar in scale to today’s modern condominiums, which are often a direct descendent of these ancient counterparts.

One of the more complex building types featured in cities like Ostia and other such Roman creations were the bath facilities. It is quite astonishing to see how many of the ancient building typologies survive to modern times. We still use many of the same building types: courthouses, administration buildings, housing complexes, etc. However, one such type that we typically do not see to this scale in such a middle class setting is the public baths. Here, many of the day to day bodily cleansing and strengthening activities would take place. I think one of the reasons we do not see these buildings to this scale is our deployment today of much more complex plumbing infrastructure to every residence. Rather, what we see here is plumbing that would be concentrated mostly on this building with a few of the upper class citizens receiving private plumbing in their homes.