Europe Fall 2024 - Ostia Antica - Study Of Ancient Rome #5,382

 This post is dedicated to my friend, the Celebrity Historian.

Okay that is a slight exaggeration. But long-time visitors to this blog know I have posted A LOT of Roman ruins and history posts. (Sample those with the labels on the right of this post of  Ephesus, Jerash, Rome, Pergamum, Galilee, and Aphrodisias for past examples. But, in my defense it has been quite a few trips now since I last inundated you with this so I can be forgiven. We will be discussing a number of my favorite topics related to ancient Rome as we visit this, the city of Rome's primary ocean port in the later Republic and early Imperial eras. 

Because of the historical nature of this post, I have dedicated to my friend, The Celebrity Historian (CH). He does tons of videos (I've given you a link to his YouTube channel above) that are highly entertaining, yet well researched and documented. My loyal long-term followers know that de-I Sandia Outfitters International History Tours prides itself on doing anything BUT be well researched and documented. Normally, he would vociferously call me out on the SLIGHTEST incorrect fact, wild interpretation, or fatuous historical claim. However, I am protected on this blog as he only looks at it when I put a link to a post on a couple of WhatsApp groups we share AND he only puts his comments in those groups, leaving my actual blog pristine of any fact checking nonsense. 

So with that bit of housekeeping out of the way, let's head to Ostia Antica

 This is a BIG site. Wife and I walked for hours and we never got to the end of it.

A brief reminder of Roman building philosophy and techniques

Common thinking tends to lump Roman building technique with classic Greek monumental construction meaning the use of stone. The Roman's (especially pre-Empire) built predominantly with brick. Augustus, when he created the Princeps position which evolved to become Emperor, was the first to make use of stone and famously said something like "I found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble".

Roman bricks were thin and layered with different materials.

 The brick work was frequently covered and designed.

The Romans had very sophisticated road building techniques

The construction of Roman roads typically involved four main layers, known collectively as via strata:

1. Statumen: The base layer made of large stones, approximately 30 cm thick, which provided stability.
2. Ruderatio: A layer of rounded stones mixed with lime, which helped bind the structure together.
3. Nucleus: A middle layer composed of gravel compacted with heavy rollers, typically around 30 cm thick.
4. Pavimentum: The top layer made of large, flat stone slabs that created a durable surface for travel

 Clearly we only are seeing the bottom layers among these ruins

 

 

 Upper stories of Roman buildings that were not monumental were usually made of wood, a reason why they have not survived. Throughout this site there were pictures representing what the city looked like 'back in the day'. What we're seeing now is just remnants of the ground floors.

 This picture shows the Forum, the city center. Roman cities followed the same design format. You visit various ruins and this starts to strike you hard. There was not a lot of creativity. There was a great emphasis on efficiency. Where the two major roads of a city crossed, the Forum was built which housed the primary civic (non-private) buildings like the major Temple and the Basilica (which was simply a large government office building - the term was adopted by Christianity for its large, important buildings). In this picture the Basilica is the rectangular building to the left. If you go to Trier, Germany, there is a famous Basilica (later converted to a Cathedral) that was headquarters to Constantine before he marched on Rome to consolidate his control of the Empire. It exhibits the same design.

Looking at the ruins of the Temple and the surrounding important buildings, you can see that brick was the predominant building material used.

 

 One should never forget that Rome was a capitalist based society first. Romans were all about making money. The area around the Theater was where the major trading companies had their headquarters.

I could visualize this being like a Hong Kong of 50 years ago, or Singapore today with the office structures surrounding this common area, each wheeling and dealing.

Like any good corporate structure, even the entryway flooring reflected their activities like shipping and the amphorae which were used to transport liquids like wine and oil.

You have to have places to live in a city. Roman cities were filled with insulae, multi-story structures with many apartments. They typically had an open courtyard to give light and air access to all levels. The ground levels were usually reserved for commercial purposes.

 

 Baths

The public bath was a MAJOR aspect of Roman civic life. Governments and Emperors spent big money building lavish baths that were huge. In Ostia, there are ruins of three of them. The mosaics usually have themes relating to Roman mythical and religious stories.

 

IMPORTANT REFRESHER FOR FUTURE QUIZ'S  

The Doric Capital

 The Ionic Capital

 The Corinthian Capital

Espouses Fotograficus Antica Romanus

 And actual excerpt of de-I/Wife travel. We cannot find each other. She texts me on WhatsApp, "Come to the Statue of the Guy with the Cute Butt". 

 I am not making this up

Miscellaneous

 

 

 

 

Italia 2017 - Roma Antica, Finding the Truth About the Arena

On our last day in Rome we were totally immersed into Ancient Rome. Going to the Coliseum is considered another of those 'A' list items when visiting Rome and as with the Vatican one is advised to use a tour as tours have priority access for entry and you can avoid the long lines. And as a bona fide Roman history nut, I convinced Wife we should do a tour that included both the Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum.

Ah, the Arena, the Coliseum

It is a commonly thought that the games of  the Coliseum were focused on such things as gladiator fights and fighting of wild animals or letting prisoners be killed by animals. In fact recent scholarship has found that ancient Rome much like its modern rendition was overrun with tourists from over the Empire. To get this plague of tourists under control, the Emperors solutions was having various tour groups duel with each other in the Coliseum. Our tour was designed to give us this very experience in real life

We fight the masses to get to into the arena

Our tour guide shows us

"There. You will achieve glory for our tour company and defeat the groups from Korea and China today

We will have a mock up of the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel. See we are putting out the floor as we speak.

Including trap doors for the organizers might have a group from cruise ship pop up without notice

The Leaders of the city will watch you with interest from there

And the crowd will cheer you on as you force yourself over the mangled bodies of other tour groups that try to get in your way!

The exploits of the great ancient tour groups victories in the arena were honored by massive triumphal arches

Scenes of these victories were carved on the triumphal arches

The Victory of the Celtic chariot tour over the Illyrian cruise shippers

The Greek philosopher tour's mastery of the Egyptian temple tour

The controversial victory of the Judean food tourists over the Dacian art tour 

(Evidently the use of the Menorah to push the other group out of the way was considered to be a questionable tactic)

There is something something about being surrounded the magnitude of these ruins, of a city that at its peak was over a million in population two thousand years ago that makes one contemplative

A tour guide contemplates the glory that was Rome

A seagull contemplates what monument it will poop upon

After the Colosseum we went up to the Palatine Hill and then into the Forum

The ruins of Imperial Palaces don't give one a feel of what was really there and as Wife has said, "There are only so many pictures of broken buildings one can post"

On the other hand, when you look at the Forum, center of civic life for hundreds of years in Rome, from above, you really can I think imagine just what an incredible city Rome was in its ancient time.

 Here are a building that have the original bronze doors and one that has porphyry pillars

And a temple that had a church built inside it

One last historical note

This is the Via Sacra, the main road running through the Roman Forum and according to our guide it is the original

Any major personage on ever read about in Roman history probably stepped on this very path

Kind of gives me a sense of awe of the scope and breath of history

 

And one last gastronomic experience

We had our last meal at a restaurant right next to our apartment

Sigh, one last wonderful pasta carbonara

A last grilled fish

And one more wonderful osso bucco 

All with a half liter of house wine

I will miss eating in Italy so much