ANCIENT ROMAN SEAPORT ON THE TIBER.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18198, 19 March 1921, Page 10

ANCIENT ROMAN SEAPORT ON THE TIBER.

The Italian Government, which wa* honourably distinguished by its efforts to protect the monuments of its country’s art during the European war, found most useful employment for its prisoners by setting them to complete the excavation of Ostia, the seaport of ancient Rome. The result was that there has been laid bare, within 16 miles of Rome, an ancient town of far greater historic interest than Pompeii. Practically the entire area of Ostia—the theatre, fornm, and two important temples—have been exposed, and one ma,f now .promenade streets winch may once have echoed to the tramp of Scipio’s legions. The name “Ostia” means “the river months,” and Romans in the primitive age probably thought of it as Roma Ostia— ‘ • Rome of the Estuary. It is of special interest to the political historian that Ostia, though 16 miles from Rome, was always reckoned as an integral nart of the city, being included in the Palatine Region. Inis fact is eloquent of its position. It was not-a separate city, but that tentacle of early Rome which touched the sea, just as ’Piraeus was a tentacle of Athens. It was, it is true, some 16 miles ' distant from its parent city, as against less than five in the case of Athens and Piraeus, but the connection, wag fully as close. i Ostia is said by Livy to have been f founded by Ancus Martins, the fourth King of Rome (about 640-616 b.c.). There are no valid reasons for rejecting the statement, despite the curious, unimaginative scepticism of German historians. Probably what Ancus did was to enlarse and fortify an already existing village. ’The place lay on the edge of a salt-marsh, and can hardly ever have been very salubrious; but as the port of what was already an important city-state it had great importance. " Salt works established in the marsh gave it local industry, and furnished a useful commodity for exportation. When Rome became an Imperial power Ostia, though already hampered by the receding sea, as well as by the neglect of the Republican Government to improve the waterway, retained and increased itr importance as the seaport of the great city. It seems to have harboured a very cosmopolitan population, and Eastern religious cults—those of the Great Mother of Phrygia, Mithras, and others—found there a welcome. It certainly possessed a temple of Mithras as well as one of the Italian Vulcan. In an old number of the Athenaeum (November 6, 1886) is an account of some of . the uncovered buildings of Ostia, including that of a large honse with a mithroeum, for the worship of Mithras, attached. It was not until the third and fourth centuries that Mithraism became really powerful in the Roman Empire, competing for a time with Christianity; but Ostia was always the abode , of foreign people and beliefs. It is perhaps significant that the chief place 'of amusement was a theatre, not an amphitheatre or circus. Curiously enough, the history of Ostia i does not present anything very stirring . during the days of its greatness, though many famous meu must have embarked or landed in its roadstead, and no doubt there were often brilliant scenes when the fleets which fought Carthage gathered there. But the coast was steadily advancing ; and there was now a delta at the mouth of the Tiber. Of the two river arms, the right-hand one—that farther fiiom Ostia—-was the deeper, and heavy ships < began to use it in preference to the other. The necessity of a better harbour for the African corn-ships which supnlied Rome led the Emperor Clandins to build a new seaport at the head of the delta, about two miles from Old Ostia. This was known as Portus Ostiensis, or simply Portus—now Porto. Thus the importance of Ostia dwindled. Yet, it was in-its last days—indeed, in: the very agony of the Empire’s dissolution —that Ostia saw its most stirring ■ days. Between the years 635 and 550 a most extraordinary and fluctuating contest was waged' by the East Romans and Ostrogoths for the possession of Rome, At times the Romans, at others the Goths,: held Rome. First the Romans held Ostia, while the Goths kept Portus; then the' Romans seized Portus and the Goths captured Ostia. The river was the scene of constant fighting, as the Byzantine fleet* tided to force their way to Rome, and the Goths to prevent them. On one occasion the Goths blocked the river by a boom and wooden forts; but two Byzantine ships, sent by the great General Belisarions,* sailed up the stream abreast, supporting on their masts a cross-yard, from which hung a boat filled with combustibles. They drove into the, boom, lowered their boat-load of incendiary matter, and burned it to ashes. This was only one incident • of many, but the long struggle marked the final ruin of Ostia, and it dwindled into an almost deserted ruin on the edge of the fever-haunted Campagna. To-day" there are onlv a few scores of inhabitant*: in the village alongside the mins of ancient ■* Rome’s seaport.