Day Trips from Rome - Rome - page 596

SIGHTS

Founded in the 4th century BC, Ostia (named for the mouth or ostium of the Tiber) became
a great port and later a strategic centre for defence and trade, with a population of around
50,000, of whom 17,000 were slaves, mostly from Turkey, Egypt and the middle East. In
the 5th century AD barbarian invasions and the outbreak of malaria led to its abandonment
followed by its slow burial - up to the 2nd-floor level - in river silt, hence its survival.
Pope Gregory IV re-established the town in the 9th century.

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( 06 5635 2830; www.ostiaantica.info ; Viale dei Romagnoli 717; adult/reduced €6.5/3.75; 8.30am-7.15pm Tue-
Sun summer, to 6pm Mar, to 5pm Nov-Feb, last admission 1hr before closing) Ostia was a busy working port
until it began to decline in the 3rd century AD, and the town was made up of restaurants,
laundries, shops, houses and public meeting places.
On both sides of the main thoroughfare, Decumanus Maximus , are networks of narrow
streets lined by buildings.
At one stage, Ostia had 20 baths complexes, including the Terme di Foro - these were
equipped with a roomful of stone toilets (the forica ) that remain largely intact. Pivot-holes
show that the entrances had revolving doors and there are 20 marble seats that remain in-
tact. Water flowed along channels in front of the seats, into which the user would dip a
sponge on a stick to clean themselves.
The most impressive mosaics on site are at the huge Terme di Nettuno , which occupied a
whole block and date from Hadrian's renovation of the port. Make sure you climb the elev-
ated platform and look at the three enormous mosaics here, including Neptune driving his
seahorse chariot, surrounded by sea monsters, mermaids and mermen. In an adjacent room
is a mosaic with Neptune's wife, Amphitrite, on a hippocampus, accompanied by Hymen-
aeus - the god of weddings - and tritons. In the centre of the complex are the remains of a
large arcaded courtyard called the Palaestra, in which athletes used to train. There's an im-
pressive mosaic depicting boxing and wrestling.
Next to the Nettuno baths is a good-sized amphitheatre , built by Agrippa and later en-
larged to hold 4000 people. Stucco is still visible in the entrance hall. In late antiquity, the
orchestra could be flooded to present watery tableaux. By climbing to the top of the amphi-
theatre and looking over the site, you'll get a good idea of the original layout of the port
and how it would have functioned.

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