A little to the west of the spot where the western gate of the Castrum once stood is a crossroads, which is as old as the second century BC and may well be older. People leaving the Castrum through the western gate could take at least two roads from here: the so-called western Decumanus Maximus, leading to the beach, or the Via della Foce, leading to the mouth of the Tiber. The intersection was incorporated in Ostia's city-area after the building of the new town walls, by Marcus Tullius Cicero. At the end of the first century AD five streets converged at a large square: the eastern and western Decumanus, Via della Foce, Via Epagathiana and Via del Pomerio. In the fourth century most of this square was taken up by the huge nymphaeum I,XIV,1. Through this structure two intersections were created: a western one, of Via della Foce and the western Decumanus, and an eastern one, of the eastern and western Decumanus, Via Epagathiana and Via del Pomerio. On the western intersection and on the middle of Via della Foce is an isolated structure, the floors which are somewhat below the Hadrianic street level.
Plan of the intersection. From Scavi di Ostia I.The structure has been preserved to a maximum height of c. 1.00, and consists of three rooms: a rectangular room towards the nymphaeum, and to the southwest two small rooms. The rectangular room was probably a shrine of the Lares Compitales, a compitum (inside meas., max. w. 2.37, d. 5.22). It may have been built in the first century BC, with large tufa blocks. Reticulate walls were set against the inside of the lateral walls. There are doors in the short sides. That the structure had a religious function is suggested by its position and by the respect shown towards it: the floor level was preserved when the street level was raised.
The two other rooms were later set against the west side of the rectangular room. They have a curved outer wall (the southern room not a truly curved wall: three sections were set against each other at an angle). The northern room was a basin, as is shown by the presence of a thick layer of hydraulic mortar in the corners of the room, on the floor and the walls.
3D drawing of the remains, seen from the east.
From Bakker 1994, fig. 18.According to Raissa Calza (1965, 94) a small, rectangular cippus, with on three sides depictions of Hercules, Silvanus and Mercurius, was found amongst the ruins (perhaps this is the cippus depicted in Calza-Nash 1959, fig. 90).
Photos
The remains seen from the south. Photo: Klaus Heese.
The remains seen from the east. Photo: Daniel González Acuña.
The remains seen from the south-east. Photo: Raffaella.
The remains seen from the south-west. Photo: Raffaella.
