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Arrivals, departures and hiding

In the late first century BC and early first century AD we get to know Ostia as a place of arrival and departure for people, but also for hiding. In late antiquity Macrobius recounts the flight, in 23 BC, of a conspirator against Augustus. His name was Fannius Caepio. He was helped by one of his slaves:

Caepio, who intended to kill Augustus, having been discovered and condemned, was carried by a slave in a wooden basket to the Tiber. Passed through Ostia, he led him from there by night to the country house of his father, in the Laurentine territory. Driven back from Cumae by a shipwreck, he hid with his master in Naples. There, having been taken by a centurion, neither money nor threats could lead him to betray his master.



A Roman road leading from Ostia to the Laurentine territory.
Photo: La Mia Ostia.

In 6 BC Tiberius suddenly withdrew from politics, for personal reasons it seems. His departure (eventually for Rhodes) is mentioned by Suetonius:

Being at last allowed to depart, he left his wife and son in Rome and went down to Ostia in haste, without saying a single word to any of those who saw him off, and kissing only a very few when he left. From Ostia he coasted along the shore of Campania, and learning of an indisposition of Augustus, he stopped for a while.

In 16 AD Ostia features in a curious story recounted by Tacitus. It concerns the death of Postumus Agrippa, son of Augustus's right-hand man Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa (who had built the theatre in Ostia). He was the grandson of Augustus and designated heir, but exiled to the island Planasia because of his character, and executed in 14 AD, shortly after the death of Augustus.

A servant of Postumus Agrippa, Clemens by name, having ascertained that Augustus was dead, formed a design beyond a slave's conception, of going to the island of Planasia and seizing Agrippa by craft or force and bringing him to the armies of Germany. The slowness of a merchant vessel thwarted his bold venture. Meanwhile the murder of Agrippa had been perpetrated, and then turning his thoughts to a greater and more hazardous enterprise, he stole the ashes of the deceased, sailed to Cosa, a promontory of Etruria, and there hid himself in obscure places till his hair and beard were long. In age and figure he was not unlike his master. Then through suitable emissaries who shared his secret, it was rumoured that Agrippa was alive, first in whispered gossip, soon, as is usual with forbidden topics, in vague talk which found its way to the credulous ears of the most ignorant people or of restless and revolutionary schemers.

He himself went to the towns, as the day grew dark, without letting himself be seen publicly or remaining long in the same places, but, as he knew that truth gains strength by notoriety and time, falsehood by precipitancy and vagueness, he would either withdraw himself from publicity or else forestall it. It was rumoured meanwhile throughout Italy, and was believed at Rome, that Agrippa had been saved by the blessing of Heaven. Already at Ostia, where he had arrived, he was the centre of interest to a vast concourse as well as to secret gatherings in the capital, while Tiberius was distracted by the doubt whether he should crush this slave of his by military force or allow time to dissipate a silly credulity. Sometimes he thought that he must overlook nothing, sometimes that he need not be afraid of everything, his mind fluctuating between shame and terror.

At last he entrusted the affair to Sallustius Crispus, who chose two of his dependants (some say they were soldiers) and urged them to go to him as pretended accomplices, offering money and promising faithful companionship in danger. They did as they were bidden; then, waiting for an unguarded hour of night, they took with them a sufficient force, and having bound and gagged him, dragged him to the palace. When Tiberius asked him how he had become Agrippa, he is said to have replied, "As you became Caesar". He could not be forced to divulge his accomplices. Tiberius did not venture on a public execution, but ordered him to be slain in a private part of the palace and his body to be secretly removed. And although many of the emperor's household and knights and senators were said to have supported him with their wealth and helped him with their counsels, no inquiry was made.



The harbour of Pianosa, ancient Planasia, a tiny island to the south-west of Elba, the place of exile of Postumus Agrippa.
A Villa Agrippa has been excavated on the island. Photo: Wikimedia, ProMare.

In 37 AD a group of Alexandrian delegates arrived in Rome via Ostia, wishing to petition the Emperor, Tiberius. A cubicularius informed them that the Emperor had died. The story is recorded in a very fragmentary papyrus, part of the so-called Acta Alexandrinorum, that was acquired in Egypt in 1928.

... -ros said: "Sail off, because what

... the Emperor. [The envoys?] sailed off, of the

173 representing the 173 councilors and Eulalus

and they came to Ostia ...
Transcription of the papyrus.
From: Mursillo et al., ZPE 15 (1974), 1-7, page 4.
Translation: P.A. Kuhlmann.

In the same year an event occurred that must have attracted a large crowd in the harbour. It is described by Suetonius. Caligula brought back the ashes of his exiled mother Agrippina and his brother Nero (not to be confused with the future Emperor).

Gaius himself tried to rouse men's devotion by courting popularity in every way. After eulogising Tiberius with many tears before the assembled people and giving him a magnificent funeral, he at once posted off to Pandateria and the Pontian islands, to remove the ashes of his mother and brother to Rome; and in stormy weather, too, to make his filial piety the more conspicuous. He approached them with reverence and placed them in the urn with his own hands. With no less theatrical effect he brought them to Ostia in a bireme with a banner set in the stern, and from there up the Tiber to Rome, where he had them carried to the Mausoleum on two biers by the most distinguished men of the order of knights, in the middle of the day, when the streets were crowded.

A similar event had taken place in 2 AD. Lucius Caesar, grandson of Augustus, had died in Massilia (Marseille, France). A calendar found in Ostia, the so-called Fasti, says that his body was carried through Ostia by magistrates clothed in black, followed by a crowd carrying burning tallow-candles, while the buildings were decorated fittingly: Hominu[m plus ---] inta millia can[delis ardentibus] obviam processe[runt. Magistratus] Ostiensium pulla[ti corpus tulerunt]. Oppidum fuit orn[atum ---].

Suetonius mentions Ostia as port of departure in the years 37-40 AD:

Toward those to whom he [Caligula] was devoted his partiality became madness. He used to kiss Mnester, an actor of pantomimes, even in the theatre, and if anyone made even the slightest sound while his favourite was dancing, he had him dragged from his seat and scourged him with his own hand. When a Roman knight created a disturbance, he sent a centurion to bid him go without delay to Ostia and carry a message for him to king Ptolemy in Mauretania; and its purport was this: "Do neither good nor ill to the man whom I have sent you".