Martyrs and churches

We have completely lost track of the lower and middle class in the city, but find these people again in Ostia's cemetery, on the Pianabella, the plain to the south. The tombs on this large plain have never been excavated systematically, with the exception of two extremities, known today as the Porta Romana and Porta Laurentina necropolis. Funerary inscriptions and sarcophagi have however emerged for centuries, legally and illegally.

	HIC REQUIESCV[nt in pace] THEODORA MAT[er pientissima] ET PASSARA SIVE [---] FILIA EIVS QV(a)E V[ixit ---] AN[nos] P(lus) M(inus) XXX[---] D[epo]SITA PRI[die ---] [---] D(omino) N(ostro) TH[eodosio VII] E[t Iunio] QVARTO [v(iro) c(larissimo) co(n)s(ulibus)]
	Here rest in peace Theodora, my very pious mother, and Passara also known as ?, her daughter, who lived about 30 (?) years. She was buried the day before ? while our lord Theodosius for the seventh time and Junius Quartus, most illustrious man, were consuls.
Funerary inscription of Theodora and her daughter Passara from 416 AD. Amsterdam, private collection. EDR031424. Photo: EDCS.

	[Va]LERIVS COCILI[us] CYRIACVS QVI VIXIT A[nn(is)] QVINDICIM MENSE V[no] DIEBVS DVODECIM DE[functus] E(st) III NON(as) NO(v)EMBRPS D[ormit] HIC IN PACE VALERIVS GAIONAS [---] SALAMINA PARENT[es filio] INNOCENTIS[simo]
	Valerius Cocilius Cyriacus who lived years fifteen, months one, days twelve, died November 3rd, sleeps here in peace. Valerius Gaionas ... and Salamina, his parents, for their most innocent son.
Funerary inscription of Valerius Cocilius Cyriacus from the fourth century. Vatican Museums. EDCS-05701940. Photo: EDCS.

Many Christians desired to be buried close to the graves of martyrs, and of these there were many in the necropolis, as we learn from a source of the late twelfth century:

Tot autem sunt illo deserto Sanctorum Reliquiae, quod non facile invenire valeremus, ubi eas tam honestem quam deceret, poneremus. Nos enim ante paucos dies, et B. Asterii, et aliorum duodecim Martyrum Reliquias inde attulimus.	But the Relics of Saints in that deserted place are so numerous that we were not able to easily find a place where we could put them in the honourable way they deserve. You should know that a few days earlier we had removed the Relics of the Blessed Asterius and twelve other Martyrs from that place.
Fragment from the transfer of the relics of Monica by Waltherus, canon of Arrouaise (1162 AD). Acta Sanctorum, May I, p. 484-485, 9.

On the spot of these tombs churches might be built, and three of these have been identified. The Church of Saint Aurea is located in the borgo of modern Ostia Antica. It was built in the years 325-350 AD. The present-day church was built in the late 15th century. Aurea's martyrdom is described in great detail in the Acts of the Saints. In the church inscriptions can be seen with her name: Aurea, "the golden girl", called Chryse in a Greek inscription. The funerary inscription of Monica, the mother of Augustine, who died in Ostia in 387 AD, is also preserved in the church. It was found near the church in 1945. Apparently she had been buried nearby.

Interior of the church of Saint Aurea. Photo: Wikimedia, Sailko.

The Church of Saint Herculanus is a little chapel near the cemetery of the modern village. It is normally closed to the public. It dates back to the fourth or fifth century. This Herculanus may have been one of the soldiers who were executed in front of the theatre by order of Claudius Gothicus in the years 268-270 AD. Inside are the sarcophagi and graves of several of Ostia's most important archaeologists: Dante Vaglieri (1865-1913), the first scientific excavator of Ostia, working in the north-east part of the city in the years before the First World War; Guido Calza (1888-1946), the leader of the great 1938-1942 campaign during which two-thirds of the excavated area was unearthed; Giovanni Becatti (1912-1973), author of exhaustive studies of the mithraea and mosaics, and excavator of the Building with Opus Sectile; Italo Gismondi (1887-1974), the architect who made the model of Rome in the Museo della Civiltà Romana in Rome, and was responsible for the conscientious restorations of the Ostian buildings; and Raissa Calza-Gourevitch (1894-1979), specialist in the field of Roman sculpture, who married Guido Calza shortly before his unexpected demise in 1946.

The Church of Herculanus in 1908. The man approaching it could well be Italo Gismondi.
Photo: Parco Archeologico di Ostia Antica.

The Basilica of the Pianabella is 1200 metres to the south-west, following the railway. The visible remains, surrounded by a fence, are disappointing. However, the excavations have yielded important results. It was built at the end of the fourth century. One inscription mentions work on the building in the last three decades of the fifth century, by bishop Bellator.

Location of Christian buildings. Photo: Google Earth.

Many pilgrims will have visited the graves of the martyrs, on their way to Rome. They would need a place to stay, and a good candidate is the so-called Christian Basilica on the main road leading to the Marine Gate. It was erected in the first quarter of the fifth century. We may imagine that in such a xenodochium (hostel for strangers) the pilgrims listened to the stories that we can still read in the Acts of the Saints.

The interior of the so-called Christian Basilica. Photo: Wikimedia, Lalupa.

At the end of the fourth or in the fifth century a small Christian oratory was installed in the north part of the Baths of Mithras. The location, in the commercial area along the Tiber, is curious. The destruction of the nearby underground mithraeum is surely related. We may think of an example of attempts to suppress pagan cults by selecting the location of the unwanted shrines for Christian replacements.