Introduction
In Ostia and Portus quite a few people, individuals and groups, are mentioned together with a distant place of origin. Archaeologists and historians usually go no further than mentioning the province in which the place was, sometimes adding the modern name. The precise location remains in the dark, as do the archeological remains of the place. On these pages we will go a step further, helped by the increasing digitisation and photo sharing on the internet. We will have a look at various cities in North Africa documented in Ostia, especially on the Piazzale delle Corporazioni.
Carthago is not discussed, but we do mention here the funerary inscription of the girl Laeta, born in Ostia, who died in Carthago only two years old. We will have to use our imagination to create a story here, as for another funerary inscription of a deceased Ostian, apparently the wife of a soldier, from Lambaesis (Tazoult, Algeria).
D(is) M(anibus)
LAETAE VIX(it)
ANN(os) II D(ies) II
NATA OSTI(i)S
H(ic) S(ita) E(st)[---]SIMAE DOMO OSTIS
[--- ann]ORVM LX
[---]IVS HORATIANVS [---]
[---] LEG(ionis) III [---]AE 1925, 27; EDCS-08601121; HD025624. CIL VIII.1, 3283. Numerous people stayed in Ostia only briefly, leaving quickly after disembarking, or staying in a hotel, waiting for favourable sailing weather. One of them is documented by an inscription from Henchir Sidi Ali Bel Kassem in Tunisia, ancient Thuburnica (near Simitthus - Chemtou). He had visited the Imperial court in Rome, and after completing his mission was preparing to embark in Ostia and start the return trip by sea. However, he died in the harbour, 32 years old.
[---] PLVRES GRATVITAS A[equ]E
SVSCEPERAT SEQVENTI LEGA
TIONE AEQ[ue] ITALICA ET GRATVI
TA SVSCEPTA POST EXPL(i)C(i)TIO
NEM REDIENS COL(onia) OSTIIS DE
FVNCTVS EST P(ius) VIX(it) AN(nos)
XXXII M(enses) III D(ies) XIAE 1912, 30; EDCS-10300920; HD027906.
A Roman bridge in Thuburnica, still in use. Photo: Wikimedia, Astiosaurus..
Click on the image to enlarge.
North Africa in the Atlas Antiquus of Justus Perthes, 1897.
The atlas was published in Gotha in central Germany.
Literature about the legate:
- W. Kroll, "Literaturbericht für das Jahr 1912", Glotta 6,4 (1915), 273-380: 366 (suggests expletionem instead of explicitionem).
- J.F. Rodríguez Niela, "Las legationes de las ciudades y su regulación en los estatutos municipales de Hispania", Gerión 28,1 (2010), 223-273: 256.
