Bars and baths

Having arrived safely in the harbour, many people will have visited a bar for some food and drink. One of the most famous reliefs from the harbours shows the interior of a bar. It is on a sarcophagus from tomb 90 of the Isola Sacra necropolis. To the left a cargo ship and a rowing boat are approaching the lighthouse of Claudius in Portus.

Sarcophagus from tomb 90 of the Isola Sacra necropolis.
Amedick 1991, cat. nr. 97. Photo: ICCD E069953.

To the right two customers, a woman and a man, are sitting at a table in a bar. The man is drinking from a cup, a barmaid brings a cup to the woman. There is some furniture behind the customers, represented by shallow lines. To their right is a tree. A dog jumps up against the table. To the left of the barmaid is the bar counter, with a small water basin with a curved top, precisely what can be seen in several bars in Ostia. Above the counter are shelves with long rows of vessels. Rather unexpected is the depiction of a vertical dolphin to the left. It has been suggested that the bar was named "At the dolphin". The dolphin also forms a link with the water of the harbour basin.

Detail of the right part of the sarcophagus.
Photo: Parco Archeologico di Ostia Antica.

Another bar is depicted on part of a lid of a sarcophagus, from the Isola Sacra necropolis. Two customers are sitting on a bench at a table. A woman is walking to the right, towards two large storage jars. With her left hand she holds a cup, her other hand is pointing backwards.

Part of the lid of a sarcophagus with the interior of a bar. Width 0.48, height 0.21.
Amedick 1991, cat. nr. 87. Descoeudres 2001, cat. nr. VIII,1. Photo: Amedick 1991, Taf. 109,2.

Arriving passengers will also have longed for a bath, but baths are not represented in the reliefs that have come down to us. We do have mosaics of two caretakers of baths: Epictetus Buticosus in baths that were named after him (I,XIV,8), and Iulius Cardius in the Baths of the Seven Sages (I,X,2).

The mosaics of Epictetus Buticosus and Iulius Cardius. Photos: Parco Archeologico and SO IV, Tav. CIX, 270.