The Square of the Corporations

North porticus - statio 27

There is no identifying text. In the rear part of the back room are the remains of a dolphin. Giovanni Becatti recognized two dolphins, facing each other. This part of the room is separated from the front part by a black band. The remainder of the floor of the back room forms an entity with the floor of the front room. A figurative scene is surrounded by a frame with a wicker-work pattern that is found also in the adjacent stationes 26 and 28.

The statio seen from the back, from the side of the Tiber. Photo: Gerard Huissen.

In the back room is a boat bridge, made of wooden planks between two fences. The planks are supported by three boats. On either side of the bridge is a low column with a base and without a capital, most likely a milestone. Flanking the milestones are two stylized military gates or arches. On each architrave is a white rectangle. Above the architraves are war trophies, consisting of schematic cuirasses and shields. In the passage to the front room and in the front room itself is a river delta with three branches. There were horizontal lines below the delta, indicating the sea (now lost).

Photo: Scavi di Ostia IV, plate 184.

The three branches of the delta and the depiction of an elephant in the adjacent statio 28, which formed part of this one, leave no doubt that we are looking at the Nile delta (not the Rhône in Arles, as maintained by some French archaeologists). Its largest branches were called the Canopic, Phatnitic, and Pelusiac mouths.The outer mouths created a triangle that was called "delta" in antiquity, because together with the coastline it resembled the Greek capital letter delta: Δ. The boat bridge was necessitated by strong changes in the level of the Nile.

The Nile takes us to Alexandria, the only major harbour in Egypt. Egypt was an important grain supplier of Rome. The Alexandrian grain fleet originally sailed to Puteoli in the Bay of Naples, but was redirected to Ostia and Portus in the second century. As to the goods that were imported: all that we see are wild animals in statio 28. However, it seems unlikely that grain did not have a place here. There could have been references to grain in statio 26, by grain measures or grain ears, but it is quite understandable if it was not referred to at all. The proud Egypt had become Imperial property, and was obliged to take grain to Rome each year with its Alexandrian grain fleet. Its famous lighthouse, the Pharos, had been copied and improved by Claudius in Portus, even sinking a ship that had transported an obelisk from Egypt to Rome as part of the foundation - a great humiliation. Depicting the lighthouse of Portus and grain measures may simply not have been an option for the Alexandrians. It would stress their humilitiation, and perhaps grain exports were also seen as too mundane to be emphasized. A more fitting solution was to stress the exotic nature of Egypt and depict the Nile, now almost physically connected with the Tiber only some 70 meters to the north.

The only reference to Egypt's defeat and the rule of Rome are the trophies flanking the bridge. Quoting Oswald Dilke: "Since the pontoon bridge is above the lowest point on the undivided river, one may conjecture that it was between Memphis, the dynastic capital, which was still of some importance under the Roman Empire, and Babylon (Old Cairo). The military trophies would be appropriate to Babylon, which was fortified as a legionary camp under Augustus, while Memphis was the center for the export of wild animals from Egypt to Rome". But the trophies, the bridge and the milestones are not necessarily to be understood, primarily, as a reference to the military power of Rome and the subjugation of Egypt. Quoting Fred Kleiner: "... when arches were erected within the secure frontiers of the empire and their stated purpose was not to celebrate the defeat of Rome's enemies but rather the paving of roads and bridging of rivers, ... tropaic statuary carried another message, namely that Roman victories could be won not only against men but against Nature herself. ... It is easy to lose sight of the deep and genuine pride that the Romans took in cutting roads through mountains and throwing bridges across difficult waterways. For them a great bridge was a triumph over nature worthy of celebration in epic poetry, ... a Roman arch crowned by trophies the ideal vehicle for the expression of their pride as 'conquerors'".

The oldest mosaics on the upper level of the square seem to be those of Alexandria in stationes 26-28, dated to ca. 150-170 AD by Giovanni Becatti and John Clarke on stylistic grounds (Clarke compares for example with a Danube scene on the Column of Marcus Aurelius). The mosaics have marble borders, and we may safely assume that a grid of borders was laid out on the whole square, not just on this part, which would have served no purpose. This is problematic. It would mean that it took forty years or so before other mosaics were added on the square, in the period ca. 190-210 AD. It seems better to assume that the mosaic in stationes 26-28 was also laid in the period ca. 190-210 AD. This is not to say that the stylistic dating of ca. 150-170 is wrong. Alexandria was of special significance, not only because of the goods that it exported to Rome, but also as cultural capital of the Mediterranean world. As much as three stationes were allotted to Alexandria by the city council. It causes little surprise that the Alexandrians did not choose for a new, sketchy style, but wished to continue an old-fashioned style, commissioning an older mosaicist.