Collapse

The economic crisis, due also to military expenditure, must have led to reduced imports, with direct consequences in the ports, also for secondary commercial activity. The population declined. The most eloquent testimonies in Ostia are collapsed buildings that were not rebuilt. The first building of which we know that it ceased to function has been called the Baths of the Swimmer. An accurate excavation has shown that it was abandoned around 240-250 AD. The date is reminiscent of a report from Portus. Here corpses were found in a huge cistern below deposits resulting from a tsunami, perhaps combined with an earthquake. On the corpses coins were found from 236 and 238 AD. The same event may have interrupted the building of the guild temple of the stuppatores in which later a mithraeum was installed.

There seems to have been more seismic activity during the reign of Tacitus (275-276 AD). The Historia Augusta says that among the omens predicting his death was this: "All the gods in their private chapel fell down, overthrown either by an earthquake or by some mischance". During the reign of Probus (276-282 AD) or a little later disaster struck again. Buildings collapsed on two spots. The House of the Priestesses, an expensive apartment at the west end of the excavations, was destroyed in the last quarter of the third century, witness coins from the reigns of Gallienus (253-268) and Aurelianus (270-275). Traces of fire are not reported. The ruins were not cleared. In the centre of town a bakery, the House of the Millstones, and the famous House of Diana were destroyed. Coins from the reign of Probus (276-282) provide a terminus post quem. Only in the bakery traces of a fire were seen. The ruins were again not cleared, only the millstones that could still be used were lifted from the ruins. In rooms along the Via del Sabazeo, not far from the Porta Romana, many traces of a fire were found, on top of coins from the second and third century. Recently an enormous villa was discovered near the beach, through geophysical research. The evidence from a few trenches shows that it was abandoned at the end of the third century and then plundered.

Some of the millstones in the House of the Millstones. Undamaged, complete millstones were extracted after the fire. Photo: Klaus Heese.

It is understandable that some ruins were left as they were. It would have been pointless to rebuild an apartment or baths, when there were no people to make use of these. At the time of its destruction the House of the Millstones was still operational, as shown by many finds, such as dosage cones and bells used with the millstones. However, at the end of the third century the bakeries in Ostia were surely not operated at full capacity anymore. To compensate for the loss of this workshop, all that was necessary was the re-activating of some of the idle millstones and kneading machines in other bakeries. Things were different of course when it came to essential and official buildings.

Difficult to assess is the fate of the vigiles, the fire-fighters coming in shifts from Rome to Ostia. The last dated inscriptions from their barracks are from the reign of Gordianus III (238 to 244 AD). This has often been seen as evidence that the vigiles left Ostia soon afterwards. However, a long series of graffiti with a consular date was found in the guard-house (excubitorium) of the 7th cohort in Rome, and the latest was written in 245 AD. Surely that building was not given up. Both the inscriptions from the barracks in Ostia and the graffiti in Rome testify to a strong link with the Emperor felt by the vigiles. That they lost confidence around 250 AD will not come as a surprise for those who have read about the political chaos at that time. We should also remember that a withdrawal from Ostia must have been the result of a decision by the Imperial administration, a decision with great consequences that would not be taken lightly.

A photo from 1898 of the shrine of the Imperial cult in the Barracks of the Fire Brigade.
It was taken by Thomas Ashby during a visit with Rodolfo Lanciani and friends.
Photo: British School at Rome.

Here we should also note the way in which the marble and travertine from the barracks were found by the excavators. Much of it had been re-used inside, or was found in the immediate neighbourhood. All the statues that once stood in the shrine for the Imperial cult (Augusteum) had disappeared, but the statue bases were in situ, as was an altar near a little aedicula for Fortuna in a latrine. It seems that the statues had been taken to another location by the authorities, whereas a ban had been issued on the removal of the bases to lime kilns. It appears that after the withdrawal of the vigiles, whenever that took place, the option was left open to occupy the building again at a later date.