Late antiquity and early Middle Ages
Here we present an English translation (by Jan Theo Bakker) of two articles published by Stefano Coccia in 1993 and 1996. Although much research and many excavations have taken place since 1996, the two articles are still essential descriptions of Portus in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages.
Stefano Coccia
"Il 'Portus Romae' fra tarda antichità ed altomedioevo"
La Storia economica di Roma nell'alto Medioevo alla luce dei recenti scavi archeologici
Firenze 1993, 177-200
The 'Portus Romae' from late Antiquity to the early Middle Ages[1]
The modern history of the Portus estate, which remained privately owned until 1989, lies at the root of the poor knowledge of the archaeological area of the Port of Trajan; if we exclude the investigations of the port of Claudius, carried out in conjunction with the construction of the Fiumicino airport (SCRINARI 1960, TESTAGUZZA 1970), the studies of the ancient city and the port basins have basically stopped at the point that was reached by G. Lugli in 1935. This situation of stagnation in research contrasts with the importance of the site, a port inextricably linked to the history of Rome and to the vicissitudes of the Mediterranean navigation during the first millennium AD (fig. 1).
Fig. 1. The port system and the main roads leading to Rome (from G. Rickman).
The acquisition by the State of a large sector of the ancient city of Portus has opened a new era of investigations and restorations, preliminary to the creation of an archaeological nature park of great importance (MANNUCCI 1992).
Although extensive excavations since the Renaissance and especially in the nineteenth century have caused serious damage to the archaeological layers (fig. 4) (FEA 1802, pp. 30-39; NIBBY 1848; LANCIANI 1868; MEIGGS 1960, pp. 149-152), recent investigations are revealing that in vast areas of the city stratigraphies related to the late antique and medieval phases are preserved with formidable informative potential, fundamental in the study of the processes of transformation, shrinkage and abandonment of the port.[2]
Fig. 4. The Torlonia excavations in the era of the reclamation ("bonifica").
The construction of the Port of Claudius (42 AD-64 AD) and the Port of Trajan (100 AD-112 AD) was the answer to the complex problems of the food supply of the city of Rome, the river port of Ostia being insufficient for the increased food needs of Rome. The archaeological map of the port - although still incomplete - eloquently shows the enormous area of the port basins and the predominant presence of food warehouses of the new port city (figs. 2 and 3).
Fig. 2. The harbours of Claudius and Trajan according to the hypothesis proposed by F. Castagnoli (1963) and C.F. Giuliani (1992).
Fig. 3. Click on the image to enlarge.
Plan of Portus by I. Gismondi, with updates and indication of the areas of recent archaeological investigations.
Stars = amphora in the cement core of the late antique walls. Solid circles = early-medieval mortar.
In the period of the construction of the Port of Trajan and in the following decades, the number of warehouses In Ostia was also expanded, and the inhabited part of the colony extended with the construction of new quarters (MEIGGS 1960, pp. 51-82; CALZA et al. 1959, pp. 123-149), while the river ports and warehouses of Rome were profoundly restructured (LE GALL 1953; MOCCHEGGIANI CARPANO 1984).
The Port of Trajan therefore came into being in the phase of maximum expansion of the largest consumer centre of antiquity and basically continued to carry out its port functions at least until the middle of the sixth century: Procopius' narrative shows us a fortified, active and lively port, still fundamental for the food supply of Rome.
Late antiquity was certainly a flourishing period for Portus, which was elevated by Constantine to the rank of a municipality (MEIGGS 1960, p. 88); the port activities, previously shared with Ostia, were concentrated in the city and, in accordance with this function, it started to receive attention from the state authorities. Defining the material conditions and the functions of the port after the sixth century is definitely more problematic, when written sources become rare and archaeological evidence more elusive and problematic.
The studies of ceramics and in particular of amphoras have so far allowed us to ascertain how imports of food products from North Africa and the East reached Rome, albeit in smaller quantities than in the past, up until the second half of the seventh century.[3]
The continuity of Rome's supply of grain by sea, after the last explicit attestation at the beginning of the seventh century, is a matter of discussion, although the hypothesis that the papal assets of southern Italy and in particular of Sicily continued to supply the city of Rome with grain until their confiscation by the emperor Leo the Isaurian in the first thirty years of the eighth century appears particularly plausible (BERTOLINI 1947; DURLIAT 1990; MARAZZI 1991).
Despite the general abandonment of the warehouse complexes, the reduction of the area of the settlement and the partial silting up of the port basins, the archaeological investigation - although still in its initial phase - is showing important aspects of the continuity of use of the Port of Trajan in the early Middle Ages; despite a substantial change in scale in maritime trade, the Port of Rome shows that it has not exhausted its function as a commercial port, as demonstrated by the arrival of transport amphoras at least until the end of the eighth century.
In the light of the new archaeological research, the doomsday scenarios that place the silting up of the port and the abandonment of the city in the eighth century appear to be outdated (LUGLI - FILIBECK 1935, pp. 153-154; MEIGGS 1960, p 153).
The conditions of the port basins in the early Middle Ages evidently did not hamper the docking of small vessels, suitable for coastal navigation and with a shallow draft such as those generally in use in the early Middle Ages. The impact of geomorphological transformations does not seem, also in this case, to be the cause of the shortcomings of the Port of Trajan, which was accessible - as we learn from the written sources - until the last quarter of the ninth century; by this time the transport amphoras seem to have disappeared for several decades.[4]
It is to the changes in Mediterranean trade and to the changed relationships between Rome and the territories that had traditionally contributed to its supplies, that we must look to understand the dynamics of the shrinkage in the early Middle Ages and the abandonment, around the tenth-eleventh century, of the Port of Trajan.
The city and the port in late antiquity
Historical sources and archaeological evidence agree in showing Portus as an active mooring place in the late-antique period, vital for the supplying of Rome that, at least until the beginning of the seventh century, depended on food supplies transported by sea. The Port of Trajan, from the fourth to the sixth century, was the main maritime port of Rome and its fortified granary: here the products from the seagoing ships were transferred to the warehouses or directly to the river boats that went up the Tiber as tow barges.
This strategic function meant that the port city was involved in the vicissitudes of wars, sieges and the looting of the city that succeeded each other in the fifth and sixth centuries. Portus was besieged and taken by Alaric in 408 (Zosimus, VI 6), then by Genseric's Vandals in 455 (CANTARELLA 1895) and was at the centre of dramatic episodes of the Gothic-Greek war (Procopius, De bello Gothico I 26, II 4, 5, 7, III 15, 18, 19).
The concentration of the commercial activities and the food supply in Portus also becomes clear by a comparison with the different developments in the city of Ostia where, within vast abandoned areas, we witness the construction of richly decorated residential buildings, which mark an urban panorama now profoundly distant from that of the port of the older phases (BECATTl 1949; PAVOLINI 1971), and which instead contributes to giving a concrete background to the calm Ostia referred to by St. Augustine (Conf. 9, 10, 23; MEIGGS 1960, p. 94).
At the beginning of the fourth century Constantine granted Portus administrative autonomy, as attested by the inscription on the base of the statue of L. Crepereius Madalianus (MEIGGS 1960, pp. 88 and 561, CALZA 1925, p. 73-78) donated by the "ordo et populus Fl(aviae) Constantinianae Portuenses". The memory of the city's "Constantinian" name was transmitted throughout the early Middle Ages as we learn from a papal bull of Benedict VIII (MARINI 1805, n. 42 pp. 65-69).
The connection with Rome by road was guaranteed by the ancient Via Campana which, precisely from late antiquity, began to be called Via Portuensis; in the Honorian renovation, the Porta Portuensis significantly retained its two vaulted entrances, contrary to the majority of the others, which were reduced to one, confirming the intense traffic by road besides that on the river between Rome and the port (LE GALL 1953, p. 320; VERRANDO 1988, pp. 334-335).
The town and the monumental buildings
Very little data is available about the settlement: the areas excavated in the nineteenth century and in the first decades of our century have brought to light complexes of warehouses, docks and baths; the location of the residential areas, in the area to the east and south of the Trajanic basin, is based on a few, although reliable, indications by A. Nibby and R. Lanciani, who were present at various times during the excavations.[5]
Our investigations in the vicinity of the Christian Basilica seem to confirm the observations of the archaeologists of the last century by the discovery of a nymphaeum, which is probably part of a luxurious late-antique residence (COCCIA - PAROLI 1993, p. 180); the building reoccupied in the early Middle Ages in area VI could be part of a residential complex too. The discovery in the nineteenth century of silver hoards (LANCI 1865, pp. 86-87; DE ROSSI 1866, p. 51) and engraved glass (DE ROSSI 1868, pp. 30-39; FLORIANI SQUARCIAPINO 1951-52) in the vicinity of the basilica, at the time attributed to the Xenodochium of Pammachius, further confirms the presence in the fourth and fifth centuries of rich families residing in this central area of the port.[6]
Furthermore, it should not be forgotten that the settlement of the imperial period could probably have extended outside the city walls that define, as we will see, a reduction of the city that occurred between the end of the fourth and the beginning of the fifth century.
The construction of Christian buildings, both inside and outside the city, is an important indicator of the presence of population in the port.
First of all, we recall the large basilica discovered in the nineteenth century, erroneously identified by G.B. De Rossi with the Xenodochium of Pammachius (DE ROSSI 1866, pp. 50-51 and 99-100); the structure, described by Lanciani (1866 pp. 100-103), who was present at some moments of the investigation, was more recently attributed by P.A. Février to the church of St. Peter and St. Paul (FEVRIER 1958, p. 316), mentioned in a papal bull of Benedict VIII (MARINI 1805, n. 42 pp. 65-69). The remains of the basilica, completely buried again after the nineteenth century excavation, were identified and partially explored in the excavation campaigns of 1991-92 (COCCIA - PAROLI 1993, pp. 178-180). Although the foundation levels have not been reached, the discovery in the nineteenth century of fragments of inscriptions, datable by the palaeography to the second half of the fourth century or perhaps to the beginning of the fifth, proves that the church already existed in that period,[7] which the building technique also seems to indicate.
Meanwhile, the location remains uncertain of the Xenodochium, donated in 398 by the senator Pammachius as we learn from an epistle of St. Jerome, intended to welcome pilgrims in the Roman Port (Epist. 66, 11; 77,10).
Most recently, P. Testini has proposed that the charitable complex was near the basilica of St. Hippolytus on the Isola Sacra,[8] built in the same period by Bishop Heraclida (TESTINI 1986).
Furthermore, a cemetery basilica is documented dedicated at the end of the fourth century to Eutropius, Bonosa and Zosima, martyrs of Portus, located by De Rossi "a mile from the walls of Portus and towards Rome near Capo due Rami" (DE ROSSI 1866, pp. 45-47), where at different times fragments were found of an inscription with characters imitating the filocalian script, mentioning the construction of the basilica (PANI ERMINI 1979, p. 246 note 17). A final important piece of evidence of building activity is the restoration of the Temple of Isis of Portus, mentioned in an inscription from 376, found in the Fossa Traiana, near the area of the so-called Iseum on the Isola Sacra (CHASTAGNOL 1967, pp. 47-54; LAURO 1987).
Within the city, the construction of churches continued in a still later period if, as P.A. Février has proposed, the churches dedicated to St. George and to St. Theodore and St. Vitus, mentioned in a papal bull of Benedict VIII (MARINI 1805, n. 42, pp. 65-69), can be dated to the sixth and seventh centuries by their very dedication (FEVRIER 1958, pp. 316-317).
The restorations of baths 15 are attributed to the late-antique period by Lugli (LUGLI - FILIBECK 1935, pp. 90-91), as is the construction of the baths near the small lighthouse (LUGLI - FILIBECK 1935, pp. 82-83).
The last monumental activity known to date is the Porticus Placidiana (LANCIANI 1868, pp. 182-183; LUGLI - FILIBECK 1935, pp. 119-121; MEIGGS 1960, pp. 169-170), built around 425 along the right bank of the Fossa Traiana, close to the sea. From the testimonies of Nibby and Texier, who saw the structure at the time of its discovery, which occurred at the same time as its destruction for the recovery of building materials, we learn that it consisted of a portico placed in front of a row of shops, which extended towards the sea following the forward shift of the coastline over time (NIBBY 1848, p. 620; TEXIER 1858, pp. 310-312).
The city walls
Despite the fragmentary nature of our knowledge of the development of the city, a fixed point is the reduction of the urban space established by the construction of the late-antique city walls. The fortification, traditionally attributed to the Constantinian period (NIBBY 1848, pp. 618-620), can now be dated, thanks to the new investigations, to the end of the fourth century and, probably, before the capture of the city by Alaric in 408.
An investigation carried out at the secondary gate (posterula) on the basin of Claudius had already suggested a terminus post quem at the end of the fourth century: the filling of a sewer blocked by the city walls, probably deposited at the same time as the construction of the walls, contained ceramic materials and coins datable to the end of the fourth century (COCCIA - PAROLI 1993, p.177).
In two different points of the wall (see fig. 3), fragments of amphoras have been identified - in the core of the wall itself -, which impose a certain terminus post quem at the end of the fourth century.
Finally, the execution of the wall facing itself, with mortar beds from two to four centimetres, smoothed and often recessed (fig. 5), has parallels in the Honorian interventions of the city walls of Rome (COZZA 1986; HERES 1982, pp. 130-131).
Fig. 5.
Detail of the construction technique of the late-antique walls near the secondary gate. Sample of 2 x 2 m.
The close ties between the city of Rome and its port are amply illustrated by late-antique sources. Portus was in that period the granary of Rome, and the compliance of the city to Alaric's terms in 408, as Zosimus reports (VI, 6), was followed by the capture of Portus and the threatening of the distribution of grain to its troops. Zosimus here refers to a siege of the port that lasted several days; this information allows us to assume that the city was already fortified by walls.
If this hypothesis will be verified by further investigations, an intervention would be emerging that is chronologically close to the raising of the Aurelian Walls, which came to a completion at the same turbulent political moment.
The dating of the walls to the end of the fourth and the fifth century allows us to reconsider the significance of the shrinkage of the port. The walls left some quarters outside the city: areas intended for storage, bathing rooms and probably residential areas that had already been abandoned or that could be given up without compromising the functionality of the port, which nevertheless still had considerable dimensions, with an intramural area of approximately 48,7 hectares.
The discovery, in 1884, of buildings for storage, identified during the excavation of the Fossa delle Vignole (BORSARI 1985, pp. 21-22) - a drainage ditch outside the city walls - in the vicinity of the so-called Temple of Portumnus, demonstrates how even sectors with warehouses were left outside the city walls and were occupied by burials.[9]
The archaeological analysis of the wall circuit is also relevant in relation to the problem of the raising of the levels of frequentation. As a matter of fact, the foundation level of the walls - where it is visible – is at the level reached at the beginning of the fifth century, emphasizing the probable burial of many rooms originally intended for storage and therefore their functional transformation or, in other cases, abandonment (fig. 6).
Fig. 6. The internal wall circuit in the Great Horrea of Trajan.
As is common in the construction of late-antique city walls, there was extensive reuse of pre-existing structures, while demolition was limited to what was absolutely necessary. Various construction systems were adopted: in the area to the west and to the north of the so-called Imperial Palace, the walls were set against the outside of pre-existing buildings, until they reached the thickness in which the patrol walkways were created. For the same purpose, in other sectors, arched walls supported by pillars were set against the inside of the walls, above which the patrol walkways ran. This solution, adopted near the so-called Porta Marina, in the southern section near the Fossa Traiana (CALZA 1925, pp. 64-65) and in the internal circuit, finds precise parallels in late-antique fortifications in Northern Italy and the Near East (information G.P. Brogiolo).
Although there is still much to be ascertained regarding the layout of the wall circuit, in particular on the so-called late-antique pier and at the small lighthouse,[10] the perimeter of the walls is known, which extend in a wedge shape to include the so-called Temple of Fortuna to the east, the "Terrace of Trajan" to the west and the facade of the warehouses opening onto the basin of Claudius to the south-west (fig. 3).
Another fortification, internal vis-a-vis the known one, so far only partially recognized, encloses the southern area of the city, extending along the bank of the Communication Channel, then continuing on three southern sides of the Trajanic basin and finally reconnecting with the stretch of internal walls of the Arco di S. Maria (figs. 3 and 9).
The section along the channel consists of a wall front against which, on the internal side, a series of arches is leaning, which originally supported the patrol walkway; in some sections the external facade is instead made up of the walls of the warehouses themselves;[11] the fortifications then continue in a southerly direction and are visible up to the entrance of the interior harbour ("darsena"). These structures have not been taken into consideration by Lugli nor have they been linked to the internal circuit up to now.
A second section, located on three southern sides of the Trajanic basin, is no longer visible, but can be reconstructed thanks to a few testimonies. First of all, it is represented on the plan by Gismondi (LUGLI - FILIBECK 1935, Carta III), which clearly shows its relations with the gate of S. Maria.
Although they identified a late-antique raising of the wall, scholars have suggested that it originally closed off the entire basin and that it had the function of facilitating control, and therefore tax collection, of the unloading of goods (LANCIANI 1868, pp. 164-165; CALZA 1925, pp. 56-57; LUGLI - FILIBECK 1935, pp. 68-69).[12]
The remains, which are now preserved below the modern water level of the lake (TESTAGUZZA 1970, pp. 161-162), are not visible, however the course of the wall and its consistent thickness allow us to hypothesize, together with the cited testimonies, that the section was part of the circuit of the internal walls. The Vatican fresco, which reproduces the ruins of the port in the sixteenth century, clearly shows the presence of the remains in the southern zone of the basin (fig. 7).
Fig. 7. View of the ruins of Portus, 1582. Fresco by A. Danti in the Galleria delle carte geografiche in the Vatican.
More problematic is the interpretation of the section of the Arco di S. Maria which, although linked to those walls that reduce the fortified urban area, includes remains of a better quality than the rest of the circuit (NIBBY 1848, p. 651; LUGLI 1935, pp. 94-96; MEIGGS 1960, p. 170). It should be noted however that it is precisely in the facing of the gate that the motif of the rising palm is found (fig. 8) (LUGLI - FILIBECK 1935, p. 96), which we find in the Honorian enlargement of the walls of Rome (COZZA 1987, p. 29 note 8 and fig. 22).
Fig. 8. The motif of the rising palm in the facing of the Arco di S. Maria.
There are strong architectural analogies between the sections of the known wall and this internal fortification and the chronological difference, if any, should not be very large.
Obviously, there are still many aspects to be examined regarding the structures and their complex relationships with preexisting buildings, however the real extent of the subdivision of the city is confirmed by the early-medieval developments. The internal fortification defends the southern part of the city, leaving more than half of the port basins outside, and the construction would seem to mark a further narrowing of the inhabited area (from 48,7 to approximately 27,2 hectares), indicating also the need for defence against attacks from the sea.
It is especially from 439, with the conquest of Carthage by the Vandals, that the need for coastal centres to prepare defences against possible barbarian attacks emerges and in this context the expansion of the walls of Naples towards the port (425-450) and, perhaps, the fortification of Terracina (CHRISTIE-RUSHWORTH 1988, pp. 83-87) has been seen.
The contrast is evident between the fortification that closed off the city towards the harbours of Claudius and Trajan, and the monumentalization of the entrance of the Fossa Traiana, achieved with the construction of the Porticus Placidiana. This is a clear sign of the shift in the centre of gravity of port activities towards the river, which continued into the early Middle Ages, perhaps also as a result of the silting up of the basins. The Bridge of Matidia, a movable bridge that guaranteed the connection with the Isola Sacra, was rebuilt twice, in the first half of the fifth century and again at the end of the fifth or the beginning of the sixth century (VELOCCIA 1975, pp. 19-27). Also, the paving of the road near the bridge remained in use at least until the second half of the seventh century, as demonstrated by the discovery on its surface of two hemifolles of Heraclius and Heraclius Constantine from 641 (VELOCCIA 1975, p. 35).
The continuity of use of the basilica of St. Hippolytus, restored and redecorated in the early Middle Ages, later cathedral of Portus in the eleventh century, confirms the importance of the area near the Fossa Traiana until the central centuries of the Middle Ages (PANI ERMINI 1979).
The abandonment of the food warehouses
Signs of the deterioration of the storage system were evident even before the construction of the walls: a law of the Theodosian Code (C.Th. XV 1,12) of the year 364 in fact required the restoration of granaries of Rome and Portus, also allowing us to infer that a considerable part of the public granaries had passed into private hands, thus creating problems for the administration to find storage space. On the archaeological side, a recent excavation on the Communication Channel between the two harbour basins (area V) is showing how some collapses, preceding the construction of the internal enclosure of the walls, had been repaired with opus listatum walls that closed off the entrances.
The research currently underway offers some data on the phases of abandonment of the warehouses (fig. 10); the excavations carried out in area I, inside the secondary gate (posterula) and in area III, suggest that the structures near the walls were filled with heavy earthworks in the fifth and the beginning of the sixth century (COCCIA - PAROLI 1993, pp. 176-178). Unfortunately, the burials discovered in recent years during the restoration work in the horrea near the Porticus of Claudius and in the area of the large grain warehouses cannot be dated precisely; they imply the abandonment of the warehouses themselves (COLTORTI et al. 1993). The absence of restorations with the traditional early-medieval mortars in the horrea visible today confirms this tendency towards abandonment of the food complexes of Portus.
Fig. 10. The interior of a room for the storage of grain in the Great Horrea of Trajan. Note the floor on suspensurae.
Although it is not yet possible to make quantitative assessments of the possibilities of storage in the city, the available data do not allow optimistic hypotheses.
The abandonment of the storage system coincides with the phase of transfer of the responsibilities for ensuring the provisioning of Rome to the papacy, a transition that appears to have been completed with the pontificate of Gregory the Great (ARNALDI 1986; DURLIAT 1990, pp. 134-160; MARAZZI 1991).
Although also in Rome there is no lack of evidence of warehouses being abandoned in this period (MENEGHINI 1985), we must think that, also for security reasons, one preferred to keep the Roman granaries in use rather than those in Ostia and Portus. At the end of the sixth century at least a part of the horrea ecclesiae was in Rome, as confirmed by the news of the destruction of thousands of modii of wheat in the flood that hit Rome in 589 (Gregory of Tours, Historia Francorum, X,1).
This hypothesis is also supported by the considerations about the drastic demographic decline that certainly affected Rome between the beginning of the fifth and the sixth century (DURLIAT 1990, pp. 110-123; MAZZARINO 1951, pp. 217-247), which made the storage capacity of the port superfluous.[13]
There are obviously close links between the survival of storage facilities, the continuity of the food supply, and the demographic trend of the city of Rome; and the reconstruction based on archaeology of the dynamics of the abandonment of warehouses, with the quantitative analysis of the phenomenon, could offer new elements for these problems.
The reduction in the size of vessels and their cargoes (KREUTZ 1976; BONINO 1991) is a further argument to explain the decline of the port at the mouth of the Tiber; most vessels could probably sail up the river due to the shallow draft. The wreck of the merchant ship Yassi Ada, dated to the first quarter of the seventh century, is one of the few examples of vessels known through archaeology and shows changes in size and construction technique compared to the older examples; the ship could carry up to 60 tons and had a modest draft, of about 1 meter and 80 centimetres (BASS - VAN DOORNICK 1982).
The port
The state authority was clearly committed, at least throughout the fourth century, to maintaining the functionality of the port through interventions of restoration of the structures, dredging of the port basins, as well as monitoring the regular carrying out of the unloading of goods.
According to an ancient tradition, Terracina supplied lime for the restoration of the Port of Trajan. This obligation is confirmed by a law (C.Th. XIV 6,3) of the year 365, which specifies that the lime had to be used for the lighthouse and the port itself.
The aforementioned inscription of L. Crepereius Madalianus - from the first half of the fourth century - attests to the intervention for the "purgatura", that is the dredging, of the port and the lighthouse, which was made necessary by the silting up of the basin itself. This is the last datable testimony of interventions in the harbour basins, which documents at the same time the manifestation of the problem of the silting up and the technological and economic possibilities to address it.[14]
The Theodosian Code reflects the authority's attention to regulating the functioning of the Port: in 364 it was reiterated that the transhipment of products from ships had to be carried out by members of the corporation of the Saccarii Portus Romae (C.Th. XIV 22,1).
The functionality of the Port also emerges from literary sources, as in the De reditu suo by Rutilius Namatianus, from which we also learn that the natural branch of the Tiber delta, that is, the Ostian branch, was obstructed by silting up (De reditu suo 1, 179-182).
The narrative of Philostorgius (Ecclesiasticae Historiae XII, 3) attests that in the fifth century the Port of Trajan had three basins, which can certainly be identified with the basins of Claudius - still in some way functioning -, of Trajan, and the interior harbour ("darsena").
But what were the conditions like in the basins, and in particular that of Claudius, the one most susceptible to silting?
The problem is not easy to solve, if one considers that there are substantially discordant hypotheses about the original layout of the harbour of Claudius (CASTAGNOLI 1963; SCRINARI 1960; TESTAGUZZA 1970; GIULIANI 1992). However, some considerations can be made.
Recently C.F. Giuliani has proposed again with new arguments the hypothesis already proposed by F. Castagnoli of a basin with access to the south-west; although there is still a lack of tests in the field, it seems to be the most reliable to date (see fig. 2). Doubts about the hypothesis of a main entrance to the north had also been expressed by G. Rickman due to considerations about the prevailing winds (1985, p. 107).
Finally, as Meiggs (1960, p. 157) had already observed, the testimony of Ammianus Marcellinus (XIX, 10.4) supports the hypothesis of an access to the basin on the south-western side, in fact he describes the arrival in the Port of Trajan of ships carrying food supplies, which entered the port under full sail, driven by southerly winds.
Recent research has also challenged the traditional interpretation of the north-south mole, seen as a shrinkage of the basin after the collapse of the left mole (LUGLI - FILIBECK 1935, pp. 79-81; LE GALL 1953, p. 324; ROUGÉ 1978, p. 89). The presence of a cement core dating back to the full imperial period shows that it was part of the original plan (COLTORTI et al., p. 163), although it later underwent the renovations and restorations observed by Lugli.
The last lively testimony of the functionality of the port is that of Procopius who describes (De bello Gothico 1,26) the operations of the transhipment of goods from seagoing ships to river boats, which then went up the river pulled by oxen. The description exalts the "ancient" fortifications and the swarming of ships in the harbour basin, but no mention is made of the port warehouses. What we can hypothesize, also in light of the archaeological evidence, is that Procopius' description reflects a reality of the port in which the main function is now only that of the transfer of the goods to river boats and no longer their storage.
Another passage from the Gothic War (De bello Gothico 111,15) concerning the capture of ships by the Goths besieging Portus, can perhaps be understood in light of the identification of the double circuit of walls (see figs. 3 and 9). When the fleet with supplies sent from Sicily by Pope Vigilius approached Portus, the city was in the hands of the Romans, besieged within the walls, but to surprise and capture the fleet with supplies once it had entered the port, the Goths hid inside the walls. The Romans attempted to signal the danger to the ships by waving cloaks from the ramparts, but they were unable to avoid the capture of the ships in the port. The only explanation for the apparent contradiction of the presence of the besiegers and the besieged within the walls is, that on this occasion the Romans were stationed in the internal circuit, while the Goths were stationed in the northern area of the city, within the wider circuit of walls.
Fig. 9. The southern fortified area, indicated in black.
The early-medieval settlement
Although no occupation levels datable between the sixth century and the mid-eighth have been identified so far, the ceramics recovered in the stratigraphic excavations show the continuity of habitation in the Port of Trajan. The early-medieval occupation levels resume from the mid-eighth century, while a general and final phase of abandonment seems to mark the site between the second half of the ninth and the tenth century.
The area occupied in the early Middle Ages unquestionably corresponds to the southern fortified zone. Particularly significant in this sense is the analysis of the distribution of traditional early-medieval mortars used in restorations or in walls built ex novo that have so far been observed exclusively within the southern circuit (figs. 3 and 9). The mortars mixed with the local sands are concentrated in particular along the walls, highlighting the care taken in restoring the walls, even in an period in which heavy layers of rubble obliterated the storage buildings, thus forming large uninhabited areas within the walls, similarly to what happens in Rome in the Aurelian circuit (KRAUTHEIMER 1980, pp. 237-259). Excavations I, III, IV and V, along the walls, have in fact not returned any early-medieval material. Along the western section of the walls and on the Communication Channel, it is also possible to observe restorations with brick facings with undulating courses that present close analogies with those of the Leonine walls of Rome (GIBSON - WARD-PERKINS 1979) (fig. 11).
Fig. 11.
Restoration with a brick facing with undulating courses from the early-medieval period. Sample of 2 x 2 m.
The city walls were certainly restored in the mid-ninth century, as attested by the biography of Leo IV, in which references to the fortifications and gates restored or rebuilt by him are at the start of the description of the city.[15]
The walls, which certainly played a defensive role during the Saracen raids against Rome, represented the feature that was perhaps most characteristic of the city, and are still mentioned in the eleventh century in a papal bull of Benedict VIII (MARINI 1805, n. 42, pp. 65-69) and in the medieval documentation.[16]
The archaeological evidence and the written sources show how Portus participated in the economic recovery of the Carolingian age, closely linked in the city of Rome to the influx of precious metals from central-northern Europe and the Anglo-Saxon world (DELOGU 1988, pp. 280-293). The intensification of pilgrimages to the centre of Western Christianity, which often took place by sea, certainly directly involved the coastal centres of Ostia and Portus.
The donations, the restorations and the reworking of liturgical furnishings are a clear indicator of a recovery phenomenon; the Torlonia excavations of 1865, in the area of the so-called Xenodochium of Pammachius, produced marble liturgical furnishings made, as the inscription on a ciborium recalls, by Stephen, bishop of Portus at the time of Leo III (795-816) (LANCIANI 1866, p. 101). The same bishop had donated similar furnishings for the basilica of St. Hippolytus on the Isola Sacra, found during the excavation campaigns directed by P. Testini (TESTINI 1975, pp. 105-109). The same church of St. Hippolytus had also been endowed with precious fabrics by Leo III (LP II, p. 12). The excavations still underway in area VI have allowed us to identify for the first time levels of habitation which can be dated, due to the presence of Forum Ware, to the second half of the eighth and ninth centuries, which show the reoccupation of a building with a sequence of earthen floors and hearths (fig. 12) and, in the area near the channel, the expansion of a building of uncertain function.[17]
Fig. 12. Early-medieval hearth on a level of beaten earth in area VI.
The new archaeological evidence therefore seems to suggest a resumption in habitation in the second half of the eighth century and the first half of the ninth, which only the extension of the excavations will be able to confirm.[18]
From the first half of the ninth century the Saracen threat on the coasts of central Italy worsened and in 846 it even struck the heart of the city of Rome. The centres of Ostia and Portus were involved in the war episodes and assumed a strategic role of great importance. In 842 Gregory IV (827-844) founded the fortified city of Gregoriopolis near Ostia on the bend of the Tiber (LP II, pp. 81-82) in the area of the church of St. Aurea. In the middle of the ninth century Leo IV (847-855) restored the walls of Portus and offered Corsican refugees who had fled the Saracen raids the possibility of settling in the city, also entrusting them with vineyards and livestock (LP II, pp. 125-126).
The documentary and archaeological evidence, however, indicates that this attempt to repopulate Portus did not have lasting success. The levels of abandonment in the central area of the city can be dated back to the second half of the ninth century, while the interpretation of the sources of the tenth and eleventh centuries allows us to envisage a highly ruralized settlement panorama, in other words the definitive crisis of the ancient city. The epilogue of this shrinkage is recognized in the construction of the castle of the Episcopium (fig. 3), probably from the second half of the twelfth century.[19]
Some aspects of the archaeological evidence from the phase under consideration have wider implications for the economic structure of the port and merit some brief observations here.
In relation to the building industry at the end of the sixth and in the seventh century, the use was established of mortars mixed with local sands instead of pozzolana, which had characterised the building activities of the Roman period. The change is certainly linked to a "localisation" of the area where the building material was collected and the interruption of the traditional river transport of pozzolana.[20]
In this critical moment characterized by other important changes it seems that a traditional bond was broken with the affirmation of new construction practices.
The mortars, as already observed elsewhere (COCCIA - PAROLI 1990, p. 181), constitute a very important guide fossil for the construction and restoration interventions found in the monumental remains at Portus and Ostia.[21] The presence at Portus of contexts of transport amphoras, dating back at least to the entire eighth century, is an important indicator of the continuity of the influx of foodstuffs by sea and of the functionality of the port. Although a more nuanced and detailed analysis of the circulation of amphoras is not yet possible, both in terms of chronology and provenance, it seems that from the second half of the seventh century the circulation was substantially limited to the central-southern Tyrrhenian Sea (see PAROLI, infra). The close connections between Rome and Naples in particular can also be found in the affinities of domestic ceramics apart from the amphoras (PATTERSON, infra). It still seems difficult to place this archaeological evidence in the complex framework of maritime trade in the early Middle Ages in which food products - spices and delicatessen - played a significant role (MONTANARI 1988, p. 155). Among these products, wine was certainly still transported in amphoras and to this we should perhaps also add garum, the fish sauce of Roman tradition produced up until the ninth century in various areas of the Mediterranean, which was preserved in jars (MONTANARI 1988, pp. 152-155) and which was perhaps also transported in amphoras as in ancient times.
It is significant that the presence of amphoras does not end with the loss of the possessions of the Church of Rome in southern Italy, from which it is probable that food supplies flowed to Rome until their confiscation in the first thirty years of the eighth century. Once again, archaeology seems able to show how commercial contacts can overcome the turnarounds imposed by political and territorial transformations.
Regardless of the conditions of the harbour basins, access to the mouth of the Tiber constituted an important point of control and tax collection for goods brought into Rome via the Tiber. In the Council of Ravenna we find the first attestation of the inalienability and of the direct papal jurisdiction - with the resulting fiscal rights - of Ostia, Portus and the banks of the Tiber in Rome. The latter were destined for an increasingly important purpose, which contributed to marking the decline of the coastal ports. The entire port history of late-medieval Rome, which shows a lively movement of men and goods, developed in the urban river ports (ripae). The phrase Romanus Portus itself came to indicate no longer the ports of Claudius and Trajan, but the fiscal rights of the ripae (PALERMO 1979, p. 15).
The economic importance of the salt pans of Ostia and Portus in antiquity is well known, however the archaeological evidence of the salt pans of Portus is rather elusive, limited to the discovery of an inscription from the beginning of the third century AD (GATTI 1888, pp. 228-229) and some tuff walls, perhaps belonging to evaporation basins (BORSARI 1889, p. 162). The last evidence from late antiquity that indirectly documents the extraction of salt is a law of the Theodosian Code of 400-405, which exempts the Roman salt workers from the tax on income from real estate and businesses (C.Th. XI 20,3).
From the tenth century onwards, the ecclesiastical documentation presents us with a very lively picture of the exploitation of the salt pans of Portus, in which the city of Portus still seems to be a centre for the storage of the product (MONTEL 1971; TOUBERT 1973, pp. 641-651 and 681-683; MAGGI BEI 1978).
Between the two eras, however, the silence of the sources on the extraction of salt is total. Although this situation insists on the utmost caution, it seems very probable that forms of exploitation of this essential resource were in progress in the early Middle Ages in the lagoons of Ostia and Portus. Salt, an indispensable element in human nutrition, can be extracted only in particular geographical areas such as coastal lagoons, and this obviously favours the continuity of exploitation of potential production areas.
This is even more true in the early Middle Ages, when the general tendency towards self-consumption pushes people to use even the smallest source of supply. The presence of a waterway such as the Tiber and of an extraordinary centre of consumption such as Rome in the early Middle Ages makes it even more likely that the salt pans were exploited in this period too.
The imbalance between a few extraction areas and the absolute need for salt for human consumption certainly constituted a stimulus for the maintenance of a market to which even the most modest classes of early-medieval society had access (MONTANARI 1988, pp. 180-182). The example of the merchants from Comacchio, who in the eighth century sailed up the Po with boats loaded with salt extracted in the delta area, is a suggestive and useful comparison.
With regard to the functionality of the harbour basins, it can be observed that sporadic references in the sources attest that these were still active until the third quarter of the ninth century, although precise references to the individual basins are lacking.
At the beginning of the eighth century Pope Constantine (708-715) set sail from the Roman port with a flotilla of ships (LP I, p. 389). Other references to the port are recorded in the ninth century when the navies of Naples, Gaeta and Amalfi faced the Arab attacks at the mouth of the Tiber (LP II, pp. 99-100; II, pp. 117-119).
The last evidence from the sources showing the port still active dates back to the third quarter of the ninth century when John VIII urged the Amalfitans to access the Portus Urbis Romae to return 10.000 "mancuses" of silver (M.G.H., Epistolae, n. 217 p. 194).
Archaeological evidence of the continuity of use of the harbour basins consists of the early-medieval restorations on the quay of the Communication Channel, between the hexagonal basin and the Fiumicino channel, in addition to the presence of transport amphoras, which imply the functionality of the port. Finally, the inspection of an aerial photograph has shown the presence of a dredged channel in the basin of Claudius, related to the later phases of its use (GIULIANI 1992, p. 36), which could however also date back to the late-antique period.
However, dredging interventions in harbour basins in the early Middle Ages cannot be excluded, such as the one carried out in the Neorion of Constantinople in 698 and followed by a plague attributed to the rotting of the dredged sediments (MANGO 1985, p. 56). Partial silting probably did not compromise the use of the port; as G. Rickman has brilliantly highlighted, a good port does not necessarily require deep water (RICKMAN 1985, p. 108) - and this is certainly true if we think of early-medieval vessels -, but well-sheltered basins and a good connection to the hinterland.
It is not yet possible to say with certainty when the silting up began to block the entrances to the Port of Claudius and Trajan, but this process must have already been completed at the end of the tenth century when, in the privilege of John XV of 992 (Migne CXXXVII, n. 11, p. 843), reference is made to a ditch to be built to connect the lacus Traiani and the Fiumicino channel, a basin that was therefore now isolated and that was now mainly of interest for its fish resources.[22]
The impact of natural agents on the port and the stages of its silting can only be fully understood by carrying out interdisciplinary studies that integrate historical, archaeological and environmental data, such as the work initiated by the Archaeological Superintendency of Ostia.[23]
However, also on the basis of the observations made on the continuity of use of the harbour basins, we can hypothesize that the early Middle Ages were a period in which the advancement of the coast and the silting up slowed down (SEGRE 1986). As is known, the phases of greatest economic development correspond to large-scale deforestation, to satisfy the needs of the building industry and of the shipyards. As A. Giardina has recognized, there are direct relations between the phases of maximum development of the Roman period - and then of the late Middle Ages - and the floods, which in this perspective represent "an indicator of long-term economic trends" (GIARDINA 1981, p. 109). This is true not only for catastrophic events, but also for erosion and sediment transport, which determined over time the advance of the coast and the silting up of the basins. The natural reforestation of the banks of the Tiber, which occurred between late antiquity and the early Middle Ages, a consequence of a slowdown in the exploitation of the forest cover and agricultural cultivation, certainly counteracted erosion and the ensuing transport of sediments.
Although there is no lack of evidence of floods in the early Middle Ages, it is from the late Middle Ages that these resumed with renewed violence (GIARDINA 1981, pp. 108-109). The vicissitudes themselves of the salt pans of Portus from the end of the fourteenth century reflect the acceleration of the advancement of the coast, which had dramatic consequences for the survival of the delicate system of canals of the "salinari" (MONTEL 1971, pp. 53-57), and which led to the abandonment of the salt flats of Portus in the sixteenth century. The rapid succession of the construction of coastal towers in the modern age shows how the advance of the coast underwent a strong acceleration in the centuries closest to us (fig. 7), similarly to what was observed in Luni (WARD-PERKINS et al. 1986) and Ravenna (FABBRI 1991).
In conclusion, the dynamics of the shrinkage and abandonment of the Port of Trajan emerged, even though in a preliminary phase of the study, in its complexity, showing the inadequacy of the doomsday reconstructions that proposed an abandonment of the port in the eighth century. It was possible to observe how continuity and interruptions in the various aspects of reality are closely intertwined. Depending on whether we turn our attention to the storage capacity, the functionality of the channels and of the harbour basins, or finally to the inhabited area, we could draw also very different conclusions about the abandonment of the Port of Trajan.
Important transformations in the layout of the settlement, as well as the shifting of port activity towards the Fossa Traiana, destined to last into the early Middle Ages, originate in the choices of the late-antique era. In this period, although prosperous for the port, the abandonment of the spaces intended for storage is recorded. On the other hand, despite the substantial reduction in scale, the port remained in use until the ninth century and transmarine commerce is archaeologically documented at least until the end of the eighth. The silting up of the basins occurred only after the abandonment of the port in favour of urban river ports.
As C. Delano Smith wrote:[24] "... a port is an artificial structure, and its survival depends on human factors. The physical changes and the problems of silting or erosion, should be measured in terms of the required costs and efforts ... For a better understanding of the decline and abandonment of so many port cities along the coasts of Mediterranean Europe, we should concentrate on the fortunes of trade, urban administration, and of the political and economic organization of nations" (DELANO SMITH 1979, p. 368).
Notes
[1] This paper summarizes some of the themes of a PhD in archaeology currently underway at the University of Siena, under the supervision of Prof. R. Francovich. I would like to thank the Superintendent Dr. A. Gallina Zevi and Dr. L. Paroli for giving me the opportunity to carry out archaeological research in the city of Porto on behalf of the Superintendency of Ostia. I would also like to thank for advice and useful discussions Prof. L. Cozza, Prof. P. Delogu, Prof. R. Francovich, Dr. F. Marazzi, Dr. L. Paroli, Dr. H. Patterson, Prof. G. Rickman, Prof. B. Ward Perkins. The illustrations and the graphic elaborations of the plans are by Dr. A.G. Fabiani, the drawings of the ceramics in the appendix by A. Martin are by Filomena De Santis of the Cooperativa Archeologia; to both of them I express my gratitude.
[2] The Archaeological Superintendency of Ostia, in collaboration with the Cooperativa Archeologia di Roma, has been carrying out, since the spring of 1991, under the direction of L. Paroli and the author, a project for the assessment of postclassical archaeological layers; for an initial report see COCCIA - PAROLI 1993.
[3] PANELLA 1986, for a similar situation in Naples see ARTHUR 1985 and 1991.
[4] This disappearance must however be viewed with caution, as observed by Arthur, examining the case of Naples. We cannot exclude that the disappearance of the amphoras is to be linked to a change in transport containers, from terracotta amphoras to wooden barrels.
[5] See NIBBY 1848, p. 652; LANCIANI 1868, p. 189. Both authors also noted how the area south of the Trajanic basin remained in use until a very late period.
[6] The provenance of the glass from the area of the so-called xenodochium is however less certain, as it was reported by G.B. De Rossi when the materials were already in the collection of the Vatican Library.
[7] Based on the examination of the surviving fragments, Father A. Ferrua has excluded that these are filocalian inscriptions, as G.B. De Rossi and R. Lanciani had proposed (FERRUA 1942, pp. 256-257). As for the place where fragment a) bearing the inscription "...us episc" was found, the testimonies of G.B. De Rossi (1866, pp. 99-100) and R. Lanciani (1866, p. 101) must be considered decisive for the attribution of the inscription to the basilica, despite the objection by P. Testini, who hypothesized the provenance of the fragments from the Isola Sacra, where he has proposed to locate the Xenodochium of Pammachius (TESTINI 1986, p. 298).
[8] For a bibliography on the basilica of St. Hippolytus, the object of archaeological investigations by the chair of Christian Archaeology of the University of Rome directed by Prof P. Testini see PANI ERMINI 1979.
[9] Borsari's note does not allow a direct localization of the discovery. For this purpose, the reclamation project, published in AMENDUNI 1884, was consulted, which shows how the ditch passed outside the walls. The aerial photo of 1911 shows that the ditch was actually built in accordance with the project.
[10] Currently not visible due to vegetation, but see LUGLI 1935, pp. 80-82.
[11] In a recent trench, a stretch of wall facing decorated with a "capriccio" depicting a double set of rays was found among the collapsed arches; this type of decoration is rather common in late-antique wall facings and is found in the Honorian raising of the Aurelian walls as shown by Lucos Cozza (1986).
[12] Lanciani reports that the lake was "flanked towards the land by a large wall built both to support the surrounding embankment, on which ran one of the main streets of the city, and to impede all communication between it and the port, so that it would be impossible for the merchants to defraud the administration of the due taxes by clandestinely introducing the goods into the warehouses. ... examining the remains on the south and south-west sides, where the wall is better preserved, one sees that the upper part at the level of the embankment dates back to a period of decadence, while the lower part appears to be of a good age" (LANCIANI 1868, pp. 164-165). Calza (1925, pp. 56-57) adds that it is a wall with a thickness of one meter and eighty centimetres, preserved in height for a maximum of three meters.
[13] Estimates of the population of Rome cease with the middle of the sixth century; the estimates proposed by S. Mazzarino and by Durliat indicate a sharp decrease in population at the beginning of the fifth century, after the sack of Alaric.
[14] This inscription was found beneath the latest reconstruction of the basalt pavement that runs along the southern side of the hexagonal basin, inside the walls, and therefore reflects a rather late adjustment of the southern bank (CALZA 1925, p.73).
[15] LP II p. 126: "Nam et civitatem quam vobis daturi erimus, valde firma est atque munita; quam nos, Redemptoris nostri protegente auxilio, novis portis ac fabricis in locis pernecessariis ad cultum pristinum revocavimus".
[16] In a document from 936 (SCHIAPARELLI 1901, n. 31 p. 438) the definition of Civitas Maior and Minor is used, perhaps to indicate respectively the area enclosed by the larger circuit and the internal walls.
[17] R. Lanciani had sensed the essential lines of the settlement phases in this area (LANCIANI 1866, p. 100: "From the first visit, which the courtesy of the Most Excellent Owner allowed me to make to the exterior appearance of the place, I realized that we were wandering around part of the city built or rebuilt in the first half of the fourth century and inhabited subsequently up to the eighth and ninth centuries").
[18] The early-medieval levels are located immediately below the humus and are therefore particularly exposed to erosion; their absence in many areas must be evaluated with caution so as not to amplify too much the panorama of sparse occupation that would be easy to envisage.
[19] The fortified enclosure is the result of the reunification of buildings from the Roman period and the central centuries of the Middle Ages. The opus listatum walls with a pattern of tuff and bricks, which connect the pre-existing structures, can be dated on the basis of comparisons with walls in Rome in the twelfth century, according to the chronologies proposed by BARCLAY LLOYD 1985.
[20] The nearest pozzolana quarries are located near S. Paolo fuori le mura.
[21] The use of these sands in construction continued in limited and marginal forms until the contemporary age and is also found in the restorations of the structures of the archaeological area of Ostia Antica carried out by I. Gismondi. Mr. L. Zecchini, who participated as a worker of the Superintendency in these restorations, recalls that an area where these sands were collected was in the vicinity of the Terme Marittime of Ostia. Despite this continuity in the use of local sands, the almost total abandonment of the city of Portus at the end of the early Middle Ages allows us to use mortars as a significant chronological indicator even outside of stratigraphic contexts.
[22] The establishment of the fasting obligations of the liturgical calendar determined, since the early Middle Ages, a greater consumption of fish. The archaeozoological material, recovered in the late-antique and early-medieval contexts of the port, currently being studied by G. Clark and E. Bedini, will be able to offer also in this regard important aspects of the variations in the diet between the fourth and ninth centuries.
[23] The investigations carried out by C. Hunt of the University of Huddersfield (GB), with a series of manual core samplings, have examined the potential role of the harbour deposits in relation to the reconstruction of the environmental context. Of particular interest are the sedimentary stratifications in the channels and harbour basins. Thanks to the conservation of organic remains in a water-saturated environment, these stratifications are particularly suitable for the study of the widest range of environmental and archaeological remains of the phases of use and abandonment of the port. With regard to the latter, it will be possible to define the stages of the transformation from a marine environment to a brackish environment that marks the progressive isolation of the internal channels from the sea.
[24] Cited in RICKMAN 1985, p. 106.
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MEIGGS 1960 - R. MEIGGS, Roman Ostia, Oxford.
MENEGHINI 1985 - R. MENEGHINI, "Saggio di pianta archeologica del Tevere: Tav I-sito B: Considerazioni", Bollettino di Numismatica, 5, pp. 127-152.
MOCCHEGGIANI CARPANO 1984 - C. MOCCHEGGIANI CARPANO, "Il Tevere: archeologia e commercio", Bollettino di Numismatica, 2.2, pp. 21-81.
MONTANARI 1979 - M. MONTANARI, L'alimentazione contadina nell'alto Medioevo, Napoli.
MONTANARI 1988 - M. MONTANARI, Alimentazione e cultura nel Medioevo, Bari.
MONTEL 1971 - R. MONTEL, "Un casale de la campagne romaine de la fin du XIVe siècle au début du XVIIe: le domaine de Porto d'après les Archives du Chapitre de Saint Pierre", MEFRM, 83, pp. 31-87.
NIBBY 1848 - A. NIBBY, "Porto e Fiumicino", in Analisi storico-topografico-antiquaria della carta de' dintorni di Roma, vol. II, ed. II, Roma, pp. 602-661.
PALERMO 1979 - L. PALERMO, Il Porto di Roma nel XIV e XV secolo. Strutture socio-economiche e statuti, Roma.
PANELLA 1986 - C. PANELLA, "Le anfore tardoantiche: centri di produzione e mercati preferenziali", in A. GIARDINA (ed.), Società romana e impero tardoantico, III, Le merci, gli insediamenti, Roma-Bari, pp. 251-272.
PANI ERMINI 1979 - L. PANI ERMINI, "Il territorio portuense dopo il IV secolo alla luce degli scavi all'Isola Sacra", Archeologia Laziale, II, pp. 243-249.
PAVOLINI 1986 - C. PAVOLINI, "Edilizia commerciale ed edilizia abitativa nel contesto di Ostia tardo-antica", in A.GIARDINA (ed.), Società romana e impero tardoantico, II, Roma: politica, economia e paesaggio, Roma-Bari, pp. 239-297.
RICKMAN 1971 - G. RICKMAN, Roman granaries and store buildings, Cambridge.
RICKMAN 1985 - G. RICKMAN, "Towards a Study of Roman Ports", in A. RABAN (ed.), Harbour Archaeology, Caesarea Maritima 24-28.6.1983, (BAR International Series, 257), pp. 105-114.
ROUGE 1978 - J. ROUGE, "Ports et escales dans l'Empire tardif", in La navigazione mediterranea nell'alto medio evo. Settimane di studio del Centro Italiano di Studi sull'Alto Medioevo, XXV, Spoleto 1977, Spoleto, pp. 67-124.
SCHIAPARELLI 1901 - L. SCHIAPARELLI, "Le carte antiche dell'Archivio Capitolare di S. Pietro in Vaticano", ASRSP, 24, pp. 394-496.
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TESTINI 1986 - P. TESTINI, "Damaso e il santuario di S. Ippolito a Porto", in Secularia Damasiana, Atti del Convegno Internazionale per il XVI centenario della morte di Papa Damaso I (10-12/12/1984), Città del Vaticano, pp. 293-303.
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TOUBERT 1973 - P. TOUBERT, Les structures du Latium Medieval. Le Latium Méridional et la Sabine du IXe siècle a la fin du Xe siècle, Roma.
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Stefano Coccia
"Il Portus Romae alla fine dell'antichità nel quadro del sistema di approvvigionamento della città di Roma"
'Roman Ostia' Revisited, Roma 1996, 293-307
The Portus Romae at the end of antiquity in the framework of the supply system of the city of Rome
The impossibility of maintaining the two food centres of Ostia and Portus active during a phase of economic crisis in Rome led the imperial administration, from the fourth century, to guarantee the functionality of Portus, the centre with the largest infrastructure, to concentrate the food activities there.
The construction of the city walls, between the end of the fourth and the beginning of the fifth century, is in itself an indicator of the importance of the port, in which fundamental reserves of grain for the city of Rome were kept. The testimony of Zosimus in this regard is very explicit: in the port besieged by Alaric in 408, the reserves vital for the survival of Rome were amassed, "according to ancient custom" (Zosimus VI, 6). Furthermore, in the testimony of Philostorgius, Portus was, at the beginning of the fifth century, the main port of the Romans, and had three basins, to be identified undoubtedly with the harbour of Claudius, still in some way functioning, the harbour of Trajan, and the interior harbour ("darsena") (Ecclesiasticae Historiae XII, 3).
In the sixth century the transfer of the port functions had been completed for more than a century: during the Greek-Gothic wars Procopius exalted the liveliness of the Portus Romae, criticizing on the other hand the crisis of Ostia, a city once flourishing, but now without walls and poorly connected to Rome (Procopius, De bello gothico I, 26).
There would therefore be a direct relationship between the urban crisis of the ancient colony and the choice of the imperial administration to leave the harbour and the warehouses of Ostia to their own devices in favour of Portus.
The archaeological verification of this reconstruction had so far been addressed, despite the serious difficulties posed by the scant records of the old excavations, only in the Ostian area, thanks in particular to the work of Pavolini.
The archaeological reality of late-antique Ostia clearly reflects the change in the role of the city, established definitively by the transfer of the port functions in the fourth century, but which originates from the crisis of the mid-third century. From this moment in fact, alongside the disappearance of every attestation of the Ostian magistrates, the vicissitudes of construction as a whole mark the end of the expansion of the city.[1]
Despite the contributions by Lugli and Février,[2] who from different angles have analysed the late-antique monuments of the port cities, and the very important results of the investigations of the Institute of Christian Archaeology of the University of Rome[3] and of the Superintendency of Ostia on the Isola Sacra,[4] the archaeological reality of Portus in late antiquity was still little known. In fact, there was a lack of data about the extension and conditions of the inhabited part of Portus and about the state of the large food complexes of the imperial period, which constituted the fundamental element of the urban layout of Portus and the monumental counterpart of the economic functions of the city, also in late antiquity. The architectural examination of the structures alone, the dating of the construction phases and the main restorations did not allow us to understand how long the complexes remained in use.
Understanding the conditions of the city, in the era in which written and iconographic sources testified to its centrality in the Roman port system, necessarily had to undergo a new analysis of the archaeological evidence, more attentive to the recording of the traces of the continuity of use or abandonment of the enormous building legacy.
The recent investigations of the Archaeological Superintendency of Ostia (fig. 1),[5] have aimed at answering these questions and today offer, alongside other recent discoveries, new data useful for reconstructing the developments of the port, also contributing to the understanding of the crisis of the Roman supply system at end of antiquity and in the early Middle Ages.
Fig. 1. Click on the image to enlarge.
Plan of Portus by I. Gismondi, with updates and indication of the areas of recent archaeological investigations.
The definitive crisis of the storage system in the city of Portus, as we will try to demonstrate, occurred in the second half of the fifth and the sixth century, and is mainly characterised by the abandonment and obliteration, under heavy layers of debris, of the food warehouses. The reduction of the urban area resulting from the construction of two city walls[6] and the progressive abandonment of the warehouses did not, however, lead to the abandonment of the port: research in recent years has in fact demonstrated how the port activity and the life of the settlement continued without interruption even in the most critical phases of the transition between late antiquity and the early Middle Ages. The discovery of housing levels from the eighth and ninth centuries in the central area of the port, near the Christian Basilica,[7] and the discovery of groups of early-medieval transport amphorae,[8] clearly document the continuity of settlement and the functionality of the port in the early Middle Ages.
Portus as storage centre and the systems of grain storage
Our knowledge of the monumental complexes of the Port of Trajan is still mainly the result of the work of Lugli in 1935 and of the previous contributions by Fea, Nibby, Texier, De Rossi and Lanciani,[9] even if new investigations are shedding light on important aspects of the port layout in antiquity.[10]
Although there is no doubt about the function of Portus as a "granary city" until at least the beginning of the fifth century, many aspects of the city layout and of the functioning of the food complexes still remain to be clarified.
The hexagonal basin, with a surface of approximately 32 hectares, constitutes the central element of the urban planning of the port, dominated by the development of food complexes, arranged along the internal stretches of water and directly accessible from the ships.
The layout of the internal canals and basins seems to respond to the intent to obtain the largest perimeter of contact between the water and the warehouses, to facilitate the loading and unloading of the ships, and even the so-called darsena, which overlooks the food warehouses, can be interpreted in light of this need.[11] It is no coincidence that some scholars, to compare the port capacities of ancient Mediterranean ports, have referred to the perimeter of the docks rather than the surface of the basins.[12]
The storage structures consisted of modular buildings with several floors, connected by ramps and stairs, built with criteria of maximum solidity. The warehouses were often provided with buttresses, sometimes added during consolidation interventions, to support the very heavy loads of cereals.[13]
However, it is not easy to identify the exact intended use of the warehouses, which could be used to store a wide range of products, stored in containers of various types or simply piled up in the rooms; however, the structures equipped with floors on suspensurae and with thresholds with holes for ventilation were in all probability used for the storage of grain, which requires fresh and ventilated environments, absolutely dry.[14]
An aspect of no secondary importance, also from a quantitative study perspective, consists of the interpretation of the grain storage system in the warehouses. The product could indeed be piled up on the floors or, as Rickman[15] considered more likely, stored in the sacks that also constituted the transport container.
It should be noted, however, that this was only possible if the product was to be sent to Rome after a short time since, as is known, grain requires, even if partially dried, frequent shovelling[16] to avoid fermentation. It therefore seems more likely that generally the grain was piled up on the floor of the warehouse without any container.
It must also be taken into account that the layer of grain, to avoid the risk of fermentation, could not exceed a thickness of about half a meter,[17] with a resulting limitation of the capacity of a single floor. The grain reserves were therefore probably piled up on the various floors and preferably on the upper ones, more isolated from humidity, as we can also infer from the late-antique regulations, which tended to prevent the storage of grain on the ground floor of the warehouses.[18]
The condition of the food warehouses
The evaluation of the functionality of the port and its storage capacity, to which the sources of the fourth and early-fifth centuries refer, has been examined on the basis of archaeological data that offer, even in this pioneering phase of the study, some indications about the dynamics of the reduction of storage spaces.
The archaeological study can essentially make use of the examination of the relationships between the warehouses and the city walls, the study of the restoration interventions and the stratigraphic analysis of the levels of abandonment to which burials are sometimes associated. The investigations conducted in recent years have provided a rather coherent picture for the southern area of the city, while stratigraphic data for the northern area (the so-called Severan warehouses) and for the warehouses around the Trajanic basin are still lacking. It must however be kept in mind that the southern area, included in the internal walls and focused on the Fossa Traiana, is the one that presents the greatest signs of continuity and in which presumably the warehouses remained in operation for the longest time.
Signs of the deterioration of the storage system are seen even before the construction of the walls: the analysis of the structures and the excavation carried out in area V have shown how the collapse of the front of the warehouses overlooking the bank of the Communication Channel had been repaired with masonry in opus listatum, which closed the accesses, even before the construction of the internal walls. This building intervention followed numerous consolidations of the storage rooms, also observable in the western rooms of the complex, which guaranteed the functionality of the structures until late antiquity.
At the beginning of the fifth century, when the city walls were built, there was a significant reduction in the city's storage capacity: some of the warehouses remained outside the walls and others were demolished or buried. Along the northern sector of the wall circuit, the construction cut through the food warehouses, which were systematically demolished on the outside and filled with rubble inside the walls.
In the vicinity of the so-called Temple of Portumnus were also food warehouses, not visible today, which remained outside the city walls. In an unspecified point 35 metres from the Temple, but certainly outside the walls, during the excavation of the Fossa delle Vignole,[19] demolished warehouses came to light, reused for funerary purposes in all probability after the construction of the walls. At the point of intersection between the modern Via Portuense and the city walls, marked today by a slight elevation, near the entrance to the Sforza Cesarini estate, Calza observed that the walls were built against and incorporated pre-existing food warehouses.[20]
The construction of the walls coincided in area V with the obliteration of the warehouses through the accumulation of sediments dredged from the channel, which have yielded material from the beginning of the fifth century.
At the western and eastern ends of the vast complex of the Great Horrea of Trajan, various indicators suggest instead a longer use of the structures. First of all, on both sites the fortification is arranged along the quay and there are no infills of the storage rooms. The foundation level of the walls also coincides with that of the second century buildings and this implies the maintenance of the levels of frequentation of the middle imperial period.[21] In the north-western corner, consolidation work with a brick facing, probably late-antique, can also be observed inside a storage room; in this room a coin of Justinian was found beneath the floor resting on suspensurae.[22]
The warehouses that occupied the space between the Porticus of Claudius and the outer basin in the second and third centuries, based on the results of two stratigraphic surveys (area I and III), would appear to have been used until the end of the fifth or the beginning of the sixth century, although it is not possible to exclude a change in the intended use of the rooms, brought about by the construction of the walls.
The surveys carried out in area I inside the secondary gate (posterula) and in area III suggest that the structures were filled with heavy earthworks between the end of the fifth and in the beginning of the sixth century.
The posterula (area I) respects the entrance to a warehouse from the middle of the imperial period, which was abandoned between the middle of the fifth and the beginning of the sixth century, when the structures of the first floor and the roofs collapsed. In the stratigraphy, mixed with the rubble, a large quantity of carbonized cereals was found, presumably stored on the first floor at the time of the collapse. A coin hoard consisting of 264 pieces of bronze and of 13 coins not imprinted with the die, found in the rubble, offers the most precise terminus post quem for the collapse of the building, certainly after the second half of the fifth century.[23] This was followed by the accumulation of other rubble, which put the posterula out of use, and subsequently of sediments with a strong natural component, containing materials from the sixth and seventh centuries. A wall of the warehouse, now reduced to ruins, finally collapsed on these layers.[24]
In another survey in area III, near the city walls, a room from the middle imperial period, similar in construction technique and height of the foundation level to the warehouse of the posterula, was probably obliterated in the same period, as indicated by the presence of ceramic material dating back to between the end of the fifth and the beginning of the sixth century in the oldest levels of abandonment.
The absence of traces of restorations carried out with the mortars in use from the beginning of the seventh century,[25] in the warehouses visible today, constitutes further evidence confirming the abandonment of the food complexes which, as is known, require constant maintenance of the structures.
The burials in the warehouses
Another indicator of the abandonment of the areas intended for storage is the presence of burials in the layers of abandonment of some of the storage rooms and corridors of the food complexes, discovered in various phases of restoration (fig. 2).
Fig. 2. Plan with the distribution of the sites with burials in the western area of the warehouses of Portus (50 x 50 m.) (from Mannucci 1992, fig. 48).
In the corridor between two blocks of the Great Horrea of Trajan, two tombs were identified in site 1 and one in site 2. The first two belonged to an adult and a child respectively and were placed in trenches that cut through the layer of obliteration of the floor, also removing some brick tiles of the opus spicatum; the burials were covered with tiles and other fragmentary brick material.[26] The burial of site 2 was found in the same corridor but further east, placed, after the collapse of a buttress, on a layer of rubble containing remains of flooring;[27] the tomb context yielded a cut-out fifth century coin,[28] which imposes a terminus post quem for the deposition.
In the warehouses to the south of the so-called Porticus of Claudius other burials were found (site 3), two of which were explored, in the suspensurae of a room.[29]
In this same area, near the ramp (site 4), a burial was identified in 1984, placed between the foundation of the warehouse and a low wall supporting the floor level;[30] the tomb yielded a coin from the time of Justinian.
In the passage below a collapsed ramp (site 5) near the "darsena", an important sequence of burials was explored in the same phase, placed at various levels of an earthwork of about 2 m., which obliterated the room. Of the three tombs discovered, the following are particularly noteworthy:
- a tomb of a box of tiles, one of which has a Theodoric stamp with the inscription: REG DN THEOD / PRO BONO ROME, placed about 0,4 m. above the ancient floor;
- a burial made with large fragments of cylindrical amphorae, placed on the ancient floor level by excavating the levels of the filling of the room.
Beneath the narrow ramp that rises parallel to the colonnade (site 6), three tombs of earth were found, two of which with skeletons and human bones belonging to at least five individuals.
Another tomb (site 7), placed close to the main wall of a warehouse, when building a dry stone wall to support the terrain, was located at a height of about 4 m. from the floor level, much higher than the other cases.
A final burial was identified in area V (site 8).[31] It is a tomb with a double-pitched roof of tiles, containing a single individual in a very poor state of preservation, with among the grave goods an almost intact glass bottle, datable to the sixth or seventh century.
The practice of burying in the city constitutes one of the most dramatic signs of the disintegration of the ancient urban structure, about which a lively debate has developed in recent years. Our knowledge of the phenomenon has now taken an important step forward thanks to the work of Meneghini and Santangeli Valenzani,[32] who have analysed the distribution, tomb typologies and grave goods of the Roman intramural burials in the intermediate centuries of late antiquity and the early Middle Ages. The study has shown first of all the diffusion throughout the intramural area of burials dating from the fifth century - although the evidence of this first phase is scarce -, which does not imply the complete abandonment of the areas affected by the burials, but rather the widespread simultaneous presence of residential areas and cemetery areas in the city.
In the context of Portus, it is interesting to observe how the burials were generally related to a phase characterized by the increasingly limited and discontinuous use of the food complexes, preceding however the collapse of the buildings and the formation of the mighty layers of rubble that marked the complete abandonment of the warehouses.
The evidence analysed here, although it does not allow quantitative evaluations, outlines a rather pessimistic picture of the storage capacity of the port in the sixth century and it is conceivable that the description of the site made by Procopius reflects a port reality in which the main function is now that of the transfer of goods from sea-going vessels to river-going vessels and no longer their storage. The historian of the Greco-Gothic war (De bello gothico I, 26) in fact describes the operations of the transhipment of goods from sea-going vessels to river-going vessels, exalting the "ancient" fortifications and the swarming of ships in the port, but does not mention at all the port warehouses, probably abandoned by now.
The picture that emerges from the archaeological analysis of Portus in late antiquity, which may however undergo corrections as the investigations continue, does not therefore seem to be characterized by development and expansion, but rather by the progressive reduction of the port capacity and of the spaces intended for the storage of food products. The conferral of the rank of city to Portus[33] and the contemporary crisis of Ostia did not lead to the expansion of the urban centre nor to an increase in port capacity, but rather to the prolongation of their survival. The growth of Portus belongs entirely to the second and third centuries, and in late antiquity the efforts of the administration seem to be directed towards the maintenance of the already existing structures and to guarantee the port functions of the city, which however underwent significant reductions starting at least in the fifth century.
What emerges from the archaeological analysis is not, however, a static picture - the transformations of the city in late antiquity were many and of substantial importance. Let if suffice to mention the construction of the city walls, of the Christian buildings for worship and for the reception of pilgrims, of the new baths and of the Porticus Placidiana at the mouth of the Fossa Traiana. The continuity of the use of the port and the flattering expressions used by the authors of the fifth and sixth centuries must however be understood in the general context of the crisis of late antiquity, which affected even more dramatically the port functions and the urban "flavour" of Ostia.
The crisis of the storage system and the supply of Rome
The diachronic analysis of the storage capacity and the location of the food warehouses with respect to the supply routes constitute important indicators of the functioning of the supply system of Rome and its progressive crisis.
The food supply had an exceptional importance in the organization of the port and storage system, and the archaeological reflection of the food supply organization can be identified not only in the distribution of ceramic materials, but also in the fate of the structures intended for storage, which were restored as long as massive food supplies arrived from the transmarine territories.
Of great significance in this context is the evidence from Portus: the storage system functioned, as we have tried to demonstrate, until the second half of the fifth century and to a minimal extent in the sixth century, when the covering with earth and a widespread use of the structures for burials began.
The situation in Portus therefore confirms the dramatic nature of the crisis of Rome as a centre of consumption starting in the fifth century and the discussion on the continuity of the supplying of Rome by sea will have to take this evidence into account.
From the second half of the sixth century the only references to the food warehouses in written sources are related to the horrea ecclesiae of Rome, in a phase in which the responsibility for the provisioning of the city had by now passed from the prefect of the city to the bishop of Rome, as we observe fully with the pontificate of Gregory the Great.[34] At least a part of the church's warehouses were located along the Tiber, as confirmed by the news of the destruction of thousands of modii of grain during the flood that hit Rome in 589, vividly reported by Gregory of Tours (Historiae Francorum X, 1).
The condition of the warehouses in Rome must also have been rather critical, as Arnaldi was able to infer from the contents of a letter by Gregory the Great, in the summer of 591, in which the pope, given the scarcity of the harvest of the ecclesiastical possessions, ordered the rector of the Sicilian Patrimony to buy "nova frumenta" and to store the product in the warehouses on the island, awaiting shipment to Rome the following February.[35]
Unfortunately, archaeological investigations do not offer a representative picture of the condition of the Roman warehouses in these transition phases; only some recent research, which has taken into consideration the stratigraphy of abandonment of some structures for the unloading of goods along the docks of the Lungotevere Testaccio, has allowed us to acquire some data on the chronology of the abandonment, which can be dated between the end of the fourth and the beginning of the fifth century.[36] Unfortunately, the extensive excavations of the last century in the Emporium area have forever deprived us of a complete picture of the archaeological evidence of this area of Rome, formerly used for the storage of a significant part of the food products coming from the sea.[37]
The progressive reduction of storage capacity, on the coast and in the city, is certainly linked to the demographic decline as well as to the change in the city's supply system, which was primarily achieved, until late antiquity, through imports from transmarine territories.
The sharp decline in population, starting in the first decades of the fifth century,[38] certainly led to a decrease in food needs, which could be more easily satisfied by an "autarchic" supply from the suburban territory.
The continuity of the influx of grain to Rome by sea, after the last explicit attestation at the beginning of the seventh century, is a matter of discussion. Although it seems likely that food products arrived in Rome from the possessions in southern Italy and Sicily in the form of a tax contribution, until their confiscation in the first thirty years of the eighth century,[39] it is impossible to say how much the importation affected the overall consumption of the city or whether it rather contributed only to the sustenance of the clergy and the welfare activities of the Church,[40] according to a model of self-consumption of products from large estates in other regions, already widespread in late antiquity.[41]
The Church, which had inherited the responsibility for the provisioning of the city, especially in the Christian form of assistance to the poor, provided the city, starting in the second half of the seventh century, with centres of assistance for the poor and needy: the diaconiae. The analysis of the location of the Roman diaconiae, situated on the left bank of the Tiber below the Aventine and the Palatine and in proximity to the Capitoline Hill and the Forum Romanum, suggested to Bertolini to propose the existence of a direct relationship between the structures of these ecclesiastical centres intended for the assistance of the poor and the survivals of the urban port and storage system, inherited from the Roman period.[42] Despite the observations of a group of scholars of Roman topography, who rightly criticized the correlations between the diaconiae and the ancient food storage buildings proposed by Bertolini,[43] the location of the Christian welfare structures in proximity to the river ports and along the road axes already used in the Roman period for the storage of foodstuffs coming from the sea remains significant.
Although archaeological evidence and in particular studies of early-medieval transport amphorae demonstrate today that Rome remained a centre for the consumption of food products transported by sea at least until the beginning of the ninth century, the archaeological evidence of the crisis in the storage system of the Portus Romae at the end of antiquity bears extraordinary concrete witness to the profound quantitative and qualitative change in the flow of food supplies into the city.
Notes
[1] A fundamental contribution to the study of the late-antique phases of Ostia is the work of Pavolini (1986), who was able to link the analysis of the settlement and the building crisis to the scanty remarks in the excavation reports, analyzing the developments of the commercial and residential buildings in the socio-economic context of Ostia. In a very recent contribution Paroli (1993) has analyzed another important aspect of the disintegration of the ancient city, represented by the phenomenon of intramural burials, attested in Ostia at least from the end of the fifth or the beginning of the sixth century, noting however significant traces of residential continuity up to the early Middle Ages, in an urban panorama dominated by ruins.
[2] Lugli and Filibeck, 1935; Février, 1958.
[3] Testini, 1986; Pani Ermini, 1979; and the bibliography cited in the two contributions.
[4] Veloccia Rinaldi, 1975.
[5] The investigations took place between 1991 and 1993 under the direction of Lidia Paroli with the collaboration of the author, and were carried out by the Archaeological Society (Rome). For the first reports of the research see Coccia and Paroli, 1993; Ciarrocchi et al., 1993; and Coccia, 1993.
[6] Coccia, 1993: 183-8.
[7] Coccia, 1993: 192-3.
[8] See the extensive discussion by Paroli (in Ciarrocchi et al., 1993: 234-42) and the contribution by Patterson (1993).
[9] Fea, 1802; Nibby, 1826; Texier, 1858; De Rossi, 1866; Lanciani, 1868; Lugli and Filibeck, 1935.
[10] Giuliani, 1992; Verduchi, 1992; Coltorti et al., 1993.
[11] In the past, various interpretations have been proposed for the functions of the so-called darsena. Lanciani (1868) hypothesized that it was a river or fishing port, while Lugli, although accepting Lanciani's hypothesis, supported by the narrowness of the entrance to the basin, did not exclude a change in the function of the basin in conjunction with a radical restoration at the beginning of the third century (Lugli and Filibeck, 1935: 75). Verduchi also (1992) recently proposed again the hypothesis of a port for small boats.
[12] Mango, 1985: 38-40; Rickman, 1991: 111.
[13] Rickman, 1971: 1-2.
[14] For the suspensurae see especially Rickman, 1971: appendix 1, 293-7.
[15] Rickman, 1971: 85-6.
[16] The shovelling to ventilate the grain was carried out periodically, at least from the Middle Ages until the contemporary period, with wooden shovels. See Cortonesi, 1991: 42-6.
[17] Zug Tucci, 1990: 889-90.
[18] Cod. Theod. XV, 1, 12 of the year 364.
[19] The information, reported by Borsari (1885: 21-2), does not allow a direct localization of the discovery; however, it was possible to ascertain that the course of the ditch ran outside the walls of Portus.
[20] Calza (1925: 65) reports in fact that the walls "in some sections were built against pre-existing food storage buildings, also incorporating them".
[21] In the short stretch facing the entrance canal of the Port of Trajan, a progressive raising of the levels of use towards the darsena can be observed, starting from the foundation level of the pilasters of the walls.
[22] Coltorti et al., 1993: 161.
[23] The material is being studied by E. Spagnoli, who has published preliminary considerations about the context (Spagnoli, 1993: 258-60).
[24] Coccia and Paroli, 1993.
[25] Coccia and Paroli, 1990: 181; Coccia, 1993: 193-4.
[26] Coltorti et al., 1993: 160.
[27] Perhaps belonging to the upper floors of the warehouse.
[28] Coltorti et al., 1993: 160.
[29] Coltorti et al., 1993: 160.
[30] I would like to sincerely thank Dr. G. Pani for the valuable information about sites 4, 5 and 6, which he explored in 1984 during a phase of the restoration work of the architectural complex.
[31] During the explorations by the Archaeological Superintendency of Ostia, directed by Lidia Paroli.
[32] Meneghini and Santangeli Valenzani, 1993.
[33] Meiggs, 1960: 88.
[34] Arnaldi, 1986; Durliat, 1990: 123-60.
[35] Arnaldi, 1986: 35-6.
[36] Meneghini, 1985.
[37] Meneghini, 1985.
[38] Mazzarino, 1951; Durliat, 1990. The demographic decline continued in the sith century, the period to which the last reliable estimate dates back, which indicates that Rome's population was reduced to 60.000 inhabitants.
[39] Durliat, 1990; Marazzi, 1991.
[40] Delogu, 1993.
[41] Whittaker, 1983; 1985.
[42] Bertolini, 1947.
[43] Astolfi et al., 1978.
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