Excavated: 1881 (NSc 1881, 116; Lanciani). This is the very first statio that was found, seen by Lanciani for the first time on April 25th 1881, after excavations at which he was not present.
Mosaic: SO IV, 65 nr. 84, tav. 189 (middle).
Inscription: CIL XIV, 277; CIL XIV S, 4549, 2.
Date: 190-200 AD (SO IV).
Meas. of tesserae: 0.01-0.02 (SO IV).
Mosaic
General descriptionThe floor of the back room has not been preserved. Most of the east part of the front room is covered by a white mosaic with some black speckles. The west part of the floor of the front room is mostly lost, with the exception of a white rectangle surrounded by black tesserae in the north-west corner, and some alternating black and white tesserae in the south-west corner.
The mosaic is surrounded by a very wide, black band on the north, east and south side (on the model on all four sides). The east part is dominated by a large tabula ansata. The tabula and the ansae have a white background surrounded by a black border, one tessera wide. The tabula is not in the center of the room, but moved slightly to the south. At the west end of the east half, part of a curved black object with an internal white border has been preserved. Becatti identifies it as a leaf.
TextIn the tabula two lines of text can today be seen:
CORPVSPEL
LIONOSTETPOR
ET in line 2 is a ligature. In front of OST was a dot (now disappeared). There may have been other dots in the second line. Directly below the tabula is the text:
IEHIC
Measurements of tabula and text: w. 1.51, h. 0.41; h. of letters 0.20, 0.15 and 0.14.
A different text was published by Lanciani (see his drawing):
CORPVS TEL
LION OST ET POR
TE HIC
Lanciani understands the text as corpus tellion(ariorum) Ost(iensium) et Porte(nsium) hic. He notes that the word tellionarius is not known, but understands it as telonarius, a toll gatherer, collector of the customs. Dessau discusses the text in CIL XIV, published in 1887. It seems that he did not see the text himself. He (and later Wickert in CIL XIV Supplement and Becatti in Scavi di Ostia IV) prefer to understand corpus pellionum, the guild of the furriers, instead of tellionariorum. Two years later Lanciani also speaks of pelliones (NSc 1889, 18). The confusion between the letters T and P seems to indicate that this letter was not preserved completely. The p of pelliones is then a modern restoration, based on interpretation.
So far all authors have understood line 3 as a continuation of line 2: ... Porte(nsium) hic. Surprisingly line 3 was written outside and below the tabula, as if this addition was absolutely required. That is certainly not the case. The letters OST and POR, perfectly fitting in the tabula, must have been understood by all, immediately, in antiquity. The addition TE for PORTE(nsium) is superfluous, as is an explanatory HIC ("here"). We may also note that Latin abbreviations usually end with a consonant, so that PORTENS(ium) would be expected. The interpretation of line 3 as a continuation of line 2 must be rejected.
Furthermore, we read not TE, but IE. Becatti suggests that the I is a bad, modern restoration.[1] We already saw confusion about a possible T in line 1, which is quite understandable: on the square there is often a great likeness between I, T, and L.
A search in the Trismegistos database of abbreviations does not lead to a meaningful solution, appropriate on the square, for TE, LE or IE as an abbreviation of two words. For IE as the beginning of one word Trismegistos does have a good solution: IESVS. A parallel can be found in the nearby Terme di Nettuno (II,IV,2). Here a mosaic with many Christian symbols and abbreviations was found, discussed at length by Becatti (SO IV, 52-59 nr. 73). One of these is a lozenge combined with the letters E and S (bottom left on the drawing): the name IESVS can be read from four directions. Becatti suggests a date of 250-350 AD.
Suggested reading:
CORPVS PEL
LION(um) OST(iensium) ET POR(tensium)
[later]
IE(sus) HIC
Depictions
Becatti
Leaf. Parte di una grande foglia nera bordata da una linea bianca, cuoriforme, con punta volta in alto verso Est.
Masonry
The back room has a rear wall of opus latericium and side walls of opus vittatum: simplex on the south side (five layers preserved) and mixtum B on the north side. The model has a masonry bench set against the south wall of the back room.
Interpretation
When the statio was found, in 1881, pelliones were already known in the harbours. The corpus is documented in an inscription found in Ostia in 1710 (CIL XIV,10), together with a statue of a Genius holding a cornucopiae (whereabouts unknown):
GENIO CORPORIS PELL(ionum) OST(iensium) QVI[bus ex s(enatu) c(onsulto) coire licet?]
M(arcus) AVREL(ius) LAMPROCLES AVG(usti) LIBERTVS PAT(ronus) [---]
S(ua) P(ecunia) D(ono) D(edit) D(edicavit)
The craftsmen and skippers of the adjoining stationes (1 and 3) worked with flax and imported wood, for shipbuilding I suggest. This may lead us to think that the furriers had something to do with ship building or the equipment of ships. In that case we might think of protective clothing at sea. That the pelliones made clothes is suggested by a text in the Historia Augusta, where they are mentioned together with makers of trousers, weavers of linen, glass-workers, locksmiths, silversmiths, and goldsmiths.[2]
Fur clothes would not normally be worn by people living around the Mediterranean sea, they were luxury items. However, the sailors surely suffered from the cold, especially at night.[3] As to clothes worn during the day, Casson rather bluntly states that "sailors generally went naked when aboard ships, while the helmsman and officers wore the common knee-length tunic. When ashore, sailors wore the tunic but no sandals, going barefoot as they did when on the water".[4] Casson can adduce several depictions (including the Torlonia relief) to substantiate his view. The realism of those depictions is doubtful. The best way to protect the body during the day against the sun, rigging and ropes is by wearing clothes. Working barefoot was for extra grip when climbing in the ropes.
This interpretation acknowledges that the pelliones were not tanners, coriarii,[5] but is not without problems. It is surprising to find craftsmen on the square whose work was quite specialized, with a low output volume. Pellis means "skin, hide", and it makes much more sense to regard the pelliones as leather-workers: leather was most likely used to reinforce the corners of sails and spots where wear was to be expected, while bands of leather were sewn across sails. This created a checkerboard pattern that can be seen on many depictions of ships.[6] This essential work would explain why the guild of the pelliones was given the special status of corpus.[7]
The letters of IE HIC are of the same "quality" as the other letters. This suggests that they were not added when the office was no longer functioning, by passers-by. Rather they were added by the pelliones themselves.
The people responsible for the text of the third line obviously chose the place and position for a good reason. They clearly linked the text to the tabula ansata. We can take the word hic literally: perhaps there was a Christian meeting area nearby, in the rooms to the east of the statio (see the section "The rooms to the east of the porticos"). The word may also refer to the sails and the danger of storms, if the Christians wanted to stress that protection came from Jesus. The Gospel of Matthew comes to mind and the calming of the Sea of Galilee by Jesus.[8] His disciple Peter too could conquer the wind and the sea.[9] The monogram of Peter is found in the mosaic of statio 38, and in a mosaic in the Domus dei Dioscuri (III,IX,1).[10]
We should not forget that the area directly to the south-east of the Theatre was an important Christian nucleus: many Christians were beheaded here, probably in 269 AD. The added letters might be a direct response to that event, which literally took place around the corner. It may also be noted that the neighbours of the pelliones, the stuppatores, converted their guild seat into a mithraeum in the middle of the third century.
(1) Around the tabula are many curved and irregular white lines. Reading the T may result from a short and slightly diagonal line of white tesserae above the I. This might suggest an original T, but why would a modern restorer have replaced the black tesserae with white ones, to change a T to an I?
(2) SHA, Alexander Severus 24,5. The meaning cannot be deduced from a long enumeration of crafts in Codex Theodosianus 13,4,2 - Codex Iustinianus 10,66,1. Digesta 50,6,7(6) has polliones rather than pelliones.
(3) An overview: Daremberg-Saglio s.v. pelles. A nice article about fur is Aikin 1831-1832. For extra insulation and to keep the clothes waterproof, an inner layer could be worn with the animal hair turned outward, and an outer layer with the hair turned inward.
(4) Casson 1971, 320-321. See also Dio Chrysostomus, Orationes 72,1: "Why on earth is it that, whenever men see somebody wearing a tunic and nothing more, they neither notice him nor make sport of him? Possibly because they reason that the fellow is a sailor and that there is no occasion to mock him on this account" (translation H. Lamar Crosby).
(5) A corpus coriariorum is documented in Rome in the late third and fourth century (Bond 2016, chapter 3 and Appendix III with a list of inscriptions).
(6) Casson 1971, 233-234.
(7) Pelliones in relation to ships are mentioned by Plautus: Quam tu mihi nunc navem narras? - Ligneam, saepe tritam, saepe fixam, saepe excussam malleo; quasi supellex pellionis, palus palo proxumust ("What ship are you now telling me about? - A wooden one, weather-beaten full oft, cracked full oft, many a time thumped with mallets. Just as the implements of the furrier; so peg is close to peg"). Plautus, Menaechmi 2,3,52-53 (translation T. Riley).
(8) Matthew 8:26-27: "Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm. The men were amazed and asked, 'What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!'"
(9) Matthew 14:29-32: "Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, 'Lord, save me!'. Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. 'You of little faith,' he said, 'why did you doubt?' And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down."
(10) Domus dei Dioscuri: SO IV, 114-116 nr. 214.