Nei dintorni di Roma ci sono diverse attrazioni da fare in giornata. Ideale è renting a car in Rome Fiumicino or at dedicated points of the capital, to set off for the places in the vast area surrounding the “eternal city”. Among these points of interest are: the remains of ancient Ostia; the Port of Claudius, the Port of Trajan, the Necropolis of Porto, the Basilica of Saint Hippolytus and the Ship Museum in Fiumicino.
The ruins of ancient Ostia
The ruins of ancient Ostia are located in a very different geographical and territorial context from the ancient one: in fact, in Roman times the Tiber bordered the northern side of the settlement, while now it only touches a small part of the western sector, as its bed was dragged downstream by a disastrous and famous flood in 1557; moreover, the coastline, originally close to the city, is currently about 4 km away due to the advancement of the mainland caused by the debris left by the river over the last 2,000 years.
Ostia was therefore a city that arose, with its own river port, on the sea and the river, and this particular position determined its importance throughout the centuries from a strategic-military and economic perspective. An ancient tradition attributed its foundation to the fourth king of Rome, Anco Marzio, around 620 BC, for the exploitation of the salt pans at the mouth of the Tiber (hence the name Ostia, from ostium = mouth).
However, the oldest remains are represented by a fortification (castrum) made of tuff blocks built by Roman colonists in the second half of the 4th century BC, with exclusively military purposes, to control the mouth of the Tiber and the Lazio coast. Later, especially after the 2nd century BC, (when Rome had already dominated the entire Mediterranean), the military function of the city began to decline, destined to quickly become the main commercial emporium of the capital.
It is open every day except Monday, December 25, January 1, and May 1. Opening hours: from the last Sunday of October to February 15: 8:30 am – 4:30 pm; from February 16 to March 15: 8:30 am – 5:00 pm; from March 16 to the last Saturday of March: 8:30 am – 5:30 pm; from the last Sunday of March to August 31: 8:30 am – 7:15 pm; from September 1 to September 30: 8:30 am – 7:00 pm; from October 1 to the last Sunday of October: 8:30 am – 6:30 pm.
Claudian Port
The emperor Claudius, in 42 AD, initiated the construction of a large maritime port (Claudian Port), located 3 km north of the mouth of the Tiber, completed in 64 AD, under the principate of Nero. The new port complemented those of Ostia and Pozzuoli, which had represented since the early 2nd century BC the cornerstone of Rome’s port organization.
The impressive infrastructure provided a calm basin where goods could be safely unloaded from the large cargo ships arriving here from all over the Mediterranean and transferred onto riverboats (naves caudicariae) suitable for navigating the Tiber up to Rome.
The port basin, approximately 150 hectares wide, was partly excavated on land, partly enclosed towards the sea by two curvilinear piers converging towards the entrance. Here, on an artificial island, stood a gigantic lighthouse, similar to the famous lighthouse of Alexandria in Egypt, which signaled the entrance of the basin to sailors. At least two artificial channels (the fossae mentioned in an inscription from 46 AD) ensured the connection between the sea, Claudian port, and the Tiber.
The foundations of the right (or northern) pier are still visible today behind the Ship Museum for a stretch of about one kilometer towards the west. While on the quay that bordered the port basin towards the land, some of the functional structures related to the port (the so-called Harbor Master’s Office, a cistern, and thermal buildings) can be visited, all however built in a later period (2nd century AD) than Claudius’s establishment.
The port’s low security and progressive silting led Emperor Trajan to build, just 40 years later (100 to 112 AD), a new, more internal basin (Trajan’s Port); the Claudian port continued, however, to be used as an anchorage shelter.
– Photo Ostia Antica Beniculturali
Port of Trajan
After the construction of the Port of Claudius, inaugurated in 64 AD, the increased supply needs of Rome required the creation of a new port basin built by Emperor Trajan. The new Port of Trajan is hexagonal in shape and was connected with a new canal to the Tiber to facilitate the transfer of goods to Rome.
The coast today is about 3 km from the ancient Portus complex, which is squeezed between the infrastructures of the Fiumicino Airport, the network of road and highway routes, and the advancement of urbanization. In this context, the archaeological area constitutes an unexpected oasis also from a naturalistic perspective, thanks to the presence of wetlands and rich vegetation.
The extent of the ancient city can be estimated at around 65 hectares for the period following the construction of the city walls, that is, for the 5th century. The state-owned area (32 hectares) includes only a part of the ancient city of Portus, as the hexagon and the entire suburb are still privately owned.
Necropolis of Porto, Sacred Island
The complex that currently allows the viewing of over 200 funerary buildings known as the demesne area of the necropolis of Porto represents the southernmost boundary of the burial settlement developed along the via Flavia Severiana, from the end of the 1st century AD until the 4th century AD. The occupation dynamics of the site confirm the importance of the elevated roadway axis towards which the tombs converge; initially isolated, they progressively form the first roadside front by adjoinments. This is followed by advances that incorporate the road crepidine and the construction of buildings along a second rear front of limited extent. The last construction episode closes off the residual space in the first front, which is built continuously without interruption.
The architectural tombs visible in the necropolis present a homogeneous typology: the cell, sometimes two stories, is generally square, often accompanied by a contemporary or later enclosure. The roofs were barrel vaulted or terrace-like, with a triangular pediment on the façade, adorned with plinths, pilasters, columns, and capitals that frame the precise brick curtain wall on which small windows and doors open, framed by travertine thresholds, jambs, and lintels. The representative value of the façade is confirmed by the inscriptions (in Latin, more rarely in Greek), placed above the door within pumice and brick frames.
The inscriptions report the name of the owner, the dimensions of the tomb, the testamentary provisions, and the rules for using the sepulcher, providing valuable data on the social composition of Porto’s population, mainly made up of merchants, freedmen, and small entrepreneurs. These activities, and thus the earthly identity of the deceased (the midwife assisting at birth, the surgeon performing surgery, the hardware manufacturer and reseller, the grain merchant, etc.), are referred to in the scenes of trades — an expression of a vibrant “popular” art — depicted on the bricks placed beside the inscription.
The external appearance of the tomb is not determined by the chosen funerary rite, cremation or inhumation, which instead strongly influences the internal layout by dividing the wall into two registers: upper niches containing urns for the cremated, lower arcosolia for the inhumed; subfloor levels are reserved for inhumation depositions (formae, arranged on multiple levels).
Basilica of Saint Hippolytus and Antiquarium
The Basilica of Saint Hippolytus was brought to light in the early 1970s, near the Fiumicino canal (ancient Trajan’s ditch) in the Sacred Island. Built between the late 4th and early 5th centuries, it is the most important early Christian basilica in the port suburb. It stands on a Roman-era thermal building, of which some rooms remain, notably some water cisterns.
The three-nave basilica with an apse preserves traces of the episcopal chair and of the baptistery, constructed in a later phase. It was used during the Middle Ages and was probably abandoned in the 15th century following the depopulation of the diocese. Inside the basilica, remains of inscriptions and valuable sculptural artifacts have been found, which are preserved in the nearby Antiquarium, where the Carolingian ciborium made during the pontificate of Leo III (795-816) stands out for its importance.
Ship Museum in Fiumicino
Inside the Ship Museum of Fiumicino, the remains of five boats (plus fragments of the side of two others) dating from the 2nd to the 5th century AD are displayed. The wrecks were uncovered between 1958 and 1965 during the construction of the “Leonardo da Vinci” International Airport. Only the structures of the hull bottom of the boats have been preserved, which, covered by marine sediments, resisted the destructive action of water, flora, and marine fauna.
The ships were located inside the port built by Emperor Claudius in the 1st century AD, in an area between the museum construction site and the remains of the northern pier of the port basin. In this area, situated on the margin and subject to silting, there was a true “naval cemetery” where boats too worn out to still be of service were abandoned.
Of the five best-preserved boats, two (Fiumicino 1 and 2) can be identified with the naves caudicariae known from ancient sources. The caudicariae, a sort of large river barges, were used for transporting goods from the seaport to the river ports of Rome. These barges, without sails, were pulled by ropes by men (the helciarii mentioned in classical sources) or oxen moving along the bank of the Tiber. This propulsion system, called hauling, was used until the end of the 19th century.
Fiumicino 3 is also a river boat but smaller in size compared to the previous ones. Fiumicino 4, originally equipped with a square sail, is instead a boat suitable for coastal navigation or coastal fishing activities. The small “Fisherman’s Boat” (Fiumicino 5) was also used for this latter activity, equipped with a central live well for transporting fish. The hull bottom was, in fact, perforated in correspondence to the live well, allowing the internal circulation of water and thus keeping the catch alive.
Inside the museum, numerous objects related to life and equipment onboard as well as the types of materials transported by sea and arriving at the port of Rome (amphorae, marbles, etc.) are also displayed.
