Ostia in Late AntiquityOstia Antica - Rome's ancient harbor. Its houses and apartments, taverns and baths, warehouses, shops, and temples have long contributed to a picture of daily life in Rome. Recent investigations have revealed, however, that life in Ostia did not end with a bang but with a whimper. Only on the cusp of the Middle Ages did the town's residents entrench themselves in a smaller settlement outside the walls. What can this new evidence tell us about life in the later Roman Empire, as society navigated an increasingly Christian world? Ostia in Late Antiquity, the first academic study on Ostia to appear in English in almost 20 years and the first to treat the Late Antique period, tackles the dynamics of this transformative time. Drawing on new archaeological research, including the author's own, and incorporating both material and textual sources, it presents a social history of the town from the third through ninth century. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
New approaches to daily life in Late Antique Ostia | 17 |
The new urban landscape of Romes ancient harbor | 47 |
Roman religions and the long reach | 83 |
Ostia from the third century to the fourth | 136 |
The Cult of Saint Lawrence in fifthcentury Ostia | 170 |
The view from | 180 |
6 | 201 |
Postscript | 237 |
References | 243 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
amulet ancient architectural Archivio Disegni Attis August Aurea Bakker basilica baths building Calza Cambridge Capitolium castrum Chapter Christian community church Constantine construction context Decumanus Decumanus Maximus dedicated discussion Domus earlier early Edited elite emperor epigraphic example excavations festivals fifth century Figure Forum fourth century Gordian III Heinzelmann identity important inner harbor inscription landscape Late Antique Ostia Late Antique town late fourth century late Roman Lawrence Liber Pontificalis located Magna Mater martyr material Maximus Mediterranean Meiggs memory Mithraeum Mithras monuments mosaic narrative opus vittatum Ostia Antica pagan past period Polemius Silvius Porta Marina Portus prefect remained ritual role Roman religion Rome Rome’s Russell Meiggs Sanctuary of Magna scholars second century sixth social and cultural Squarciapino statue suggests symbols synagogue textual sources third century throughout Tiber tion Torah shrine town’s transformation University Press Vatican Museums via Severiana visible Volusianus walls Zevi