Excavated: 1914 (Calza; after cleaning: NSc 1916, 328; Paribeni).
Mosaic: SO IV, 78 nr. 114.
Inscription: CIL XIV S, 4549 nr. 37.
Date: 190-200 AD (SO IV).
Meas. of tesserae: 0.01; tesserae of addition: 0.02 (SO IV).
Mosaic
General descriptionThe floor of the back room is lost. The northern three-quarters of the floor of the front room have been preserved and consist of white tesserae with a large black frame, five tesserae wide. The room is bordered on the east and west by a line of white marble, the eastern one slightly to the east, the western one slightly to the west of the axis of the central column. The west and east side of the black frame are aligned with the centre of the brick columns between the front and back room. In the south-west corner of the front room, in a later addition, is a text.
TextThe text in the south-west corner was (h. of letters 0.15):
FFV
Below the letters is a leaf. The first two letters have mostly disappeared after the excavation. Becatti presents the text with a space between the two F's, Paribeni does not, and there is no space in the present situation.
No letters are missing before and after FFV. This might suggest a plural for FF, such as fratres, filii or fecerunt. This leads nowhere with the V. It must be a single-letter abbreviation, because an abbreviation will not end with a vowel (so it is not F(...) FV(...)).
Suggested reading:
F(iscus) F(rumentarius) V(rbis)
This explanation may seem completely arbitrary, but is suggested in a context that is explained in the section "The auxiliary grain fleet of Commodus".
DepictionsNo depictions have been preserved.
Masonry
At the east end of the rear wall of the back room is a pier that is narrower than usual and faced with opus vittatum simplex. At the west end is a small pier of opus latericium. Between both piers is a section of latericium. In the back part of the room another, small room was created by two L-shaped latericium walls, with a door in the centre of the south side. The jambs of the door show the core of the wall.
The passage between the front and back room was narrowed by walls of opus vittatum mixtum A (three layers preserved). The inside of both walls is showing the core of the wall. On Gismondi's plan a door is indicated, as does the model. NADIS inv. nr. 645 shows a threshold for two doors in the opening.
Interpretation
A special function was assigned to the statio by the creation of an extra room in the back room. Walls of opus vittatum created a cluster of three back rooms around it (stationes 36-37-38). The black frame and marble lines in the front room of statio 37 give a bit of extra space to the front room.
The nature of the text (an abbreviation) and its position (tucked away in a corner) may indicate that it is a formal indication of use and "ownership". In the harbour the fiscus frumentarius Ostiensis is documented in an inscription: P(ublio) Aelio Aug(usti) lib(erto) Liberali, praeposito mensae nummul(ariae) f(isci) f(rumentarii) Ost(iensis). Meiggs describes this official as a paymaster working for the procurator annonae, others have suggested that coins were checked by him.[1]
Whatever the correct explanation of the mensa nummularia, the fiscus frumentarius Ostiensis must have received and spent money. The suggested presence of the treasury of the praefectus annonae in Rome indicates expenditure on a much larger scale. For a further discussion see the section "The auxiliary grain fleet of Commodus".
(1) CIL XIV, 2045; Meiggs 1973, 300; Lo Cascio 2002, 101-102.