Regio II - Insula VII - Colonna con Genio
(Column with Genius)

Behind the stage of the theatre is a row of marble columns (height 3.65). One of these has a relief and an inscription. This column was found in two pieces to the east of the temple in the centre of the Square of the Corporations (II,VII,5). It was re-erected at the end of the nineteenth century. There is some confusion about its original location. Rodolfo Lanciani says that the row was part of a porticus behind the stage, where he found the bases. Guido Calza however states that the columns adorned the third seating level of the theatre.

The relief and the inscription (EDR147043). Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.

We see a Genius, wearing a mantle around the hip. In his left hand is a horn of plenty (cornucopiae). In his right hand is a patera, with which he is pouring out a libation on a cylindrical altar. He is standing in front of a little shrine (aedicula). Below the relief is the inscription:

GENIO [K]ASTRO RVM PEREGRINOR OPTATIANVS ET PVDENS FRVMM FRATRES MINISTERIO ////////// VOTA SOLVERVNT

To the Genius of the Castra Peregrina Optatianus and Pudens, frumentarii, brothers, with the service of ..., fulfilled their vows.

What we see is a dedication to the Genius of the Castra Peregrina by two "brothers", Optatianus and Pudens. They were frumentarii. A religious attendant (minister) seems to have been involved. For some reason his name was later chiseled away.

Optatianus and Pudens may feature in two other inscriptions, both pieced together from many fragments that were found on and near the Square of the Corporations. The first inscription is on a marble architrave that was more than three meters wide. It must belong to a religious aedicula, perhaps set against the temple on the centre of the square. The text suggests that it contained images of deities or members of the Imperial family.

[Pud]ENS ET OPT[atianus fratres frumm(entarii) ---] BASIM QVOQVE SACRORVM VVLTV[um 3]VS ADDITIS CVLTIORIBVS ORNAMENTIS RESTITVERVNT

Marble architrave. Top: left part. Bottom: right part. EDCS-05700115. Photo: Licordari - Pellegrino - Bruno 2021, figs. 3-4.

The second inscription is on a marble slab. It records the restoration of a ruined structure. It also mentions a statio.

[---s]TRORV[m Optatianus et Pude]NS FRVMENT(arii) [f]RA[tres ---] [--- a]D DIGN[iorem statum longa in]CVRIA [def]ORMEM VOTO R[estituerunt?] [---]TICI[---] ABASCA[nt ---]RV[---] STATIO [----]

Marble slab. EDCS-05802108. Photo: Licordari - Pellegrino - Bruno 2021, fig. 6.

The Roman barracks of the frumentarii were called castra peregrina and located near San Stefano Rotondo. The name derives from the provincial background of the soldiers. They had smaller barracks in Portus, called statio frumentariorum, documented in an inscription from 224 AD (EDR150104). The inscription on the column may indicate that there was a camp in Ostia as well. Here we may think, for example, of building II,XII (partly excavated, but re-interred). It is to the east of the Barracks of the Fire Brigade and presents similarities with that building. Another Ostian inscription does not fit the picture at all, however (EDCS-24300039). It was found in building IV,II,5, and is a dedication of a miles frumentarius to Isis and the "Genius of the apartment" (Genius cenaculi). This soldier lived in an apartment.

The frumentarii were originally involved with the food-supply of the army. In the second and third century AD we find them as Imperial messengers and even spies. They were sometimes employed as supervisors of projects, such as building activity in Delphi and the raising of emergency city walls in Salona (near Split in Croatia). One frumentarius may have been in charge of porphyry quarries in Egypt, while in Italy, in 200 AD, a centurio frumentarius seems to have been in charge of extraction of marble from the Imperial quarries at Luna. In Ostia they may have been responsible for the practical aspects of the reorganization of the Square of the Corporations by Commodus and Septimius Severus, talking to the Imperial and local administration, and to local and overseas guilds of shippers and merchants.

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Literature: Lanciani 1881, 116; Calza 1929, 108; Floriani Squarciapino 1972; Meiggs 1973, 302-303; Mann 1988; Rankov 1990; Kolb 2000, 290-294; Kolb 2001; Cébeillac-Gervasoni - Caldelli - Zevi 2010, 250-252; Licordari - Pellegrino - Bruno 2021.