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Houses

As to the houses, in the fourth century we see first of all some additional work in houses from the second and third century. In the House of the Columns walls of the large dining room in the back part of the building have been dated to the first half of the century. In the House of the Round Temple a row of rooms was installed in the north-east part of the building, in the years 300-325 AD.

In the same period more substantial work was carried out in the House of the Fortuna Annonaria. At one end of the house (built in the middle of the second century), a hall was created with an arcaded entrance and a curved back wall with a wall niche in the centre for a statue. The shape of the wall indicates that a semi-circular dining couch, a stibadium, was set against it. One of the side walls is made up of a large nymphaeum with rectangular and semi-circular niches, for more statues. Some portraits and statues were found in and near the building, and because no lime kiln is in sight we may assume that at least some of these belong in the house. The building was named after a statue of a seated female deity holding a cornucopiae and an oar. Her head is turreted, suggesting that it is the personification of a city, perhaps Ostia (originally it may have been a statue of Cybele). A statue of a kneeling Venus may be imagined in one of the niches of the nymphaeum.



The dining room with the nymphaeum (to the left) and curved back wall in the House of the Fortuna Annonaria.
Photo: ancientrome.ru, Ilya Shurygin.

Statue of a seated female deity that gave the building its name.
Photo: Klause Heese.		 Statue of a kneeling Venus.
Museo Ostiense. Photo: Wikimedia, Sailko.

In the second quarter of the century two older buildings, an apartment and some rooms behind shops, were converted to domus, again with large nymphaea: the House of Cupid and Psyche and the House of the Nymphaeum. The House of Cupid and Psyche was named after a statuary group found inside the building (a plaster cast is still inside). The location of the building is unexpected. It is the only late domus in the north part of the city, the area of abandoned warehouses along the Tiber. Even stranger is the approach to the building, through an insignificant alley. On the other hand, as we shall see later on, some more building activity is documented in the area, in a religious precinct to the south and in baths to the west.

Reconstruction drawing of the House of Cupid and Psyche. Image: Parco Archeologico di Ostia Antica.

Plan of the House of the Cupid and Psyche. Image: Parco Archeologico di Ostia Antica.

The location of the House of the Nymphaeum is easier to understand. It was installed in one of the apartments belonging to the Hadrianic apartment-complex known as the Garden Houses, not far from the beach. In the first quarter of the fifth century an even larger domus was built next to it, again re-using walls of an apartment: the House of the Dioscures. The latter house is famous because of two polychrome mosaics, one depicting the Dioscures Castor and Pollux, the other with an elaborate marine scene of Venus Anadiomene in a shell carried by Tritons and of Nereids on sea monsters.



Aerial photo of the House of the Nymphaeum (bottom right) and the House of the Dioscures (top left).
Seen from the south. Photo: Bing Maps.

Plan of the House of the Dioscures. Image: Parco Archeologico di Ostia Antica.

Above the mosaic with Venus is the mosaic-inscription PLVRA FACIATIS MELIORA DEDICETIS, "May you do more things, may you dedicate better things". The marine motifs and the Dioscures, worshipped in Ostia as protectors of shipping, leave no doubt that the text is about the reaping of the fruits of seaborne commerce. The same text, or with slight variants, is documented quite a few times: in North Africa, in Sicily, in Beneventum and in Rome. Often the texts have a Christian connotation, one for example ends with amen.[1]

Marble was used extensively in the houses, on floors and walls, often however re-used. A curious example is found in a small late domus, not dated accurately, named simply House on the Decumanus. Here a complete sarcophagus was used as basin or fountain, leaving the relief on the front in full view.

(1) An overview in R.J.A. Wilson - M. Liuzzo, "The Baths on the Estate of the Philippiani at Gerace, Sicily", American Journal of Archaeology 124,3 (2020), 477-510: 488-489. See also A.E. Felle, "Note e giunte alle iscrizioni cristiane di Beneventum (ICI VIII)", Mitteilungen zur Christlichen Archäologie 17 (2011), 77-90: 87-89.