Food: fish

Fish shops have been identified on three locations in Ostia. Well-known are the Shops of the Fishmongers (IV,V,1), on one of Ostia's busiest intersections. The other shops are in the building on the other side of the street, the House of the Harbour Mosaic (I,XIV,2), and in the House of the Jealous One (V,V,1).

Shops of the Fishmongers (IV,V,1).
Photo: Daniel González Acuña.

An inscription from Ostia mentions the piscatores propolae, "fishermen and retailers". Fish was caught in the Tiber and in the sea. Claudius even ordered the scattering of fish in the sea between Campania and Ostia:

Nunc principatus scaro datur, qui solus piscium dicitur ruminare herbisque vesci atque non aliis piscibus, Carpathio maxime mari frequens. promunturium Troadis Lectum numquam sponte transit. inde advectos Tiberio Claudio principe Optatus e libertis eius praefectus classis inter Ostiensem et Campaniae oram sparsos disseminavit, quinquennio fere cura adhibitia, ut capti redderentur mari. postea frequentes inveniuntur Italiae litore, non antea ibi capti, admovetque sibi gula sapores piscibus satis et novum incolam mari dedit, ne quis peregrinas aves Romae parere miretur.

Nowadays the wrasse is felt to be the best fish (it is said to be alone among fish in chewing a cud and eating grasses rather than other fish); it is particularly common in the Carpathian Sea: never does it range of its own accord beyond Lectum in the Troad. From there, in the reign of Tiberius Claudius, Optatus, one of his freedmen who was commander of a fleet, seeded them between the Ostian and the Campanian mouths, taking care for about five years to throw back to the sea any that were caught. Since then they have been frequently found off the shores of Italy, when they'd never been caught there before; thus gluttony has provided itself with some fresh flavors by sowing fish, and has given the sea a new inhabitant: no great wonder, then, that foreign birds [as well] breed at Rome.

Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia IX,xxix,62-63. Translation Bill Thayer.

Pliny the Younger, in his description of his villa to the south of Ostia, says:

Mare non sane pretiosis piscibus abundat, soleas tamen et squillas optimas egerit. Villa vero nostra etiam mediterraneas copias praestat, lac in primis; nam illuc e pascuis pecora conveniunt, si quando aquam umbramve sectantur.	The sea has admittedly few fish of any value, but it gives us excellent soles and prawns, and all inland produce is provided by the house, especialy milk: for the herds collect there from the pastures whenever they seek water and shade.
Pliny the Younger, Epistulae 2,17,28. Translation Betty Radice.

The Shops of the Fishmongers are part of the same block as the central meat-market, so it comes as no surprise that we find a fishmonger and a butcher in the same relief, on the lid of a sarcophagus found near Sant'Ippolito on the Isola Sacra. At the far left is a fishmonger, who picks up a fish and holds up five stretched fingers with his other hand. In front of him is a gesticulating, bearded man. In the background is another man, without a beard. On the right half of the lid a bearded buyer is approaching from the left. With his left hand he holds a purse. Behind him is a small attendant, holding two pieces of fowl by the legs. Two more are hanging above him. The buyer touches a pig's head on a table. Behind the table is a butcher, who puts a hand on the pig's head. His other hand is lost, but he probably chopped with a knife. To the right of the table an assistant picks up entrails from a bowl.

The lid of a sarcophagus with the sale of fish and meat from the Isola Sacra.
Amedick 1991, cat. nr. 86. Photo: Amedick 1991, Taf. 107,4.

Fishermen at work can be seen on a mosaic that is said to have been found in Ostia and was auctioned in 2007 by Sotheby's. The auction catalogue describes it as follows: "Set into a terracotta frame, in minute multi-colored stone and glass tesserae within a dentate border, depicting in the rocky foreground two fishermen rounding up fish in a broad net, another rowing to right in a small skiff, each wearing a short tunic and wide-brimmed rounded hat, a large high-handled wicker basket at left, a dolphin entwined around a post at right, in the middle ground a draped man and woman sacrificing at an altar between two shrine-like structures, one pedimented, each with grilled opening in front, and in the background a sprawling complex of towers and colonnaded buildings surrounded by tall trees". We might be looking at one of the many villas on the coast to the south of Ostia. Could the reason for the sacrifice be that the woman is pregnant (looking at her belly)?

A mosaic with a villa and fishermen, said to have been found in Ostia.
Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo (Ohio, USA). Photo: Sotheby's.