Guild temples and the theatre

In Ostia and Portus many ship carpenters (fabri navales) were active, repairing ships and probably also building new ones. Each harbour had its own guild. During the reign of Commodus the Ostian corpus erected a new guild temple, facing the main road leading to the beach.

General view of the Temple of the Ship Carpenters. Photo: Françoise van Haeperen.

Another major guild in Ostia was that of the builders (fabri tignuarii). Since the Hadrianic period they used a guild seat to the south-west of the forum, the House of the Triclinia. However, during the reign of Commodus they too erected a new guild temple, this one facing the Decumanus, a bit to the west of the theatre, but on the other side of the street. The temple of the builders was inaugurated only after the death of Commodus, during the reign of Septimius Severus. A dedicatory inscription (now to be seen on the opposite side of the Decumanus, where part of it was found) was erected over the entrance in 194 AD. It states that the temple was dedicated to the deified Pertinax (DIVO PIO PERTINACI).

The dedication to Pertinax, displayed on the Decumanus.
Photo: Parco Archeologico di Ostia.

The builders were organized in a military way and seem to have worshipped Mars as their protective deity. In the House of the Triclinia a dedication to Mars Augustus by one of the members of the guild was reused in the podium in the back part (the inscription itself was not found, only the imprint):

MARTI AVG(usto) SACRVM SEX(tus) CAECILIVS PROT[us] [ma]G(ister) QVINQVENNA[lis] [colleg]I FABRU[m] [--- O]ST(iensium)	To Mars Augustus dedicated. Sextus Caecilius Protus, chief and president of the guild of the builders of Ostia.
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The combining of Mars and Augustus in the inscription reminds us of a statuary group that was dumped in the Hall of Mars and Venus, not far from the temple. It represents either Marcus Aurelius and his wife Faustina, or Commodus and his spouse Crispina, in the guise of Mars and Venus. Originally it may well have stood in the wide apse in the back wall of the cella of the temple.

Statuary group of Mars and Venus, found in 1918 in the Hall of the Group of Mars and Venus.
Rome, Museo Nazionale Romano. Photo: Wikimedia, Livioandronico2013.

The theatre was completely rebuilt by Commodus, as shown by brick stamps. However, like the Temple of the Fabri Tignuarii, it was inaugurated only later, by Septimius Severus and Caracalla in 196 AD. Fragments of the dedicatory inscription, originally filled with bronze letters, have been attached to the theatre by the excavators. Surely not by coincidence two rows of shops behind porticos, opposite the theatre, were built in the same period: the Porticus of the Republican Monument and the Porticus of the Triumphal Arches. In the latter structure a polychrome effect was achieved by using red bricks resting on three rows of yellow bricks near the base of piers, and by yellow panels enclosed by red bricks. It was clearly not the intention to cover the masonry with plaster.

The Porticus of the Republican Monument during restoration work.
In the background is the Temple of the Fabri Tignuarii. Photo: Klaus Heese.

The Porticus of the Triumphal Arches.
Note the three rows of yellow bricks near the base. Photo: Klaus Heese.

The most important initiative of Commodus was undoubtedly the reorganization of the Square of the Corporations behind the theatre. This work too was completed by Septimius Severus. It will be discussed later.