The Imperial cult

The excavations of Ostia have given us some unique evidence of the Imperial cult in the Severan period. In a mithraeum to the west of the Porta Romana (II,II,5) an inscription was reused pertaining to a group of worshippers (cultores) of the Lares (domestic deities) and images of the Emperors. It is dated June 1, 205 AD. We learn that the members of the group, Imperial slaves and freedmen, worked on an Imperial estate named praedia Rusticeliana, so formerly privately owned by the family of the Rusticelii (the name of the family is also found in the corpus traiectus Rusticeli, a guild of ferrymen). The procurator of the domain, Callistus, instructs a slave, Maximianus, to put a place for religious festivities in order. Apparently it had fallen into disrepair.

LOCVS ADSIGNATVS A CALLIS[to] AVG(usti) LIB(erto) PROC(uratore) CVLTORIB(us) LARVM ET IMAGINVM DOMINORVM NOSTRORVM INVICTISSIMORVM AVGVSTOR(um) PRAEDIORVM RVSTICELIANORVM AD SOLLEMNES DIES CONFRE QVENTANDOS CVRANTE MAXI MIANO AVG(usti) N(ostri) VERNA VILICO EORVNDEM PRAEDIORVM SICVT LITTERIS AB EODEM CALLISTO EMISSIS CONTINE{N}TVR DEDIC(atus) KAL(endis) IVNIS IMP(eratore) ANTONINO PIO FELIC(e) AVG(usto) II CO(n)S(ule) EXEMPLVM LIBELLI CALLISTVS MAXIMIANO [l]IBELLVM DATVM MIHI A CV[l] [t]ORIBVS LARVM AVG(ustorum) AD TE MISI [o]PORTVERAT TE IN TAM RELIGI [os]AM REM IPSE ETIAM OMNE(m) SOLLI [ci]TVDINE(m) ADHIBVISSE VT LOCVS [o]LIM CONSACRATVS CONFRE [q]VENTETVR PRO SALVTE DOMI [n]ORVM NN AVGG QVOD VEL NV[nc] [e]TIAM VOLENTIBVS CVLTORIBVS [f]ACERE INTERVENIRE CVRA VT S[i] [n]E RECRASTI(nati)ONE MVNDETVR

This place was assigned by Callistus, Imperial freedman, procurator, to the devotees of the Lares and images of our Lords, our invincible Augusti, of the Rusticelian domain, to frequent the fixed festive days. In the care of Maximianus, slave born in the Imperial house, steward of these same properties, as is written in the letter sent by the aforementioned Callistus. Dedicated June 1, with the Emperor Antoninus Pius Felix Augustus as consul for the second time. Copy of the document. Callistus to Maximianus. The document sent to me by the devotees of the Lares of the Emperors, I have sent you. it is appropriate that in a matter that is so sacred, you make every effort so that the place, once consecrated, might be frequented for the well-being of our Lords the Emperors, and that now, as the devotees themselves request, you intervene, so that the place is made suitable without delay.

Marble slab. Reused in the Mithraeum near the Porta Romana (II,II,5).
1 June 205 AD. EDR072871. Cébeillac-Gervasoni 2010, fig. 51.

In the years 203-207 AD Septimius Severus and his son Caracalla rebuilt a shrine for the Imperial cult in the barracks of the fire-fighters. In the front part is a black-and-white mosaic depicting the sacrifice of a bull. Many inscribed altars and bases for statues of Emperors and their spouses have been preserved, standing on and near a long podium in the back part. In two dedications from 207 AD the two rulers are called restitutores castrorum Ostiensium, "restorers / rebuilders of the Ostian barracks". That must be a reference to more than just the shrine. We know that the Emperors had doubled the number of vigiles in Rome, and presumably in Ostia and Portus as well. The total in the harbours must have grown from 320 to 640, divided between Ostia and Portus. It is not clear where the extra men lived. In the Severan period some shops in the west part of the building became part of the barracks, but not much space was added in this way. Perhaps a second, new building was erected, not yet excavated, or perhaps one of two buried and only partly known buildings to the east of the barracks was used (building II,XII).

The shrine in the barracks of the fire-fighters. Photo: Daniel González Acuña.

Also well-preserved is the Shrine of Silvanus, situated in a corner of the House of the Millstones, the bakery connected with the Great Warehouse. The main deity in the shrine was Silvanus, painted around 210 AD in the back part. It is not clear why this deity, god of the woods and gardens, was depicted. Perhaps he is to be understood as Silvanus Augustus and linked to Septimius Severus. On the painting EX VISO was painted (the letters disappeared not long after the discovery of the painting, in 1870). Apparently someone had been ordered in a dream to honour the god.

General view of the Shrine of Silvanus. Photo: Klaus Heese.

The shrine was re-decorated a few years later, in 214 or 215 AD, and now Caracalla became the focus of worship in the shrine. Caracalla (to whom we have dedicated an extensive separate section) spent most of his reign on an inspection tour of the frontier. In the western half of the Empire he preferred to wear a local cloak called caracalla, which later gave him - officially named Marcus Aurelius Antoninus - his nickname. At the end of 213 or in 214 AD he continued to the East. In Thrace (today part of Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey) he realized that he needed a different persona and chose for Alexander the Great. He ordered that this association should be clarified through depictions. People in the bakery obeyed the order. Opposite Silvanus a row of figures was now painted: Augustus, the Egyptian deity Isis with the child-god Harpocrates, Fortuna, Annona (the personification of the food supply), perhaps the Genius of the Emperor, and Alexander the Great. Augustus and Alexander the Great are presented as great rulers from the past, as examples followed by Caracalla. The figures in between refer to the Emperor's good care for the food supply of Rome, with grain imported from Egypt. In the front part of the shrine a painting of the Dioscures with horses was added: Castor and Pollux protected the cargo ships.

Watercolour of paintings in the Shrine of Silvanus.
From left right: Augustus, Isis and Harpocrates, Fortuna, Annona, the Genius Augusti (?) and Alexander the Great.
Image: Parco Archeologico di Ostia.

The re-decoration strongly suggests that the guild of the bakers produced bread for the Imperial government, for slaves and freedmen working in the harbours. Another bakery, the House of the Ovens, is located next to the barracks of the fire-brigade and must have produced bread for the Imperial fire-fighters. One of them, the night watchman Calpurnius, scratched a graffito next to Silvanus with the consular date 215 AD. With the letter X he wished ten new years for Caracalla.

But when it comes to religion, tensions were rising. The Historia Augusta (17,1) says that Septimius Severus "forbade conversion to Judaism under heavy penalties and enacted a similar law in regard to the Christians". For this we do not have evidence from Ostia, but the martyrdom of a woman called Bonosa took place in Portus, in 211 AD. In the Christian tradition Septimius Severus himself is said to have been involved. A few quotes:

[1] Anno igitur ab incarnatione domini nostri Iesu Christi fere ducentesimo septimo Severus impiissimus adeptus est imperium, qui se Pertinacem appellari voluit. Hic natura saevus, multis saepe bellis lacessitus, fortissime quidem Rempublicam, sed superbissime rexit. Quintam post Neronem persecutionem in Christianos exercuit, plurimique sanctorum per diversas provincias martyrio coronati sunt. Ex quibus extitit virgo beatissima, Bonosa nomine, nobili quidem prosapia orta, nobilior sanctitate est facta, quae dum a cunabulis Christo credidisset, multis coepit po‹l›lere virtutibus, ac ieiuniis et orationibus insistens, omnipotenti Domino nostro Iesu Christo quotidie famulabatur. [5] Tunc iratus imperator iussit eam expoliari, et fortiter caedi. Quae dum expoliata fuisset, ita operuit eam Angelus Domini, ut nullus posset videre nuditatem eius corporis. Satellites vero imperatoris nimium ceciderunt eam. Sed Christi virgo nec terroribus concutiebatur, erat enim speciosa nimis, et pulchra aspectu. Mox imperator tradidit eam suo Praesidi dicens: Accipe hanc puellam, et suade ei sacrificare diis nostris, quod si contempserit, diversis poenis eam interficies. Praeses autem accipiens eam laetus effectus est, cogitans eam revocare posse a Dei sui cultura, et lateri suo sociari. Alia autem die iussit sibi praeses tribunal parari iuxta Romanum portum ante forum, et sanctam Virginem suis orationibus sisti praecepit.

[1] And so, in approximately the 207th year from the incarnation of our lord, Jesus Christ, the most impious Severus, who took the name Pertinax, seized power. He was a violent man by nature, challenged often by many wars. He ruled the state most bravely but very arrogantly. He undertook the fifth persecution against the Christians after Nero, and several of the saints were crowned with martyrdom throughout the many provinces. Among whom the most blessed virgin, Bonosa by name, stood out, born of a noble family, and made more noble still by her holiness, who, since she had entrusted her life to Christ from the cradle, began to acquire renown by means of her many virtues and, pursuing fasts and prayers, every day was a servant to our all-powerful lord, Jesus Christ. [5] Then, the angered emperor ordered her to be stripped of her clothes and to be lashed, harshly. But after she had been stripped, an angel of the lord came to her aid in such a way that no one was able to see the nakedness of her body. The assistants of the emperor beat her severely, but the young virgin of Christ was not struck by these terrors for she was too pretty and beautiful in her appearance. Soon, the emperor handed her over to his assistant, the governor, telling him: "Take this girl and persuade her to sacrifice to our gods. Because if she holds them in contempt, you can kill her with an assorted array of punishments". The governor then, taking her into his custody, was made joyous, thinking that he would be able to call her away from worshipping her own god and that she would be joined to his side. So, on the following day, the governor ordered a tribunal to be erected at Portus in front of the Forum and he ordered the holy virgin to be brought forward for his message.

Acta Sanctorum, July, IV, p. 21-23. Translation Douglas Boin.

A basilica of Eutropius, Bonosa and Zosima was to the east of Portus, near the junction of the Fossa Traiana and the Tiber. It was built at the end of the fourth century by a bishop named Donatus.

	SANCTIS MARTYRIBVS ET BEATI[ssimis] EVTROPIO BONOSAE ET ZOSIM[ae] DONATVS EPISC(opus) TVM[ul]VM ADO[rnavit] SED ET BASILICAM CONI[un]CTAM [tumulo] A FVNDAMENTIS SANCTAE [ple]BI D[ei construxit]
	For the holy and blessed martyrs Eutropius, Bonosa and Zosima bishop Donatus embellished the tomb, but also built a basilica adjoining the tomb from the foundations for the holy people of God.
	The inscription belonging to the basilica. EDR149619. Photo: EDCS.