Unexpected wealth

A surprising feature of the later third century is the appearance of many buildings that were decorated extensively with mosaics, marble, fountains, and niches with statues, sometimes having heated rooms and private latrines. Several of these were domus, houses, a few seem to have been seats of organizations.

The smallest of these buildings is the House on Via degli Augustali, in the heart of region V. It was installed at the end of the third century in a few shops. Noteworthy is a room with two marble columns in the entrance and a polychrome marble floor. The House of the Eagle has been assigned to the middle of the third century on the basis of its painted decoration. It is also pretty small. Both buildings have an atypical lay-out, and it is questionable whether these two buildings were houses. Perhaps we should think of some sort of office.

A bit to the west of the theatre, opening onto the Decumanus, is the so-called Seat of the Augustales. For some time this building was thought to have been the guild seat of these freedmen involved in the Imperial cult, but the identification was based primarily on statues and inscriptions that were collected here to be burned in an adjoining lime kiln. The only statue that can be assigned to the building with some confidence is of a reclining nymph. It was found in the long basin with niches in the centre of the courtyard. Water emerged from a vessel on which she is leaning. The back part of the building was rebuilt for the most part in the third quarter of the third century. A few additions and modifications have been dated to the years 290-310. In this phase the building might have been a domus, but it could equally well have been the seat of some organization. Noteworthy is a mosaic depiction of two flying erotes holding a wreath with ribbons and a gem, an isolated polychrome panel in a long mosaic with geometric motifs. The wreath is a symbol of victory, and is here perhaps linked to the Imperial cult.

Plan of the south half of the Seat of the Augustales. Black: Antonine. Blue: 250-275. Yellow: 290-310.

Seat of the Augustales, mosaic with flying erotes and a wreath.
Photo: SO IV, Tav. CCXVIII.

A parallel for the mosaic from the House of Amphitrite in Bulla Regia (Tunisia).
Photo: Wikimedia, Davide Mauro.

The House of the Porch, at the west end of region V, was installed around 250 AD. The porch after which the building was named carries an inscription of which, unfortunately, the central part is missing. So far no one has been able to find a solution for the text. The finds from the building tell us a bit about the people who used it over time. In a drainage channel a Christian glass vessel was found in fragments. It was made at the end of the fourth century, during the reign of Theodosius. Pagan religion is documented by statues of Diana and Apollo, and of a Genius with snake and cornucopiae. The statue of the Genius may have come from a large underground complex, below the courtyard, also built around 250. It was reached with a staircase in the porticus. A corridor then leads to a well surrounded by three small niches, perhaps for statuettes of nymphs. At the other end of the corridor is a room with a podium, presumably a little shrine.

The courtyard of the House of the Porch. The staircase leading to the underground complex is seen bottom left.
The well with niches is below the metal grating towards the right. Photo: Daniel González Acuña.

Statue of a Genius with snake and cornucopiae.
From the House of the Porch.
Photo: Parco Archeologico di Ostia Antica neg. C1595.

The House of the Round Temple was built at the end of the third century on a most privileged location: to the south of the Forum Basilica, between the Round Temple and the Temple of Rome and Augustus. It is another building that has been held for a domus and the seat of a guild. In view of its position a very obvious function is that of residence of the main religious authority in Ostia, the pontifex Volkani. He was appointed for life, so it would have been Quintus Vettius Postumius Constantius, priest of Vulcanus and of the sacred buildings, documented in a dedication from 287 AD.

Q(uinto) VET[tio Po]STVM(io) CONSTANTI[o] PONTI[f(ice) Volk(ani) et] AEDIVM SACRAR(um) DD NN DIOCLE[tiano Aug(usto) I?]II ET MAXIMIANO AVG(usto) [c]O(n)S(ulibus)	To Quintus Vettius Postumius Constantius, Priest of Vulcanus and of the sacred buildings, Our Lords Diocletianus Augustus and Maximianus Augustus Being consuls.
Dedication to Quintus Vettius Postumius Constantius, pontifex Volkani et aedium sacrarum. 287 AD. EDR074777. Photo: EDCS.

Three domus are side by side on the north side of Via della Caupona, a side street in the central south part of the city. The main entrance of the easternmost building, the House of the Columns, is on the main street to the east. It was erected in the years 230-250 AD on the spot of an earlier building, of which only the brick piers of the porticus of the courtyard were preserved.

Plan of the House of the Columns. Brown: c. 190 AD. Grey: 230-250 (two phases). Yellow: 300-350.

The genesis of the next house, the House of the Fishes, is remarkable. Construction began around 250 AD, but was interrupted, and the building was left unfinished. It was completed a few decades later with a different type of masonry, opus vittatum instead of latericium (the dating by Thea Heres has been confirmed by the results from a trench dug in 1995-1996). This sudden standstill and the gap coincide with the deep economic crisis, characterised by, for example, debasement of money. Had the owner lost his fortune? Was he a victim of the persecution by Decius? Was the family decimated by the Plague of Cyprian?

Plan of the House of the Fishes. Blue: 240-260 AD (three phases). Yellow: 275-300 AD (two phases).

When the building was finished, in the last quarter of the century, the owner professed to being a Christian in a subtle way. On the floor of the vestibule is a polychrome mosaic with an isolated panel, with a depiction of a chalice and three fishes. These have been interpreted as Christian symbols. The panel should be looked at when leaving the building, so when saying goodbye - after a celebration in a house church? On the floor of the main room is a black-and white mosaic consisting of many panels with geometric motifs. In one panel are two fishes flanking a trident - the only living things in the mosaic. This could of course be a mere reference to seaborne commerce, but the mosaic in the vestibule leads to a different suspicion.

House of the Fishes, the vestibule and the mosaic with fishes and a chalice.
Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.

House of the Fishes, view of the main room. To the left the panel with fishes flanking a trident can be seen.
Photo: ICCD E026918.

The last house in the row is the small House on Via della Caupona, built around 270-275 AD. In one of the rooms is another mosaic with many panels with geometric motifs. Here the only living things are olive branches, seen in two panels. Again we can ask ourselves whether it is a straightforward reference to the import of olive oil, or the Christian symbol of peace, mentioned by Tertullianus and Augustinus.

House on Via della Caupona, mosaic floor with panels containing olive branches.
Photo: Daniel González Acuña.

Clear Christian symbols are found on several floors in Ostia, for example the chi-rho monogram in the Baths of the Forum, a group of many symbols in the Baths of Neptune, the monogram of Peter on the Square of the Corporations (statio 38) and in the House of the Dioscures, and perhaps the first two letters of Iesus on the Square of the Corporations (statio 2).

The chi-rho monogram on a floor in the Baths of the Forum. Photo: Eric Taylor.	Some of the Christian symbols in the Baths of Neptune: two black ovals (the number M, the life cycle of the phoenix), the letter R (of resurrectio), a phoenix (referring to resurrection), a heart-shaped leaf, and a palm branch. Photo: Il Messaggero.
The monogram of Peter and a palm branch in the House of the Dioscures. Photo: SO IV, Tav. XLVII.

The taste for marble is also encountered in an apartment, the House of the Well. Possibly in the second half of the third century a shop was incorporated in the building, and marble columns and floors were installed.