Excavated: 1881 (NSc 1881, 117; Lanciani). Seen by Lanciani for the first time on April 25th 1881.
Mosaic: SO IV, 65 nr. 85, tav. 175 (bottom).
Inscription: CIL XIV, 278; CIL XIV S, 4549, 3.
Date: 190-200 AD (SO IV).
Meas. of tesserae: 0.015-0.02 (SO IV).
Mosaic
General descriptionThe floor of the back room has not been preserved. Most of the front room is covered by a black-and-white mosaic. The western edge is missing. In the centre a large rectangular area is missing. It was not restored in antiquity, almost as if a masonry base was once standing upon it. The mosaic is surrounded on all sides by white and black bands, the latter five tesserae wide. On the north side the transition to the neighbouring statio is created by a wide white band, on the south side the black band is precisely between the two stationes.
Most of the mosaic is taken up by alternating black and white "shields". The pattern is not perfect. The shields on the south side are not aligned with those to the north, necessitating a transition of two white shields at the west end. On the east side is a large tabula ansata, with a border two tesserae wide. Black lines connect the corners of the ansae with the tabula, with the line in the south-east continuing to the edge of the mosaic. The tabula is not in the center of the room, but moved to the south. Below the tabula ansata is a black frame with a wave pattern along the east side. The frame is in the centre of the room. In the frame two ships and the lighthouse are depicted. The lower part of the depiction (the remainder of the lighthouse) is lost.
TextIn the tabula two lines of text can today be seen:
NAVICVLARIORVM
.LIGNARIORVM
The second line begins with a dot and has a leaf at the end.
Measurements of tabula and text: w. 1.62, h. 0.42; h. of letters 0.14.
Dessau indicates that the second R in line 2 is missing.
Suggested reading:
NAVICVLARIORVM
LIGNARIORVM
Depictions
The left ship has hoisted sails, the right one lowered sails. Lines below the left ship indicate the sea. There are no such lines below the right ship. The round or cylindrical top floor of the lighthouse has a burning fire.
Becatti
Geometric design. Un motivo di doppie asce nere in fila diagonali, che ne delimitano altrettante bianche sul fondo in senso opposto.
Lighthouse. La metà superiore raffigurante il terzo piano con l'arco di due finestre (ora in parte distrutto) e il quarto piano cilindrico con il fuoco acceso di un faro.
Ships. Due navicelle rivolte verso il faro, ambedue dello stesso tipo con prua obliqua senza tagliamare, dalla poppa ricurva, con due timoni poppieri, l'albero maestro e l'albero obliquo di bompresso. Quella di sinistra a due vele, l'acato quadrato all'albero maestro e il dolone quadrato di prua; quella di destra è senza vele, e si vedono invece le sartie che fissano a poppa e a prua l'albero maestro. Due tratti ondulati sotto quella di sinistra simboleggiano il mare.
Masonry
The back room has a rear wall of opus latericium and side walls of opus vittatum: simplex on the south side (five layers preserved) and on the north side (three layers preserved).
Interpretation
The raised and lowered sails of the ships presumably indicate transport to the harbour and safe arrival. The sea and the harbour are suggested by the presence and absence of black lines.
The text in this statio is unique, and not only on the square. Navicularii sailing the Mediterranean did not specify the commodity they transported, but the city or area where they came from or where they were active. It is the traders who mention the commodity. We do not hear of navicularii frumentarii, vinarii, marmorarii. For more information see the section "Masters, superintendents, skippers, traders, merchants".
As a rule those who wished to discuss a commodity on the square went to an office of skippers connected to a city or a region. Why was it necessary to abandon the location and replace it with wood in statio 3? Apparently several groups of navicularii, connected to a specific city or region, needed a form of cooperation to ensure the supply of wood. Legally the partnership between these skippers was perhaps a societas, involving (members of) several collegia. The word to be supplemented before the genitivus pluralis is then most likely statio (cf. statio 14), not corpus.
In late antiquity Symmachus (Relatio 44,2; 384 AD) mentions a similar form of cooperation, at a time when problems arose with the mancipes salinarum (of the salt pans of Ostia and Portus), who were also responsible for supplying the baths in Rome with wood that was transported by navicularii:
Tunc urgente defectu navicularios aeque lignorum obnoxios functioni ad parem sollicitudinem vocare coeperunt, ut utriusque corporis cura coniuncta indiscretum munus agnosceret. At illi nonnullos de turmalibus suis tradere maluerunt quam in societatem tanti oneris covenire. Itaque factum est, ut volentibus iisdem certi homines mancipibus iungerentur.
Barrow translates:
"Then, as the shortage became pressing, they began to summon the guild of navicularii, who were equally liable to serve as transporters of logs (ligna), to take an equal share of responsibility, so that each guild (corpus) should combine with the other and recognize that their service was undivided. But they preferred to hand over a few of their members rather than enter into such a burdensome partnership (societas). Thus it came about that with the concurrence of the guild certain individuals were assigned to the contractors (mancipibus sc. salinarum)".[1]
The cooperation indicates that there was something special about the required wood. Apparently it was not wood that was supplied continuously in bulk, such as the wood used for heating baths. In the maritime context of the square we can think of the wood that was used for building and repairing ships. The various sizes and kinds of wood that were required in shipbuilding may not have been available in one specific region.[2] Among the navicularii lignarii may have been navicularii amnici, transporting wood from central Italy along the Tiber to Ostia and Portus, navicularii from Pisa or the Bay of Naples, and navicularii from further away.
The obvious buyers of this wood were the shipbuilders. For those ordering ships or asking for repairs more than wood was needed: the caulking of the hull, sails and ropes. The fabri navales of Ostia and Portus could have facilitated it all, as customers of the flax-workers, leather-workers, and timber suppliers in stationes 1, 2 and 3.
This is the only statio with a depiction surrounded by a geometric design, a contrast that requires an explanation. The same geometric design is found on the other side of the square, almost exactly opposite this statio, in statio 58. The presence of stuppatores restiones there, as on this side, suggests that the south part of both the east and west portico was used by local craftsmen and for local purposes, related to ships and the harbour infrastructure. The shared geometric design may well reflect this.
(1) Barrow 1973, 89, 221-223.
(2) For the wood used in shipbuilding see Casson 1971, 212-213, and furthermore Allevato - Ermolli - Di Pasquale 2009; Giachi et al. 2017.