THE VICUS AND ITS ENVIRONS - ANCIENT SOURCES

Already in the 1st century BC the orator Quintus Hortensius Hortalus had a villa in the Laurentine area. It was visited by the senator Quintus Axius, who describes the feeding of animals:

Ego vero, inquit ille, apud Q. Hortensium cum in agro Laurenti essem, ibi istuc magis thraikikos fieri vidi. Nam silva erat, ut dicebat, supra quinquaginta iugerum maceria saepta, quod non leporarium, sed therotrophium appellabat. Ibi erat locus excelsus, ubi triclinio posito cenabamus, quo Orphea vocari iussit. Qui cum eo venisset cum stola et cithara cantare esset iussus, bucina inflavit, ut tanta circumfluxerit nos cervorum aprorum et ceterarum quadripedum multitudo, ut non minus formosum mihi visum sit spectaculum, quam in Circo Maximo aedilium sine Africanis bestiis cum fiunt venationes.

I saw it carried out more in the Thracian fashion at Quintus Hortensius's place near Laurentum when I was there. For there was a forest which covered, Hortensius said, more than fifty iugera; it was enclosed with a wall and he called it, not a warren, but a game-preserve. In it was a high spot where was spread the table at which we were dining, to which he bade Orpheus be called. When he appeared with his robe and harp, and was bidden to sing, he blew a horn; whereupon there poured around us such a crowd of stags, boars, and other animals that it seemed to me to be no less attractive a sight than when the hunts of the aediles take place in the Circus Maximus without the African beasts.

Varro, De Re Rustica 3,13,2-3. Translation W.D. Hooper and H.B. Ash.

Another estate in the same area was that of Marcus Seius (in Ostiensi villam ... villa in litore; Varro, De Re Rustica 3,2,7).

During the reign of Augustus the vicus appeared. The name of the settlement is documented in inscriptions. It was called Vicus Augustanus Laurentium, the "Augustan settlement of those of Laurentum". An alternative name has also survived: Vicus Laurentium Augustanorum, "settlement of the Augustan Laurentines".

The vicus is mentioned in a letter written by Pliny the Younger (quoted in full on the next page): "The vicus, which is separated only by one residence from my own, supplies my modest wants; it boasts of three public baths, which are a great convenience, when you do not feel inclined to heat your own bath at home, if you arrive unexpectedly or wish to save time".

The inscriptions document a municipal-type administration, including a curator (CIL VIII, 1439 from Thibursicum Bure in Tunisia), a patronus (CIL XIV, 2045), quattuorviri (mayors; CIL XIV, 301 and 352) and decuriones (members of the city council; CIL XIV, 301, 341, 347, 352, 431 and 4625). The curator and patronus, Q. Acilius Fuscus and P. Aelius Liberalis, were also procurator annonae Ostiensis, "procurator at Ostia of the food supply". Several other people active in the administration were officials in Ostia too, in guilds and in the municipal administration.

P(ublio) AELIO AVG(usti) LIB(erto) LIBERALI PROCVRATORI ANNONAE OSTIENSIS PROCVRATORI PVGILLATIONIS ET AD NAVES VAGAS TRIBVNICIO COLLEGI MAGNI DECVRIALI DECVRIAE VIATORIAE CONSVL(aris) DECVRIALI GERVLORVM PRAEPOSITVS MENSAE NVMMVL(ariae) F(isci) F(rumentarii) OST(iensis) ORNATO ORNA MENTIS DECVRIONATVS COL(oniae) OST(iensis) PATRONO LAVRENTIVM VICI AVGVSTANOR(um)

Inscription on a base for a statue of P. Aelius Liberalis, patron of the vicus. Found in 1874 in the vicus, now in the Museo Nazionale Romano. H. 1.01, w. 0.75, d. 0.70. EDR140073. Photo: Wikimedia.

Only three other "Augustan" vici are documented, in Africa Proconsularis and Mauretania Caesariensis (Tunisia and Algeria). All three were related to Imperial properties. The Laurentine area too had its Imperial estate. We already discussed the Imperial vivarium, for the wild and exotic animals.

Aulus Gellius tells this story:

Sed et divo Augusto imperante, qui temporum eius historiam scripserunt, ancillam Caesaris Augusti in agro Laurente peperisse quinque pueros dicunt eosque pauculos dies vixisse; matrem quoque eorum non multo, postquam peperit, mortuam, monumentumque ei factum iussu Augusti in via Laurentina, inque eo scriptum esse numerum puerperii eius, de quo diximus.

But in the reign of the deified Augustus the historians of the time say that a maid servant of Caesar Augustus in the region of Laurentum brought forth five children, and that they lived for a few days; that their mother died not long after she had been delivered, whereupon a monument was erected to her by order of Augustus on the via Laurentina, and on it was inscribed the number of her children, as I have given it.

Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae X,2,2. Translation J. C. Rolfe.

The area was regarded as particularly healthy. Herodianus wrote this about the plague in 189 AD:

About this time, plague struck all Italy. The suffering was especially severe in Rome, since the city, which received people from all over the world, was overcrowded. The city suffered great loss of both men and animals. Then, on the advice of his physicians, Commodus left Rome for Laurentum. This region enjoyed the shade from extensive laurel groves (whence the area derives its name); it was cooler there and seemed to be a safe haven. The emperor is said to have counteracted the pollution in the air by the fragrant scent of the laurels and the refreshing shade of the trees.

Herodianus, History of the Roman Empire I,12. Translation E.E. Echols.

One of those doctors was surely the famous Galenus from Pergamum, who practised in Rome, worked for Marcus Aurelius, and speaks of "Portus and the nearby city which they call Ostia; all the doctors in those places are my friends" (edition G. Kühn, Vol. XVIII, pp. 347-348).

A few inscriptions document Imperial slaves who were vilici, overseers of the estate (EDR141245, EDR141261). One set up an altar to Spes, another arranged a funeral, together with a servus a Corinthis, keeper of the bronze tableware. Foresters (saltuarii) are documented (EDR072840). Military veterans settled in the area, receiving land from Vespasian, Trajan and Hadrian (Liber Coloniarum 234 L). The Emperor Constantine owned considerable tracts of land in the area (Liber Pontificalis I, 170 and 174).

A lost inscription mentioning the saltuarii and an aedicula and imagines dominorum.
EDR072840. Photo: Lanciani 1909, p.310.

Several inscriptions document the Imperial cult. A dedication to Victoria Augusta was found (EDR140069). The inscription mentioning the saltuarii records the donation of an aedicula and imagines dominorum (a shrine and busts of Emperors) to the collegium salutare saltuariorum (EDR072840). This was a funerary guild, centered around the Imperial cult. One inscription begins with the words ab urbe condita, "from the foundation of Rome" (EDR153401; Thomas 1998). It had been reused inside the vicus. It was put up by a certain Marcus Ofilius, perhaps in 37 AD, the year in which Caligula became Emperor. It records how many times Marcus Agrippa (right-hand man of Augustus), Drusus (a son of Tiberius), and Tiberius held the tribunician power (of the tribune of the plebs). The use of the formula ab urbe condita (754/753 BC) is rare. The inscription was orginally almost 5 metres wide, and may have come from a long podium for statues.

The Ab Urbe Condita inscription. EDR153401. Photo: generazionediarcheologi.com.

At the south end of the area, near the Casale di Casalpalocco, a funerary inscription of the Jewish community was found (EDR141223). it has been dated to the second half of the 2nd century. It records the permission for and building of a tomb for C. Iulius Iustus, his wife, and his freed slaves. The council (gerusia) and a man called father (pater) were involved. Iustus was a leading figure in the community (gerusiarch), which must have used the synagogue where we started our journey.

[Synagoga (?)] IVDEORVM [in col(onia) Ost(iensi) commor?]ANTIVM QVI COMPARA [verunt ex conlat?]IONE LOCVM C(aio) IVLIO IVSTO [gerusiarche (?) ad] MVNIMENTVM STRVENDVM [donavit (?) rogantib?]VS LIVIO DIONYSIO PATRE ET [---]NO GERVSIARCHE ET ANTONIO [--- dia] B[iu] ANNO IPSORVM CONSENT(iente) GE[r] [us(ia) C(aius) Iulius Iu]STVS GERVSIARCHES FECIT SIBI [et coniugi] SVAE LIB(ertis) LIB(ertabusque) POSTERISQVE EORVM [In fro]NTE P(edes) XVIII IN AGRO P(edes) XVII< [The congregation?] of the Jews [living in the colony of Ostia?], who received the plot [from a contribution, gave?] it to Caius Iulius Iustus [ruler of the council] to erect a monument. [On the motion?] of Livius Dionysius the father and [...]nus the ruler of the council and Antonius [... for] life, in their year, with the consent of the council. [Caius Iulius Iu]stus, ruler of the council, built it for himself, [his wife], his freedmen and freedwomen, and their descendants. [Wide] 18 feet, deep 17 feet. A. Runesson - D. Binder - B. Olsson, The Ancient Synagogue from its Origins to 200 C.E., Leiden 2008, 224-225 no. 178.

The Jewish inscription. EDR141223. Photo: EDR.