Gardens of the Roman Empire

Garden beneath the House of the Fishes (Domus dei Pesci)

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Location

Location Description

Ostia Antica, the port-city of Rome, was situated at the mouth (ostium) of the Tiber, where it flowed into the Tyrrhenian sea. Rome was situated further upriver, several kilometres from the sea. By its maritime position, Ostia also protected the landing at the mouth of the river; it controlled the trade that ran along it, and also the production of salt in the nearby salt works. Ancient historians believed that the city had been founded in the 7^th century by king Ancus Marcius; archaeological evidence shows that the first settlement was founded as a colonia maritima in the 4^th century BCE. and that it was already acting as the harbour of Rome in the 3^rd century BCE.

From the 2^nd century BCE Ostia (and later Portus) was the main port for the landing of wheat and other foodstuffs destined for the markets of Rome. It was a lively and cosmopolitan port city, where the great cargo ships unloaded produce from all over the Mediterranean and beyond. At Ostia the freight was transferred to riverboats to be sent upriver to Rome. This thriving commercial activity was accompanied by demographic and economic growth and by the presence of people coming from all over the known world.

Ostia is especially well known in archaeological and historical studies for its building history. The earliest Ostian houses are only known from sporadic traces, beginning from the 2nd century BCE. They were domus of traditional type, both in the simplest version, of direct Italic derivation, with rooms arranged round the atrium, and in the more complex Roman-Hellenistic form, in which the peristyle with the garden was added (e.g. the House of the Bucrania). They were single-family houses, generally single storied, or with an upper story limited to the height of the atrium.

The transition to a different type of house was marked by the so-called peristyle house, such as the House on the Via del Tempio Rotondo, which dates to the Augustan period, the one found below the Schola of Trajan (built 20-40 CE) and the House of the Thunderbolt, datable to the Vespasianic period (69-79 CE). In this latter type of house the rooms are laid out around a small central colonnaded courtyard, sometimes provided with a garden, more often paved. The later examples of this type include the first phase of the House of Fortuna Annonaria, with its garden (140-190 CE).

Ostia was heavily reconstructed in the 2^nd century CE, under the pressure of the growth in population due to the completion of its ports. The new city followed new canons of utilitarian, high-density building, based on the multi-storied insula, which aimed at the efficient use of the little space available. A room with windows on the façade became a kind of atrium-room. The plan became enriched with smaller rooms and internal staircases that ascended to the private apartments of the upper floor. Independent stairways entered from the street provided access to the apartments on the second and upper floors. The most accomplished examples of this type of building date to the Hadrianic period, for example in some insulae that compose the so-called Garden Houses. In another type of insula the main source of light is not the street, but an inner arcaded courtyard.

The internal space was not always delimited by a portico; the Insula of the Paintings, comprising the houses of Jove and Ganymede, of the Infant Bacchus and of the Paintings, arranged according to an L-shaped plan, had its façade facing onto two streets, forming a corner, while its inner sides faced onto a fairly extensive garden, without porticoes.

In the 3^rd and 4^th centuries, the tenement houses of the less well-to-do fell into ruin or were patched up. Private building seemed limited to the erection of new patrician domus (e.g. the House of Amor and Psyche), built on the ground floor of already existing buildings and richly decorated with costly marbles. In these houses the gardens were chiefly an ornamental backdrop.

The internal garden of the house at Ostia described by St. Augustine (Confessions 9.10.23), which forms the setting for the conversation with his mother St. Monica in CE 388, is precisely of this type: a decorative backdrop that enhanced the peace and quiet of the interior of the house, an antithesis to the frenetic but vain life of the city outside.

Ostia gives us, all things considered, the idea of a heavily built-up city, which sacrificed much of its greenery in the attempt to exploit building land as intensively as possible. This must have been the case especially in the most intensive building phase in its history (1^st-3^rd century CE). As a consequence, the gardens laid out before this period were in large part destroyed by subsequent building activity. Later garden layouts, on the other hand, were wiped out by the frantic campaign of excavation in the years 1938-1942, conducted in preparation for the World Exhibition, never held due to the outbreak of the Second World War. But today, thanks to the new excavations being conducted at Ostia by Italian and international research groups, using the most modern methods of investigation, the gardens of the ancient city are finally being recovered. In all the cases so far ascertained, they were gardens laid out within peristyles/courtyards, associated with wells or fountains for irrigation. In some cases, the excavators found the classic perforated vases, in others large fragments of terracotta containers. As regards garden furniture, only the Domus of Fortuna Annonaria provided some reliable data.

Ostia in ancient times, however, must have been a good deal greener and richer in vegetation and flora than now seems the case; the ancient sources in fact speak of the flourishing cultivation of vegetables, leaks, melons and salads in Ostian territory. In the 5^th century CE "the Isola Sacra is so lush and pleasant that it does not lack admirable grazing land, neither in the summer, nor in the winter months; in the spring, moreover, it is filled with such a profusion of roses and other flowers that it may be called, for its luscious flowering fragrance, the Lebanon of bountiful Venus" (Cosmographia: 25.25-30).

Location Plan

Ostia Antica, General Plan.

Garden

Garden beneath the House of the Fishes (Domus dei Pesci) \

House of the Fishes Pleiades: 223974300

Keywords

Garden Description

In the course of recent excavations in a room (a) of this house a probable garden area was uncovered (Fig. 1). Only its southern limits, represented by the perimeter wall of an otherwise unidentified building, could be traced. The archaeological sequence established by the stratigraphy of this garden area dates it between the early 2nd and early 3rd century CE. It is characterized by a series of superimposed levels of beaten earth, interrupted by small channels, postholes and larger pits.

One significant level of these successive transformations of the area is represented by a layer which was cut to provide the support for a kind of rectangular terracotta container. It rested directly on the earth, and was perhaps used as a watering basin. Probably connected with this object is a small channel running parallel to it, 10 cm deep and 30 cm wide, paved with pottery fragments. To the south of this channel a pit was located, its edge lined with pottery fragments. It is flanked by two smaller and shallower holes (respectively 12 and 16 cm in diameter), perhaps for small shrubs or poles. Probably slightly later is another layout of the garden, represented by a beaten earth level cut by a pit (c.22 cm wide, 10 cm deep). Found embedded inside it was a large, upturned upper part of a Dressel 20 amphora, possibly used as a planting pot.

Plans

Fig. 1: Plan

Credit: (after Becatti, 1961).

Dates

between the early 2nd and early 3rd century CE

Excavation Date

unspecified

Bibliography

G. Calza, G. Becatti, I. Gismondi, G. De Angelis D'Ossat, H. Bloch, Topografia generale, Scavi di Ostia I, Rome, 1953.
R. Meiggs, Roman Ostia. (worldcat)
C. Pavolini, Ostia: Vita quotidiana. (worldcat)
Jean-Paul Descœudres, Ostia: Port et porte de la Rome antique. (worldcat)
E.J. Shepherd, P. Olivanti (eds), Giardini ostiensi, Bullettino della Commissione archeologica comunale di Roma, 109, 2008, pp. 69-98. (worldcat)
M. De Vico Fallani, C. Pavolini, E. J. Shepherd, M. Pileri, "Le sistemazioni a verde di Michele Busiri Vici per Ostia Antica: un caso di studio," Rivista di Archeologia 43, 2019, pp. 165-176. (worldcat) (Rivista di Archeologia)
M. De Vico Fallani, C. Pavolini, E. J. Shepherd, M. Pileri, "Un sogno lasciato a metà: il progetto di Michele Busiri Vici per le sistemazioni arboree e per i giardini nella zona di Ostia Antica Scavi (1939-1941)," Bollettino d'Arte, in press. (worldcat)

Giovanni Becatti, Case ostiensi del tardo impero, 1961, pp. 18-20. (worldcat)
F. Zevi et al., Notizie degli scavi di antichità, in press. (worldcat)

Places

Garden Houses (Case a Giardino)

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Location

Location Description

Location Plan

Ostia Antica, General Plan.

Garden

Garden Houses (Case a Giardino) \

Garden Houses Pleiades: 223974298

Keywords

Garden Description

The area in which these houses are situated was laid out as a residential area in c. 128 CE as part of the Hadrianic remodeling of Ostia (Fig. 1). It is delimited by buildings of various depths, due to the irregularity of the available space. The central area is occupied by two blocks each comprising four houses, surrounded, according to the excavators, by a garden furnished with six fountains (a) (three on the west and three on the east side; they each measure 2.93x3.55 m. and have a maximum preserved height of 75 cm.) (Figs. 2, 3). The fountains had more than a purely decorative function. They seem rather to be the classic type of canopied fountain. Each was equipped with a water spout and probably with an opening for drawing water. The fountains were surrounded on three sides by a travertine border, in which a little channel for the discharge of excess water was hewn. Two rounded grooves in the channel, in front of each spout, have been interpreted as supports for vessels to rest in as they were filled with water. On the fourth side, which has no border, is an outlet for the discharge of water, which flowed into the main drain leading outside the complex.

A fourth fountain (b) was added on the eastern side, in the early years of the 3rd century CE. Its floor was embellished with a mosaic representing Nilotic scenes (3.30x2.96 m) (Fig. 4); it has been suggested that it was roofed with a pergola supported by small columns. This fountain was essentially ornamental. It would have provided jeux d'eau and was perhaps combined with small flower-beds or garden sculptures in the area surrounded by the mosaic border.

A sculptural group with a fishing scene, which could be interpreted as a fountain-head, was found (not in situ) in one of the rooms of the eastern block and might have belonged to this fountain (Fig. 5).

Figures

Figure 1: Plan

Credit: (after Ricciardi, Scrinari 1996).

Figure 2: Fountain (PA-OAnt, Photo Archive).

Figure 3: Section and reconstruction of fountain (from Civiltà dell' acqua).

Figure 4: Fountain b: mosaic with nilotic scene (PA-OAnt, Photo Archive).

Figure 5: Fisherman on a rock, sculpture from Garden Houses (PA-OAnt, Photo Archive).

Dates

128 CE
3rd century CE

Excavation Date

unspecified

Bibliography

G. Calza, G. Becatti, I. Gismondi, G. De Angelis D'Ossat, H. Bloch, Topografia generale, Scavi di Ostia I, Rome, 1953.
R. Meiggs, Roman Ostia. (worldcat)
C. Pavolini, Ostia: Vita quotidiana. (worldcat)
Jean-Paul Descœudres, Ostia: Port et porte de la Rome antique. (worldcat)
E.J. Shepherd, P. Olivanti (eds), Giardini ostiensi, Bullettino della Commissione archeologica comunale di Roma, 109, 2008, pp. 69-98. (worldcat)
M. De Vico Fallani, C. Pavolini, E. J. Shepherd, M. Pileri, "Le sistemazioni a verde di Michele Busiri Vici per Ostia Antica: un caso di studio," Rivista di Archeologia 43, 2019, pp. 165-176. (worldcat) (Rivista di Archeologia)
M. De Vico Fallani, C. Pavolini, E. J. Shepherd, M. Pileri, "Un sogno lasciato a metà: il progetto di Michele Busiri Vici per le sistemazioni arboree e per i giardini nella zona di Ostia Antica Scavi (1939-1941)," Bollettino d'Arte, in press. (worldcat)

Giornale degli Scavi, 1941, pp. 34-38.
Bernard Andreae, Am Birnbaum: Gärten und Parks im antiken Rom, in den Vesuvstädten und in Ostia, pp. 121-123. (worldcat)
M.A. Ricciardi, V. Santa Maria Scrinari, La Civiltà dell'acqua in Ostia Antica 2, Rome, 1996, pp. 114-117. (worldcat)

Places

House of Amor and Psyche

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Location

Location Description

Location Plan

Ostia Antica, General Plan.

Garden

House of Amor and Psyche \

House of Amor and Psyche Pleiades: 868515126

Keywords

Garden Description

The entrance of this house (Fig. 1) (which takes its name from the statuary group found in room b) provides access to a large portico (a) with four columns on marble bases, resting on a continuous marble-paneled balustrade 50 cm high. To the right of the portico was an area believed to be a garden (viridarium) (c) terminating in a nymphaeum. This consisted of a podium 1.10 m. high, paneled in white marble. Hewn into its front side are five deep circular niches. Four are paneled in white marble; only the central niche is panelled in green cipollino marble. The architectural elevation of the nymphaeum rises from this podium (Fig. 2). Over four meters high, it consists of two rectangular alternating with three semicircular niches, framed by six marble columns with Corinthian capitals and rectangular travertine plinths, from which little brick arches project. Five marble stepped gradients were placed between the bases of the columns. They formed miniature cascades: the water piped in by the lead conduit that ran along the bases of the niches flowed down over them. The water filled small rectangular basins and, flowing through terracotta channels inside the podium, spouted from four outlets placed between the niches. The whole of the podium together with the stepped cascades was paneled in white marble and green cipollino; the upper part, by contrast, was stuccoed and adorned with a polychrome wall mosaic. A tile-covered drain ran through the entire length of the podium.

The viridarium is the main source of light for all the rooms that face on it, including the large reception room (d) (Fig. 3). The house is a typical example of an Ostian patrician house of the early 4th century CE.

Figures

Figure 1: Plan

Credit: (after Becatti 1961).

Figure 2: Nymphaeum (PA-OAnt, Photo Archive).

Figure 3: Axonometry

Credit: (R. Jadrić, M. Kolarić, T. Marasović, A Pavlović, 1966, PA-OAnt, Archives).

Figure 4: Section

Credit: (R. Jadrić, M. Kolarić, T. Marasović, A Pavlović, 1966, PA-OAnt, Archives).

Dates

unspecified

Excavation Date

unspecified

Bibliography

G. Calza, G. Becatti, I. Gismondi, G. De Angelis D'Ossat, H. Bloch, Topografia generale, Scavi di Ostia I, Rome, 1953.
R. Meiggs, Roman Ostia. (worldcat)
C. Pavolini, Ostia: Vita quotidiana. (worldcat)
Jean-Paul Descœudres, Ostia: Port et porte de la Rome antique. (worldcat)
E.J. Shepherd, P. Olivanti (eds), Giardini ostiensi, Bullettino della Commissione archeologica comunale di Roma, 109, 2008, pp. 69-98. (worldcat)
M. De Vico Fallani, C. Pavolini, E. J. Shepherd, M. Pileri, "Le sistemazioni a verde di Michele Busiri Vici per Ostia Antica: un caso di studio," Rivista di Archeologia 43, 2019, pp. 165-176. (worldcat) (Rivista di Archeologia)
M. De Vico Fallani, C. Pavolini, E. J. Shepherd, M. Pileri, "Un sogno lasciato a metà: il progetto di Michele Busiri Vici per le sistemazioni arboree e per i giardini nella zona di Ostia Antica Scavi (1939-1941)," Bollettino d'Arte, in press. (worldcat)

Giovanni Becatti, Case ostiensi del tardo impero, pp. 6-8. (worldcat)
James E. Packer, "The Domus of Cupid and Psyche in Ancient Ostia" in American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 71, No. 2 (1967), pp. 125-126. (worldcat) (jstor)
Bernard Andreae, Am Birnbaum: Gärten und Parks im antiken Rom, in den Vesuvstädten und in Ostia, 1996, p. 123. (worldcat)
Giovanni Becatti, Mosaici e pavimenti marmorei, Scavi di Ostia IV, Rome, 1961. (worldcat)
E.J. Shepherd, P. Olivanti (eds), Giardini ostiensi, Bullettino della Commissione archeologica comunale di Roma, 109, 2008, pp. 93-97. (worldcat)

Places

House of the Bucrania

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Location

Location Description

Location Plan

Ostia Antica, General Plan.

Garden

House of the Bucrania

Keywords

Garden Description

In the summer of 2002 part of the hortus of the Domus with peristyle was excavated (in the west corner) (Fig. 1, d). At 80 cm under the present sea level, part of the garden of a Late Republican domus (called Domus with Bucrania) was revealed. The domus was built about 80-60 BCE and destroyed about 20-40 CE. A dark organic soil layer was found, at the same level as the floors of the building. A flower pot with four holes was found in this layer. The foundation of a low wall and several structures composed of splinters of tuff bound by bad quality mortar were probably part of the internal arrangement of the garden. Future excavation will certainly help to understand better these structures; the study of pollens and seeds is also in progress.

After the demolition of the House with Bucrania, the resulting consistent layer of debris was used to raise the ground level on which the House with Peristyle was going to be built, thus obliterating the garden. This layer was composed, among other finds, of a considerable number of painted plaster and stucco fragments of excellent quality that have made a reconstruction of the aspect of this area possible. There was a portico with brick columns, plastered and painted purple on the smooth socle, modelled with large flutings and painted white in the upper part; the portico was paved in opus signinum with inserted mosaic tesserae and chips of marble; its walls were painted in the second Pompeian style: large violet orthostats were delimited by brown fluted columns, surmounted by Doric capitals on which large green garlands with birds hung; above this there was a complex network of green and red header blocks and a frieze of yellow palm leaf on a violet ground. The ceiling was violet with an overpainted geometrical pattern. The architrave of the portico, open on the garden, was probably decorated by terracotta architectural plaques and a feline waterspout.

At present, this is the earliest hortus known in ancient Ostia.

Figures

Figure 1: Plan

Credit: (from Morard, Wavelet 2002).

Dates

80-60 BCE to 20-40 CE

Excavation Date

summer 2002

Bibliography

G. Calza, G. Becatti, I. Gismondi, G. De Angelis D'Ossat, H. Bloch, Topografia generale, Scavi di Ostia I, Rome, 1953.
R. Meiggs, Roman Ostia. (worldcat)
C. Pavolini, Ostia: Vita quotidiana. (worldcat)
Jean-Paul Descœudres, Ostia: Port et porte de la Rome antique. (worldcat)
E.J. Shepherd, P. Olivanti (eds), Giardini ostiensi, Bullettino della Commissione archeologica comunale di Roma, 109, 2008, pp. 69-98. (worldcat)
M. De Vico Fallani, C. Pavolini, E. J. Shepherd, M. Pileri, "Le sistemazioni a verde di Michele Busiri Vici per Ostia Antica: un caso di studio," Rivista di Archeologia 43, 2019, pp. 165-176. (worldcat) (Rivista di Archeologia)
M. De Vico Fallani, C. Pavolini, E. J. Shepherd, M. Pileri, "Un sogno lasciato a metà: il progetto di Michele Busiri Vici per le sistemazioni arboree e per i giardini nella zona di Ostia Antica Scavi (1939-1941)," Bollettino d'Arte, in press. (worldcat)

T. Morard, Mélanges de l'École française de Rome: Antiquité Tome 115, No. 1 (2003), in press. (worldcat)
T. Morard, D. Wavelet, "Prolégomènes à l'étude du site de la Schola du Trajan à Ostie," in Mélanges de l'École française de Rome: Antiquité, Tome 115, No. 2 (2002), pp. 759-815. (worldcat) (persée)

Places

Ostia Pleiades: 422995

Ostia Antica (deserted settlement) TGN: 7007018

House of the Fortuna Annonaria

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Location

Location Description

Location Plan

Ostia Antica, General Plan.

Garden

House of the Fortuna Annonaria

Keywords

Garden Description

The peristyle garden (Fig. 1, a) has travertine columns on three sides. The fourth side coincides with the perimeter wall of the house, which forms part of the original plan, dating to the 2nd century CE. The last phase of the domus, lavishly decorated with precious marbles, dates to the 4th century CE. Against the rear wall of the garden is a brick niche (h. 194 cm.; w. 114 cm.) containing a statue of Juno or Demeter and two benches in opus listatum (w. 41 cm.; preserved h. 28 cm.). "The area inside the peristyle must undoubtedly have been kept as a garden (Figs. 2 and 3). The remains of a rectangular basin (3.10x5.40 m.) with drainage outlet at its north-east corner were found at its center" (Becatti).

There is a well (diam. 49 cm.) in the eastern part of the garden; it is adorned with a marble well-head decorated with bucrania in neo-attic style, dating to the 2nd century CE (dia. 66 cm; h. 55 cm) (Fig. 4). Two small herms also formed part of the garden decoration.

A large female statue was found in situ on its pedestal, adhering to the end-wall of the western portico of the peristyle. Endowed with the attributes of trade (cornucopia and oar), the female figure has been identified as Fortuna Annonaria, the personification of Ostia's trading success.

The large apsidal reception room (oecus) (Fig. 1, b), with two columns marking its entrance, was located in the western part of the house. The garden, with flowering plants, onto which it opens, formed its natural continuation. This, together with the nymphaeum that decorated the south side of the room, its rear wall articulated with alternating semicircular and rectangular niches containing statues, provided a suitably splendid and prestige-enhancing setting for the public life of the owner, probably a wealthy trader.

The garden also forms the backdrop to the rooms in the east part of the house, a triclinium (Fig. 1, c) and a heated cubicle (Fig. 1, d), lit by a large window and decorated with a lavish black and white mosaic floor with mythological scenes.

Figures

Figure 1: Plan

Credit: (after Boersma 1985).

Figure 2: Axonometry

Credit: (from Boersma 1985).

Figure 3: The garden seen from the oecus (PA-OAnt, Photo Archive).

Figure 4: Well head with bucrania (PA-OAnt, Photo Archive).

Dates

2nd century CE to 4th century CE

Excavation Date

unspecified

Bibliography

G. Calza, G. Becatti, I. Gismondi, G. De Angelis D'Ossat, H. Bloch, Topografia generale, Scavi di Ostia I, Rome, 1953.
R. Meiggs, Roman Ostia. (worldcat)
C. Pavolini, Ostia: Vita quotidiana. (worldcat)
Jean-Paul Descœudres, Ostia: Port et porte de la Rome antique. (worldcat)
E.J. Shepherd, P. Olivanti (eds), Giardini ostiensi, Bullettino della Commissione archeologica comunale di Roma, 109, 2008, pp. 69-98. (worldcat)
M. De Vico Fallani, C. Pavolini, E. J. Shepherd, M. Pileri, "Le sistemazioni a verde di Michele Busiri Vici per Ostia Antica: un caso di studio," Rivista di Archeologia 43, 2019, pp. 165-176. (worldcat) (Rivista di Archeologia)
M. De Vico Fallani, C. Pavolini, E. J. Shepherd, M. Pileri, "Un sogno lasciato a metà: il progetto di Michele Busiri Vici per le sistemazioni arboree e per i giardini nella zona di Ostia Antica Scavi (1939-1941)," Bollettino d'Arte, in press. (worldcat)

Giornale degli Scavi, 1939, pp. 54-87.
Giovanni Becatti, Case ostiensi del tardo impero, pp. 23-25. (worldcat)
John S. Boersma, Amoenissima Civitas: Block V. ii at Ostia, Description and Analysis of its Visible Remains, Assen: Van Gorcum, 1985, pp. 151, 156-160. (worldcat)
Bernard Andreae, Am Birnbaum: Gärten und Parks im antiken Rom, in den Vesuvstädten und in Ostia, 1996, pp. 123-124. (worldcat)
E.J. Shepherd, P. Olivanti (eds), Giardini ostiensi, Bullettino della Commissione archeologica comunale di Roma, 109, 2008, pp. 82-84. (worldcat)

Places

Ostia Pleiades: 422995

Ostia Antica (deserted settlement) TGN: 7007018

House of the Thunderbolt (Domus Fulminata)

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Location

Location Description

Location Plan

Ostia Antica, General Plan.

Garden

House of the Thunderbolt (Domus Fulminata) \

House of the Thunderbolt Pleiades: 1554484

Keywords

Garden Description

The peristyle garden, excavated in 1941, was surrounded by a portico on all four sides, supported by brick columns, some of which were paired or clustered in threes (Fig. 1). In the original building, dating to the Flavian period, the garden (a) was furnished with a brick biclinium, with the klinai placed opposite each other. Behind the klinai was an aedicula-shaped lararium with a cylindrical marble altar in front of it (Fig. 2). On the opposite side, and aligned with the entrance, was the basin of a fountain with a polychrome mosaic in blue and yellow tesserae (built in a second phase, c. 150-200 CE). It was probably fed by the lead pipe (stamped SEXTILIUS SECUNDUS FECIT) that was seen by the excavators leading from the entrance towards the Decumanus. A well-head (Figs. 3-4), placed at the entrance to the garden, had a purely ornamental function, since its bottom is sealed and it only has a hole for the runoff of water. A cube-shaped stuccoed brick pedestal was erected at the southwest corner of the peristyle. Into its sloping top was inserted a marble plaque, inscribed with the letters FDC ("fulgur dium conditum"). It marked the spot where lightning had struck, as well as things that had been struck by the same lightning bolt and ritually buried to placate the wrath of the gods.

The residential rooms of the domus were placed on its upper floor. Some experts think that the main reception rooms should be identified in the wing facing onto the northwest side of the garden. However, not everyone agrees that the House of the Thunderbolt was a private residential building. It could also have been the site of a college or corporation, which some archaeologists connect with the nearby sanctuary of the Bona Dea. The rooms aligned along the eastern side, all intercommunicating, would have been, in this case, the ceremonial rooms of the college, whereas the residential sector of the building would be identifiable in the rooms on the western side.

The house is one of the most interesting examples of the transition from the atrium peristyle house of Republican tradition to the house with a colonnaded courtyard typical of Ostian residential architecture in the 2^nd century CE.

Figures

Figure 1: Plan

Credit: (after Calza 1953).

Figure 2: Garden, 1941 (PA-OAnt, Photo Archive).

Figure 3: Basin shaped as a well-head (PA-OAnt, Photo Archive).

Figure 4: Section of the basin

Credit: (from Ricciardi, Scrinari 1996).

Dates

Flavian period
150-200 CE

Excavation Date

1941

Bibliography

G. Calza, G. Becatti, I. Gismondi, G. De Angelis D'Ossat, H. Bloch, Topografia generale, Scavi di Ostia I, Rome, 1953. (worldcat)
R. Meiggs, Roman Ostia. (worldcat)
C. Pavolini, Ostia: Vita quotidiana. (worldcat)
Jean-Paul Descœudres, Ostia: Port et porte de la Rome antique. (worldcat)
E.J. Shepherd, P. Olivanti (eds), Giardini ostiensi, Bullettino della Commissione archeologica comunale di Roma, 109, 2008, pp. 69-98. (worldcat)
M. De Vico Fallani, C. Pavolini, E. J. Shepherd, M. Pileri, "Le sistemazioni a verde di Michele Busiri Vici per Ostia Antica: un caso di studio," Rivista di Archeologia 43, 2019, pp. 165-176. (worldcat) (Rivista di Archeologia)
M. De Vico Fallani, C. Pavolini, E. J. Shepherd, M. Pileri, "Un sogno lasciato a metà: il progetto di Michele Busiri Vici per le sistemazioni arboree e per i giardini nella zona di Ostia Antica Scavi (1939-1941)," Bollettino d'Arte, in press. (worldcat)

Giornale degli Scavi, 1941, pp. 56-58, 66.
M.A. Ricciardi, V. Santa Maria Scrinari, La Civiltà dell'acqua in Ostia Antica 2, Rome, 1996, pp. 108-111. (worldcat)
L.B. van der Meer, N.L.C. Stevens, H. Stoeger, "Domus Fulminata: The House of the Thunderbolt at Ostia (III, vii, 3-5)," Bulletin Antieke Beschaving 80, 2005, pp. 91-111. (worldcat)

Places

House on Via del Tempio Rotondo

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Location

Location Description

Location Plan

Ostia Antica, General Plan.

Garden

House on Via del Tempio Rotondo

Keywords

Garden Description

This house was only partially excavated between June 1972 and January 1973 (Fig. 1). In its Augustan phase the peristyle garden (a) was adorned with a large central basin paved in opus signinum. At the center of the basin was a brick support, interpreted as the base of a fountain. The columns of the peristyle, probably Tuscan, rested on bases alternating with travertine strips at pavement level (Fig. 2). Three perforated vases of the type of ollae perforatae recorded by Cato (RR 52, 133 | Trans.) and Pliny (NH 12. 16; 17. 64, 97) were found between the basin and the columns of the peristyle, and exactly aligned with their bases. The ollae were intact and must have contained plants, no doubt of the flowering and rambling variety, which would have found both a support and a chromatic backdrop in the columns to the rear.

Plans

Fig. 1: Plan (after M. Supino; PA-OAnt, Archives).

Fig. 2: Plan of the peristyle, with column bases and flower pots

Credit: (from Messineo 1984).

Photos

Fig. 3: A flower pot during excavation, 1973 (PA-OAnt, Photo Archive).

Dates

unspecified

Excavation Date

partially excavated between June 1972 and January 1973

Bibliography

G. Calza, G. Becatti, I. Gismondi, G. De Angelis D'Ossat, H. Bloch, Topografia generale, Scavi di Ostia I, Rome, 1953.
R. Meiggs, Roman Ostia. (worldcat)
C. Pavolini, Ostia: Vita quotidiana. (worldcat)
Jean-Paul Descœudres, Ostia: Port et porte de la Rome antique. (worldcat)
E.J. Shepherd, P. Olivanti (eds), Giardini ostiensi, Bullettino della Commissione archeologica comunale di Roma, 109, 2008, pp. 69-98. (worldcat)
M. De Vico Fallani, C. Pavolini, E. J. Shepherd, M. Pileri, "Le sistemazioni a verde di Michele Busiri Vici per Ostia Antica: un caso di studio," Rivista di Archeologia 43, 2019, pp. 165-176. (worldcat) (Rivista di Archeologia)
M. De Vico Fallani, C. Pavolini, E. J. Shepherd, M. Pileri, "Un sogno lasciato a metà: il progetto di Michele Busiri Vici per le sistemazioni arboree e per i giardini nella zona di Ostia Antica Scavi (1939-1941)," Bollettino d'Arte, in press. (worldcat)

Giornale degli Scavi, 1972-1973, p. 56. (worldcat)
G. Messineo, "Ollae perforatae," Xenia 8, 1984, pp. 65-82. (worldcat)

Places

Ostia Pleiades: 422995

Ostia Antica (deserted settlement) TGN: 7007018

House with Peristyle

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Location

Location Description

Location Plan

Ostia Antica, General Plan.

Garden

House with Peristyle

Keywords

Garden Description

During the winter 1938-1939 part of an earlier building was found under the occupation level of the Schola of the Trajan. It was called House with peristyle, as the main preserved feature was seen to be the considerable part of a classical peristyle) (Fig. 1, b). The house was erected between 20-40 CE and then destroyed between 160-200 CE. The find created great interest and massive restorations began, in order to show visitors a characteristic type of private architecture of the early Empire, rarely found in Ostia.

The portico of this house was then partially rebuilt with brick columns (Fig. 2). On its east, roofed side, the portico is paved with a white and black tessellated mosaic with geometrical and vegetal decorations. Some of the wall painting is conserved in situ on the east wall of the portico. It is also possible to date several later restorations of the house between the 1st and the 2nd century CE.

The portico courtyard was a garden. On its northern side was a large rectangular nymphaeum, also restored in 1939. It is decorated with a semi-circular niche on its long southern side. The floor is paved in opus spicatum; the walls are lined with hydraulic mortar, painted blue (Fig. 1, c). The volume of this nymphaeum and the system of the water evacuation and supply were modified several times. The well in opus testaceum, in the angle southwest of the basin, is certainly one of the latest features. There is another well under the east corner of the portico that can be reached by stairs. The underground space, which was created around the well, could have been used as a cellar.

Figures

Figure 1: Plan (from Morard, Wavelet).

Figure 2: The courtyard and the House with Peristyle, reconstruction after the 1938 excavations (PA-OAnt, Photo Archive).

Dates

erected 20-40 CE
destroyed 160-200 CE

Excavation Date

winter of 1938-1939

Bibliography

G. Calza, G. Becatti, I. Gismondi, G. De Angelis D'Ossat, H. Bloch, Topografia generale, Scavi di Ostia I, Rome, 1953.
R. Meiggs, Roman Ostia. (worldcat)
C. Pavolini, Ostia: Vita quotidiana. (worldcat)
Jean-Paul Descœudres, Ostia: Port et porte de la Rome antique. (worldcat)
E.J. Shepherd, P. Olivanti (eds), Giardini ostiensi, Bullettino della Commissione archeologica comunale di Roma, 109, 2008, pp. 69-98. (worldcat)
M. De Vico Fallani, C. Pavolini, E. J. Shepherd, M. Pileri, "Le sistemazioni a verde di Michele Busiri Vici per Ostia Antica: un caso di studio," Rivista di Archeologia 43, 2019, pp. 165-176. (worldcat) (Rivista di Archeologia)
M. De Vico Fallani, C. Pavolini, E. J. Shepherd, M. Pileri, "Un sogno lasciato a metà: il progetto di Michele Busiri Vici per le sistemazioni arboree e per i giardini nella zona di Ostia Antica Scavi (1939-1941)," Bollettino d'Arte, in press. (worldcat)

Arena, Ostia repubblicana, p. 23. (worldcat)
T. Morard and D. Wavelet, Mélanges de l'École française de Rome: Antiquité Tome 114, No. 2 (2002), Rome, pp. 759-815. (worldcat) hathitrust

Places

Ostia Pleiades: 422995

Ostia Antica (deserted settlement) TGN: 7007018

Insula dei Dipinti

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Location

Location Description

Location Plan

Ostia Antica, General Plan.

Garden

Insula dei Dipinti \

Insula dei Dipinti Pleiades: 841214213

Keywords

Garden Description

The large open area in this insula, divided into two by a wall, was identified as a garden at the time of excavation (1914 to 1919), but on little evidence apart from the absence of paving over most of the area. Recent excavations have however clarified the phases of the garden and added some significant detail. The garden is now known to have been created as a single area, forming an integral part of the late Hadrianic development comprising the three houses which make up the Insula of the Paintings (House of Jove and Ganymede, House of the Infant Bacchus and House of the Paintings). The excavations in the SW corner of the south garden (Fig. 1, Tr. 1) however produced no evidence of Hadrianic garden features, due to the garden being greatly disturbed by a substantial restoration of the insula somewhere in the period 150-180 CE. At this time the wall dividing the garden into two was built, and a humus-rich soil imported into the south garden area, its use as a garden being confirmed by fragments of five flower pots, recognized by the holes in their bases. In addition, the lower part of a Dressel 20 amphora and a neat, sub-triangular pit roughly 50 cm across cut into the underlying rubble fill may have served as planters. In the Severan period a small aedicular shrine was added to the south face of the new garden wall, the niche being originally decorated with glass mosaic above foliage plants against a red ground. This was later covered with whitewash and replaced by a figured scene, and finally a statue of Jove was installed in the niche. A section of black-and-white geometric mosaic, overlying the humus-rich soil in Trench 1 and possibly associated lightweight rough walls, suggests the creation of a summer pavilion or dining room during this period, which would have enjoyed a view of the garden shrine.

Figures

Figure 1: The Garden and Houses of the Insula dei Dipinti.

Dates

late Hadrianic period
150-180 CE

Excavation Date

1914-1919
recent excavations

Bibliography

G. Calza, G. Becatti, I. Gismondi, G. De Angelis D'Ossat, H. Bloch, Topografia generale, Scavi di Ostia I, Rome, 1953.
R. Meiggs, Roman Ostia. (worldcat)
C. Pavolini, Ostia: Vita quotidiana. (worldcat)
Jean-Paul Descœudres, Ostia: Port et porte de la Rome antique. (worldcat)
E.J. Shepherd, P. Olivanti (eds), Giardini ostiensi, Bullettino della Commissione archeologica comunale di Roma, 109, 2008, pp. 69-98. (worldcat)
M. De Vico Fallani, C. Pavolini, E. J. Shepherd, M. Pileri, "Le sistemazioni a verde di Michele Busiri Vici per Ostia Antica: un caso di studio," Rivista di Archeologia 43, 2019, pp. 165-176. (worldcat) (Rivista di Archeologia)
M. De Vico Fallani, C. Pavolini, E. J. Shepherd, M. Pileri, "Un sogno lasciato a metà: il progetto di Michele Busiri Vici per le sistemazioni arboree e per i giardini nella zona di Ostia Antica Scavi (1939-1941)," Bollettino d'Arte, in press. (worldcat)

Giornale degli Scavi, 1917, pp. 58, 69-70.
Giornale degli Scavi, 1919, pp. 227-228, 251-253, 255, 263-5.
G. Calza, Monumenti antichi 26 (1920), pp. 328-330. (worldcat)

Places

Piazzale della Corporazioni

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Location

Location Description

Location Plan

Ostia Antica, General Plan.

Garden

Piazzale della Corporazioni \

The Forum of Corporations Pleiades: 489630692

Keywords

Garden Description

In the original plan of the Augustan period the garden area to the back of the theater was surrounded on three sides by a roofed corridor opening onto the Tiber on the northern side with a monumental entrance. In the Claudian period the whole level of the area was raised and a portico consisting of a single row of brick columns added. A temple was built at the center of the garden area in the Domitianic period; traditionally identified since its discovery (1881) with the temple of Ceres, it has more recently been attributed to Vulcan or to the imperial cult. During the Hadrianic period the portico was doubled with a second row of columns; the entrances on the northern side were blocked, and buildings erected against them, making access to the garden possible only from the theater (Fig. 1).

The open area to the back of the theater was never built over. Laid out as a garden, and adorned with statues raised in honor of men who had distinguished themselves in trade, it conformed to the recommendation of Vitruvius (5.9.1 | (English) | 5.9.5 | (English)), that areas surrounding a theater be laid out with colonnades (post scaenam porticus) and embellished with gardens, where people could stroll about and converse.

During the excavations of Rodolfo Lanciani (1881) "a street traversing the excavated area of the Forum and aligned on the axis of the temple and the theatre" was identified (Fig. 2). Reported to be "gravelled and edged with marble borders", this street was probably a path of the garden that led from the theater to the temple at the center of the area: "The Forum of Ceres ... was once ornamented with a garden, the allées of which can still be traced with the help of the marble border-lines by which each plot of green was defined and surrounded."

During the excavations of Dante Vaglieri (1910-1913), a system of conduits was identified. It was linked to a large sewer that ran underground at the center of the garden area, sloping downwards from south to north in the direction of the Tiber (Fig. 3). Two conduits parallel to the central sewer ran in front of the stationes. At garden level there were two long gutters that collected rainwater from the roof of the portico. Two basins (respectively 3.10x2.90 and 3.45x3.35 m) at ground level were identified on the southern side of the garden; they were paved with opus signinum on the inside and probably panelled in marble.

In October 1912 Dante Vaglieri began the reconstruction of the garden at the center of the Piazzale delle Corporazioni (Fig. 4). He commissioned a famous landscape architect of the period to create a garden with rectangular parterres of various size which retraced in part the layout of the allées and flower-beds of the ancient garden: "This garden, reconstructed by one of our cleverest landscape artists, with its display of classic bushes and flowers, its colonnade lining the four sides of the square, and its array of statues of eminent men, bankers, merchants, magistrates, harbour-masters, &c., has become the chief attraction to the visitors of Ostia…" The leading experts in garden architecture of the period included Pier Andrea and Domenico Saccardi: perhaps one of them was the "cleverest landscape artist."

Figures

Figure 1: Plan of the Piazzale della Corporazioni

Credit: (from Calza 1953).

Figure 2: Plan of the Piazzale della Corporazioni

Credit: (from Lanciani 1881).

Figure 3: Sketch of the drainage system found below the Piazzale

Credit: (from Giornale degli Scavi 1912).

Figure 4: The modern garden, 1912 (PA-OAnt, Photo Archive).

Dates

Augustan period
Claudian period
Domitianic period

Excavation Dates

1881
1910-1913

Bibliography

G. Calza, G. Becatti, I. Gismondi, G. De Angelis D'Ossat, H. Bloch, Topografia generale, Scavi di Ostia I, Rome, 1953.
R. Meiggs, Roman Ostia. (worldcat)
C. Pavolini, Ostia: Vita quotidiana. (worldcat)
Jean-Paul Descœudres, Ostia: Port et porte de la Rome antique. (worldcat)
E.J. Shepherd, P. Olivanti (eds), Giardini ostiensi, Bullettino della Commissione archeologica comunale di Roma, 109, 2008, pp. 69-98. (worldcat)
M. De Vico Fallani, C. Pavolini, E. J. Shepherd, M. Pileri, "Le sistemazioni a verde di Michele Busiri Vici per Ostia Antica: un caso di studio," Rivista di Archeologia 43, 2019, pp. 165-176. (worldcat) (Rivista di Archeologia)
M. De Vico Fallani, C. Pavolini, E. J. Shepherd, M. Pileri, "Un sogno lasciato a metà: il progetto di Michele Busiri Vici per le sistemazioni arboree e per i giardini nella zona di Ostia Antica Scavi (1939-1941)," Bollettino d'Arte, in press. (worldcat)

Giornale degli Scavi, 1912, pp. 279, 303, 338.
Giornale degli Scavi, 1913, pp. 10, 21, 331, 350.
R. Lanciani, "Ostia," in Notizie degli scavi di antichità, 1881, p. 119. (worldcat)
R. Lanciani, Notes from Rome, (A.L. Cubberley ed.), London, 1988, pp. 434-435. (worldcat)
M. De Vico Fallani, "I giardini ostiensi di Dante Vaglieri. Brevi osservazioni a margine," Bollettino di Archeologia on line V, 2014/2, pp. 55-64. (worldcat) (Bollettino di Archeologia online)
E.J. Shepherd, "Prima di Busiri Vici: storia di tre giardini ostiensi e di un parco mai realizzato," in M. De Vico Fallani, C. Pavolini, E. J. Shepherd, M. Pileri, "Un sogno lasciato a metà: il progetto di Michele Busiri Vici per le sistemazioni arboree e per i giardini nella zona di Ostia Antica Scavi (1939-1941)," Bollettino d'Arte, in press. (worldcat)

Places

Schola of Trajan

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Location

Location Description

Location Plan

Ostia Antica, General Plan.

Garden

Schola of Trajan

Keywords

Garden Description

The monumental complex of the Schola of the Trajan, presumed headquarters of the corporation of the marine carpenters, was built c.160-200 and abandoned after the 4th century CE. It was excavated and restored during the winter of 1938-1939. It includes a vast internal courtyard, which is oblong and marked with an obtuse angle in its median part (Fig. 1, a). Unfortunately, ancient damage and early, inaccurate excavations make it impossible to know if this space was paved or a garden.

An Ionic portico, with a colonnade of bricks with stucco, surrounded this internal space. A long and narrow water channel crossed the peristyle court of the Schola in all its length. It had a low parapet, decorated on its internal face by a row of rounded niches, and was faced with marble (much restored) (Fig. 2). Slightly offset, the particular position of this channel provokes a subtle optical correction of the angle, which marks the plan of the building. The channel was reduced, or perhaps even abandoned during the construction of the receding part of the Schola. New excavations since 1998 in the Northern sector of the peristyle court have uncovered an important part of the plumbing network. It must have been used for the water supply of this internal space of the Schola, which was probably rich in jeux d'eau.

Figures

Figure 1: Plan (from Morard, Wavelet).

Figure 2: The courtyard of the Schola of Trajan and the House with Peristyle, reconstruction after the 1938 excavations (PA-OAnt, Photo Archive).

Dates

built 160-200 CE and abandoned after the 4th century CE

Excavation Date

winter of 1938-1939

Bibliography

G. Calza, G. Becatti, I. Gismondi, G. De Angelis D'Ossat, H. Bloch, Topografia generale, Scavi di Ostia I, Rome, 1953.
R. Meiggs, Roman Ostia. (worldcat)
C. Pavolini, Ostia: Vita quotidiana. (worldcat)
Jean-Paul Descœudres, Ostia: Port et porte de la Rome antique. (worldcat)
E.J. Shepherd, P. Olivanti (eds), Giardini ostiensi, Bullettino della Commissione archeologica comunale di Roma, 109, 2008, pp. 69-98. (worldcat)
M. De Vico Fallani, C. Pavolini, E. J. Shepherd, M. Pileri, "Le sistemazioni a verde di Michele Busiri Vici per Ostia Antica: un caso di studio," Rivista di Archeologia 43, 2019, pp. 165-176. (worldcat) (Rivista di Archeologia)
M. De Vico Fallani, C. Pavolini, E. J. Shepherd, M. Pileri, "Un sogno lasciato a metà: il progetto di Michele Busiri Vici per le sistemazioni arboree e per i giardini nella zona di Ostia Antica Scavi (1939-1941)," Bollettino d'Arte, in press. (worldcat)

Giornale degli Scavi, 1938, pp. 65-69, 75-81.
T. Morard and D. Wavelet, Mélanges de l'École française de Rome: Antiquité Tome 114, No. 2 (2002), Rome, pp. 759-815. (worldcat) hathitrust

Places

Ostia Pleiades: 422995

Ostia Antica (deserted settlement) TGN: 7007018