2023-08-14 13:57:34
Two new fragments of the Fasti Ostienses emerge from the second excavation campaign of the ‘Ops – Ostia Post Scriptum’ project, curated by the Archaeological Park of Ostia Antica in collaboration with the University of Catania and the Polytechnic of Bari. The fragments of the Fasti, a sort of news engraved on marble slabs which report precious information on the political and monumental history of Rome and Ostia.
“Even the latest excavation campaign just completed in the Archaeological Park of Ostia gives us treasures of inestimable value and very precious documentary sources to understand the activities of the great emperor Hadrian – said the Minister of Culture, Gennaro Sangiuliano – The discovery of two fragments of the Fasti allows us to reveal important pieces of life in Ostia and the capital.These excavations have also brought to light the remains of various decorations and extensive portions of the mosaic floor which will soon be visible to the public, just as has already been done in other archaeological sites in the our nation thanks to the activity put in place in recent months by the Ministry of Culture”, concluded Sangiuliano.
The ‘Fasti’, whose drafting was the responsibility of the pontifex Volcani, the highest local religious authority, were found following the investigations carried out in Area B of the Archaeological Park, corresponding to the Forum of Porta Marina, already explored in the past but which still poses many and fascinating questions, a large rectangular building, with a portico on three sides and an apsidal hall on the back one and originally paved in opus sectile (with slabs of marble of different colours).
At the center of the square is a quadrangular base, perhaps the support of a statue or a fountain. In the area affected by the excavation, already in the years 1940-41 and 1969-72, other pieces by the Fasti Ostienses came to light. One of the two recovered fragments, which joins perfectly with another already preserved in Ostia and attributable to the Time.news of the years 126-128 AD, mentions facts and events that took place in Rome in 128, under the reign of Hadrian.
By cross-referencing this information with that from other sources (literary, epigraphic and numismatic), it was possible to clarify the content of the text which shows that on 1 January 128 Hadrian assumed the title of pater patriae and his wife Sabina that of Augusta. To celebrate these titles, the emperor offered the people a congiarium, i.e. a donation of money (Congiar Dedit reads the inscription).
Subsequently, on 10 April 128 (ante diem III Idus April reports the inscription) the emperor left for Africa and, returning to Rome between the end of July and the beginning of August and before going to Athens, consecrated ( Consecravit, reads the inscription) a building, certainly a temple in the city. There are two possibilities. The Pantheon, or more probably the Temple of Venus and Rome. According to a very suggestive hypothesis, the consecration could have taken place on 11 August 128 AD, or rather on the day of the anniversary of Hadrian’s accession to the throne in 117.
The investigations, completed at the end of July, were also conducted in Area A, never excavated before, located inside the Park between Piazzale delle Corporazioni, the rich Domus of Apuleius, the sacred area of the Four Temples and the ancient course of the Tiber. Here other rooms for an area of about 400 square meters have come to light, investigated starting from the conspicuous collapses of the upper floors. Thus, inside them, ceramic and marble finds and the original pictorial and stucco decoration were recovered, as well as the extensive remains of wonderful mosaics in black and white tesserae. Along the south side of the building a portico with pillars has emerged embellished with a splendid mosaic floor, still in an excellent state of conservation and with a complex and elegant design, in which square and cross shapes alternate filled with braid motifs, lozenges and shapes octagonal with floral and vegetal elements.
Further east, the mosaic changes its decorative motif. Here there are evident hexagonal shapes in which white marble slabs alternate with portions of red tesserae. On the west side of the excavation area, however, a narrow apsidal room was found in which one descended via four steps to a lower altitude than that of the remaining complex. In the small apse, at the top, there is also a niche framed by two small columns and covered with a plaster on which sea shells are applied. It was therefore a semi-hidden, ‘intimate’ space, with a probably sacred, ritual character, and with interpretative implications that promise to be decidedly fascinated right now.
“It is also an extraordinary discovery which, if on the one hand it increases and integrates what we know about the activity of that great emperor who was Hadrian, bringing new acquisitions on the very important building activity he conducted in Rome, on the other it reconfirms the immense potential of ancient Ostia for an increasingly in-depth knowledge and dissemination of our past”, said the Director of the Archaeological Park of Ostia Antica, Alessandro D’Alessio.
(by Enzo Bonaiuto)
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