It's Friday again, so we're off to meet Amy at
Love Made My Home for her Five on Friday feature. You might think after my Lincoln trip a couple of weeks ago that you've seen all there is to see about the Romans, but no. Here's some examples of Romans in Rome - well close to Rome, anyway.
The town of Ostia was ancient Rome's coastal resort and major port. Today it has been largely excavated, and extensively reconstructed, so you can wander around it and imagine what life must have been like all those years ago.
One of the most reconstructed areas is the old theatre. Plays are still staged here (or should that be staged here again?) and the staff were preparing it for a production when we visited - hence all the blue drapes and scaffolding. The audience sits on the tiers around the auditorium, of course. I imagine it's pretty uncomfortable, unless you take plenty of cushions!
This is the house of the doli. Doli (pronounced dough-lee) were huge storage jars, up to five or six feet high, and they were used by being buried in the ground, making them easier to reach in to and keeping the contents cooler. They could have stored anything - grain, flour, oil, whatever. Imagine a modern 'weigh and save' store.
Here's the Mill of Sylvanus. It was a corn grinding mill, and those huge concrete-looking objects are the mill stones. You can just make out the cap on the conical base stone. The holes around the top would have had wooden bars inserted in them so that the top cap could be turned (probably by slaves because there isn't room for a donkey!) to grind flour as corn was poured into the top.
Guess what this is..... Yes. I'm sure you're right. It's a public loo. Roman latrines were communal affairs where users would sit alongside other participants to complete their ablutions. They also shared the means to clean themselves afterwards. Sponges on sticks were kept in a central pot where they could be rinsed with water before (and hopefully after) use.
At the heart of town is an area called the Piazzale delle Corporazioni, or Square of the Traders. It is in the form of a quadrangle of small units with mosaic pavements outside them advertising their wares. This must have been a fishmonger - but other stores, if their mosaics are to be believed, dealt in such exotic stock as elephants!
So there is a brief introduction to Ostia Antica. Now pop over to see Amy and find other people's fives. Just click on the photo below.
