CLASSICAL CIVILISATION
– FURTHER READING
AS Unit CC6 (F386) City Life in Roman
Italy:
By Mr G. de la Bédoyère MA FSA
FHA FRNS for KSHS
This page is in a continuous process of updating and development: last
updated 10 March 2010
IF YOU HAVE SUGGESTIONS FOR ADDITIONS OR CORRRECTIONS, PLEASE:
email me at the address posted on the Home Page
PRESCRIBED
MATERIAL CC6
(for the other two sites go to Pompeii
Prescribed Material and Herculaneum
prescribed material)
The
following topics are all those that you need to be familiar with in Unit CC6
for the city of
OSTIA – Rome’s
ancient port – prescribed content (each building is one you NEED to know about)
A short article
on Ostia's development
(These links mostly take you to pages on the
Ostia Antica Main Page (takes
you to maps of the Regions and its buildings)
Clickable map and
reconstructions of Ostia
1. House of the Dioscures
(the Heavenly Twins) (III.ix.1). Plan, discussion and pictures. You can take a Dioscures Youtube Tour here
and another one which shows the house’s baths at Youtube House of the
Dioscures with Baths. This house is one of the Garden Houses in Region
III, Insula ix, which are regarded as an important group of houses and
apartments, dating originally to c. AD 120–140 , and are quite different from
the older houses found at
2.
The Garden Houses
apartments were built in a large
rectangular courtyard which formed the middle of the Garden Houses Insula
(III.ix). They represent a new type of Roman housing design, in this case
providing comfortable, well-appointed, facilities but which packed in more
accommodation into the available living space. You can explore them by taking
the Youtube Garden Houses
Apartments tour. You can also take a look at the Youtube tour of the
Casette-Tipo apartment blocks, a much cruder and more basic set of
apartments a little way to the north of the Garden House apartments.
3. House of Apuleius
(III.ix.1). This house began its life in the Republican period (i.e. before
Augustus), and was rebuilt in the mid-second century AD. You can take an Apuleius Youtube here.
This house is considered interesting because of its hybrid atrium-peristyle.
The entrance leads to a room with a central impluvium (pool) surrounded by
columns which is a characteristic of the traditional atrium house found
at
You
can also explore the House
of the Porch (V.ii.4–5) and take the House of the Porch Youtube
tour.
4.
The House of Diana (I.iii.3–4)
is an extremely well-preserved apartment block in the heart of
5.
The Baths of Mithras
(I.xvii.2) and its associated Temple of Mithras
(mithraeum). Bear in mind the two important imagines clipeatae
(shield portraits – these are also prescribed material for the course) from
this building, now in Ostia Museum, which probably represent members of the
family responsible for the building, though it is now very hard to be certain. These imagines clipeatae
have their own dedicated webpage which I have created for the course. You can
take a Youtube tour of the
Baths of Mithras and Youtube
tour of the Mithraeum. CC6 HO27 (KSHS
academic portal)
6. Baths of the Forum (I.xii.6). A massive town-centre baths and
exercise complex for the Ostians. You can take a Youtube tour of the Baths
and also be shown round the Forum
Baths latrine. There’s also a quick look at Youtube Ostia Forum which
is a glance round the forum of the city and its
7. Piazza of the Corporations
(II.vii.4). This major commercial development at
8.
The Great Warehouse
(Grandi Horrea) (II.ix.7). This was a massive warehouse complex in central
9.
The Barracks of the
Firefighters (Caserma dei Vigili) (II.v.1–2). This was vital to Ostia with
all its warehouses packed with valuable goods. You can take a Youtube tour of the Barracks
here.
10.
The Port of Claudius,
begun in AD 42 to resolve the problem of the silted-up River Tiber estuary. It
was completed in AD 64 and was known as Portus. CC6 HO9 (KSHS academic portal)
11.
The Port of Trajan
(AD 98–117) became the commercial centre and eventually superseded Ostia. CC6 HO9 (KSHS academic portal)
Other
Ostia houses are viewable on Youtube:
Youtube House of the
Wrestlers (a probable guild headquarters – see Ostia Antica House of the
Wrestlers)
Youtube Insula of Serapis
(an apartment block, shops, shrine and baths – see Ostia Antica Insula of
Serapis), and
Youtube House of the Columns
(see Ostia Antica House
of the Columns)
Youtube House of Jove
Fulminator (an old-style atrium house)
Pictures
of Ostia
here
Inscriptions
of Ostia – photos of monumental inscriptions from
(for the other two sites go to Pompeii
Prescribed Material and Herculaneum
prescribed material)
Back to
the Classical Civilisation Main Page
Sources for
Classical Civilisation A-Level