Special section about the Roman cemetery of Portus....

• Sources
• Written by Gerard Huissen (Originally for the website www.ostia-antica.orgin 2006)

"This is a place free of fear!"

This Greek text was placed in front of the entrance of one of the tombs on the ancient Roman burial place. The text forms part of a mosaic on which we can see two sailing vessels entering the harbour of Portus. For the "inhabitants" of this necropolis, the text had a double meaning. The vessels were brought into a place outside the reach of the dangerous sea and, similarly, the deceased had, by taking his last boat trip over the river Styx¹, changed his worldly vale of tears into the eternal peace of the underworld. For me, as the author of this section of the website, there is a third sense.

As so many others I'm very interested in people, their behaviour, thoughts and feelings. People not as a group, but as individuals. Each person feels himself standing in the centre of his own existence. For him or her everything is related to his own ego. Questions like 'who am I', 'where do I come from' and 'where am I going to' are quickly put. Questions which are not easy to answer and often give you a certain fear for the unknown. We have to realise, however, that in this we are not standing alone. Many have proceeded us and many will follow.
We all know the stories about kings, emperors and famous people. The story of the little man, on the contrary, the man on the street with his daily problems, is hardly known. And precisely they are standing closest to us.
In 1964 I accidentally discovered a unique excavation west of Rome near the coast, one of the ports of ancient Rome, Ostia². I was immediately impressed by this spot. After reading some articles and especially the book of the British historican, Russel Meiggs, "Roman Ostia", I understood that I had to do with an ancient city that rose and fell into decay together with Rome. A city populated by ordinary people like you and me. A city where, walking through the now deserted streets, you might expect an ancient inhabitant coming out of a door or sitting on a public toilet.
History brings us from Ostia to the newly built harbours of the emperors Claudius and Trajan a few miles north of Ostia, to the harbour of Portus. Between these two places, on an artificial island, a cemetery was built for the inhabitants of Portus. This unique, partly well-preserved, necropolis gives us, through the epigraphy and decorations, a glimpse of the thoughts and life of the people from the first centuries of our era. We will see that many of the questions and problems of today are timeless.

Gerard Huissen 

Nowadays we can still find the name Isola Sacra (Sacred Island) on traffic signs in the neighbourhood of the airport of Rome. Here we have to do with a district of the present city Fiumicino, a coastal town on the west side of Rome. Only a few Italians can explain you why that particular part of Fiumicino has that name and even less people are able to give you any information about the origin of the name. We have to admit, for an island you have to look twice and any trace of sacredness is far away. Even the ancient Romans would be surprised when hearing this name.
Where is the name coming from and what was the meaning of this name? First, let's split up the name and look at the first part, Isola.
At the beginning of our era, the original harbour of Rome, Ostia, became too dangerous for large vessels. The Roman emperor Claudius decided to build a new one north of Ostia. Although this harbour gave more protection, nevertheless, during heavy storms even this one seemed to be not efficacious enough. That's the reason the emperor Traianus started  at the beginning of the second century AD to build a third, more inland, harbour. It became an enormous large hexagonal basin. To connect this basin directly with the river Tiber he dug also a junction channel. With this channel, called the Fossa Traiana, the piece of land between Ostia and Portus was surrounded by water and changed into an artificial island.

As far as we know, even the ancient Romans didn't use the name Isola Sacra. In the fifth century AD an ancient writer, called Aethicus of Istria, mentioned in his "Cosmographia" the place as "Libanus Almae Veneris"³. In 536 Procopius used the name Isola Sacra for the first time in his "De bello gothico" ⁴. Why he called the piece of land 'Isola Sacra' is not quite clear. One of the reasons could be the presence of the basilica of St. Hippolytus, an early Christian martyr from Portus. This basilica was built at the end of the fourth and the beginning of the fifth century, perhaps on the remains of a Roman temple dedicated to Isis. In the sixties of the 20th century during excavations on this location there has been found a statue of this goddess.
During the following centuries the coastline moved a couple of kilometres to the west. The original beach was running at about the same place as the modern road which connects Ostia with the airport. The Fossa Traiana was extended to the sea and is nowadays known as Fiumara Piccola (small river), the harbour river of Fiumicino.

At the beginning of the first century AD there was already a road between Ostia and Portus, the Via Flavia, later called the Via Severiana. On the south side you could reach Ostia probably via a ferry, and on the north side there was a bridge over the Fossa Traiana, the 'Pons Matidiae' to enter Portus. Not long after the construction of the new harbour, the people of Portus started to bury their dead along this road. According to the Roman law this had to be done outside the city. This part of the website will give you an impression of this unique necropolis. Of the original road, approximately 1300 feet has been preserved, including the part along the necropolis. Research has shown that the Via Severiana had a width of 35 feet and was divided into two separate lanes. The borders of the road were formed by a 3,65 feet thick wall. Each 10 feet there was a buttress to support the wall.

The rediscovery of the necropolis
It took a long time before the ancient Roman graveyard was discovered on the artificial island. After the decline of Portus the necropolis was no longer used or visited, after which it was presumably completely hidden from view at the beginning of the sixth century, because of the sand raised by the wind. The sand-covered tombs looked like natural dunes along the coast for centuries and centuries. Sand formed already a problem when the necropolis was still in use. Keeping the place free of sand was a daily occupation. As far as we know it was the Cardinal of Bouillon, Emmanuel Théodose de la Tour d'Auvergne, Duke of Albret, who was in 1699 the first excavator of the necropolis.

The French cardinal was sent to Rome as an ambassador, became Dean of the Sacred College, and consequently Bishop of Ostia between 1700 and 1715. We know that he excavated a big tomb belonging to the family Caesennii. Several inscriptions have been found and published on his behalf. Unfortunately the originals are lost today and the location of this tomb is unknown. According to the publications it measured circa 88,8 x 28,4 m. A tomb of that size is nowadays unknown on the necropolis of Isola Sacra.
It wasn't until 1925 that the burial place at the Isola Sacra was rediscovered during an excavation campaign led by Guido Calza. It appeared that the island housed three clusters of graves. In addition to the discovery of the large cluster of Tombs on the Isola Sacra, which is visited today by many people from all over the world, he also discovered two smaller clusters on the island. These clusters were located in line with the large cemetery, but do not appear to form a unity with it.
First, in 1925, a small group of graves near the old Fossa Traiana was uncovered⁶. In this section of the website we will also describe these graves, as far as possible.  Because these graves are located close to the Trajan's Canal, we refer to them as the Canal tombs to distinguish them from the large necropolis. The graves are located along the road that runs from Isola Sacra to the centre of Fiumicino. You're not allowed to enter this site but you can see the tombs from the road.
The second challenge, in 1930, was the large necropolis where many graves were discovered on both sides of the Via Severiana. The graves on the west side of the Via Severiana in particular had been sheltered by ‘artificial dunes’, which had preserved them very well. Unfortunately, this was not the case on the east side, where only the outlines and foundations are still visible. We will describe the approximately 100 graves on the west side in this section.
The third cluster was brought in to light in 1938 with the approval of the owner of the land on which the graves were located. After the field research was finished, this part of the cemetery was reburied and is therefore no longer open to visitors.

The cemetery we see today wasn't the only Roman cultivation on the artificial island. Excavations by Fausto Zevi in the sixties of the last century brought to light the remains of buildings on the Ostia as well as on the Portus side⁷. These buildings served mainly harbour activities. 

No tombs of rich people or men of standing have been found in the necropolis. The tombs we know today were meant for the local middle class, their servants, slaves and freedmen. With the exception of a single sarcophagus, we don't find traces of Judaism or Christianity. Also tombs of followers of other foreign religions are lacking. Almost all 'inhabitants' of this necropolis were Roman citizens and believers of the official Roman religion.

• Sources
• Russel Meiggs - Roman Ostia, At the Clarendon Press 1973
• Guido Calza - Necropoli nell'Isola Sacra'(1940)
• Dr. Jan Theo Bakker.
• 
  notes
• 1: De Styx was de mythologisch rivier waarover de overledene, na betaling van een muntstuk dat aan de dode werd meegegeven in zijn graf, door de veerman Charon naar de onderwereld (Hades) werd gevaren.
• 2: Read our article Alberino Vicari "Il Biondo".
• 3: The paradise of Venus
• 4: Four books written by the Greek historican from Caesarea Maritima, Procopius, in which he described the Italian campaigns by Belisarius and others against the Ostrogoths.
• 5: Le cardinal de Bouillon painted by Hyacinthe Rigaud (1659–1743), 1707, musée Hyacinthe-Rigaud, Perpignan.
• 6: See our article 'Eventually, it's all about people'.
• 7: For more information about other classical buildings at the Isola Sacra, see https://www.ostia-antica.org/isola/text-menu.htm

"The river widens considerably as it reaches the sea and forms large bays, like the best sea harbours. And, most surprising of all, it is not cut off from its mouth by a barrier of sea sand, which is the fate even of many large rivers."

"Ships with oars, however large, and merchantmen with sails up to 3,000 (amphorae) capacity enter the mouth itself and row or are towed up to Rome; but larger ships ride at anchor outside the mouth and unload and reload with the help of river vessels."
(Dionysius of Halicarnassus)¹

At the end of the first century BC Dionysius of Halicarnassus described the mouth of the river Tiber. For Rome the river had been the most important overseas supply route for goods, especially grain.
Another product indissolubly connected to the river was salt.
The salt pans at the Tiber's mouth were of crucial importance for the early inhabitants. Salt was indispensable to preserve food. Therefore it can not be a surprise that already in an early age a settlement originated with a well conducted salt trade.
During the eighth century BC the Greeks and Phoenicians developed a great interest for the rich metal supply of Etruria.
According to tradition, the early ruler Ancus Marcius², fourth king of Rome, decided that it was time to bring the road between Rome and Ostia under the jurisdiction of Rome. Round about 620 BC he reorganized the salt making and founded the first Roman colony in the angle between the mouth of the Tiber and the sea. He called that first dwelling after the Latin word for "mouth", Ostia.

• Sources
• Russel Meigs - Roman Ostia, At the Clarendon Press 1973
• Guido Calza - Necropoli nell'Isola Sacra'(1940)
• Dr. Jan Theo Bakker.
• 
  notes
• 1: Dionysius of Halicarnassus was a Roman historian, rhetoric and writer. He was born in Turkey in 60 BC and died in Rome in 7 BC. Writer(in Greek) of 'Roman Antiquities'
• 2: Ancus Martius ruled 24 years from 640 till 616 BC
• 3: Read the article 'Overseas Trade'
• 4: In 37 AD Caligula transported an obelisk from Alexandria to Rome, via Ostia and the Tiber. It was to be erected on the spina of the Vatican Circus. The ship used for this was subsequently sunk between the piers of Portus, Claudius' new harbour, and used as the foundation for the lighthouse.

This part of the website will inform you about the kind of burials and about the architecture of the funeral buildings in the necropolis of Isola Sacra.
Looking at the map of the necropoplis the first thing you notice is the lack of building organization. Because this was the necropolis of Portus you may expect the earliest tombs on the Portus side to be extended southwards (to Ostia) in the course of time. But some of the oldest tombs are situated halfway and even on the side of Ostia (tomb 97). Besides that, only small groups of tombs are aligned. Many have been built where it probably suited the owner. According to the law it was not permitted to clear a grave, but enlarging and modifying by the owners was customary.

When Portus was built in the middle of the first century AD, the dead were always cremated in so called public ustrina¹. This custom continued till the reign of the emperor Hadrian (117 AD), when burial was introduced and for a long time cremation and inhumation went side by side.

Many of the simplest graves have been found in the area called "Field of the poor" or, as the Italians call it, 'Campo dei poveri'. The field is located behind tombs 38 - 43. During the excavations of 1988-89, 650 small graves were found. Most of these graves are covered again and can't be seen anymore. You will notice, however, another type of tomb in the Campo dei poveri, the so called 'tomba a cassone'. This tomb has the shape of, as the Italian name says, a big chest. Sometimes the owner tried to imitate the larger and more expensive monumental tombs by adding an aedicula³, a tympanum⁴ or even a fake door. The "tomba a cassone" is not found just in the "Campo dei poveri". You can find them also in other parts of the necropolis. 

The "tomba a cassone" was well known along the entire coast of the Mediterranean. In Rome, however, this type of grave was hardly used. In Portus we find a concentration of these tombs. It probably tells something about the cosmopolitan character of the population of Portus.

The majority of the tombs in this necropolis are 'tombe a cella'. This means a tomb with one or more burial chambers. They were detached or part of a row.
This kind of tomb was used for a whole family, including their freedmen and freedwomen with their heirs. The 'tombe a cella' were nearly always rectangular, with a width varying between 10 and 16 Roman feet⁶. Inside, they all had a fixed design, with the exception of tomb 75, built for three families, and tomb 34, probably belonging to a collegium funeraticium, a funeral association.
According to Guido Calza, the head of the excavations of this necropolis, the façade was made up by the following elements:

"Small bricks, regular and manufactured with care, selected on size and colour; An entrance consisting of two jambs with an architrave of travertine; Brick columns with capitals, made of several materials, on top; A marble slab with inscription, surrounded by a frame, above the entrance; Two small windows in one line with the inscription; A relief depicting the profession of the tomb owner; A tympanum in the top part. This was not always the case, but many of the tombs with burial chambers contained several of these elements".

There are still some examples of façades built in a combination of brick and tufa (opus reticulatum), but often reticulate was only used for the back and side-walls.
The entrance of a tomb was much lower than a house entrance, and probably could be closed by a wooden door.
The burial chamber was lit only by small slit-windows.
The early "tombe a cella" are so-called columbaria. The urns with the ashes of the dead were placed in semicircular or rectangular niches in the walls. Normally each niche contained two urns. These niches were built alongside a larger and better decorated central niche.
The walls, niches and ceiling were painted: the larger niches with mythological scenes and figures, the smaller with flowers, stars or geometrical patterns. Most of the floors were paved with mosaic.
Normally the ashes were placed in a plain urn, already embedded in the niche. Sometimes a small marble slab with the name of the dead was placed under the niche. The name was probably written with paint, because no name has been preserved.

Because most of the tombs were used for a long time, after a while all the niches were filled. New space was often found by adding an enclosure to the front. The walls of these enclosures too were occupied by niches.

• Sources
• Russel Meigs - Roman Ostia, At the Clarendon Press 1973
• Guido Calza - Necropoli nell'Isola Sacra'(1940)
• Dr. Jan Theo Bakker.
• Ida Baldassare, Irene Bragantini, Chiara Morselli and Franc Taglietti - Necropoli di Porto, Isola Sacra (Roma 1996).
• 
  notes
• 1: An ustrinum (plural ustrina) was the site of a cremation funeral pyre whose ashes were removed for interment elsewhere (Wikipedia).
• 2: Photo Notafly (Wikipedia)
• 3: A small shrine
• 4: A semi-circular or triangular decorative wall surface over an entrance, door or window.
• 5: Libation was a religious act in the form of a liquid offering, most often unmixed wine and perfumed oil (Scheid 2007, p. 269).
• 6: A Roman foot (pes, plural: pedes) measures 296 mm.
• 7: Arcosolium (plural arcodolia): from Latin arcus, 'arch', and solium, 'throne' (literally 'place of state')

In this section we shall look at the 100 tombs on the west side of the Via Severiana. They are numbered from 1 to 100. Clicking on the word "map" on each page brings you back to the overall map of the necropolis and to the 100 buttons corresponding with the numbered tombs. Use the scroll bar below the map to see all of it. Placing the cursor on the tomb number on each page shows you the relevant part of the map.  

{loadtombes}

• Sources
• Russel Meigs - Roman Ostia, At the Clarendon Press 1973
• Guido Calza - Necropoli nell'Isola Sacra'(1940)
• Dr. Jan Theo Bakker.
• Hilding Thylander - Inscriptions du port d'Ostie (Lund C W K Gleerup 1952).
• Ida Baldassare, Irene Bragantini, Chiara Morselli and Franc Taglietti - Necropoli di Porto, Isola Sacra (Roma 1996).

"The river widens considerably as it reaches the sea and forms large bays, like the best sea harbours. And, most surprising of all, it is not cut off from its mouth by a barrier of sea sand, which is the fate even of many large rivers."

"Ships with oars, however large, and merchantmen with sails up to 3,000 (amphorae) capacity enter the mouth itself and row or are towed up to Rome; but larger ships ride at anchor outside the mouth and unload and reload with the help of river vessels."
(Dionysius of Halicarnassus)¹

At the end of the first century BC Dionysius of Halicarnassus described the mouth of the river Tiber. For Rome the river had been the most important overseas supply route for goods, especially grain.
Another product indissolubly connected to the river was salt.
The salt pans at the Tiber's mouth were of crucial importance for the early inhabitants. Salt was indispensable to preserve food. Therefore it can not be a surprise that already in an early age a settlement originated with a well conducted salt trade.
During the eighth century BC the Greeks and Phoenicians developed a great interest for the rich metal supply of Etruria.
According to tradition, the early ruler Ancus Marcius², fourth king of Rome, decided that it was time to bring the road between Rome and Ostia under the jurisdiction of Rome. Round about 620 BC he reorganized the salt making and founded the first Roman colony in the angle between the mouth of the Tiber and the sea. He called that first dwelling after the Latin word for "mouth", Ostia.

• Sources
• Russel Meigs - Roman Ostia, At the Clarendon Press 1973
• Guido Calza - Necropoli nell'Isola Sacra'(1940)
• Dr. Jan Theo Bakker.
• 
  notes
• 1: Dionysius of Halicarnassus was a Roman historian, rhetoric and writer. He was born in Turkey in 60 BC and died in Rome in 7 BC. Writer(in Greek) of 'Roman Antiquities'
• 2: Ancus Martius ruled 24 years from 640 till 616 BC
• 3: Read the article 'Overseas Trade'
• 4: In 37 AD Caligula transported an obelisk from Alexandria to Rome, via Ostia and the Tiber. It was to be erected on the spina of the Vatican Circus. The ship used for this was subsequently sunk between the piers of Portus, Claudius' new harbour, and used as the foundation for the lighthouse.