Connecting Rome to Portus,Ostia and the sea: the canal system of Claudius and Trajan

By the second quarter of the 2nd century  AD,Imperial Rome was supplied with foodstuffs and materiel from across  the Mediterranean through a network of ports on the Tyrrhenian coast of  Italy. Portus and Ostia were the most important of these,the former as  the principal maritime port and the latter as town and fluvial port,and together with the emporium at Rome and the port at Centumcellae  (Civitavecchia) formed part of what has been defined at the ?port  system? of Imperial Rome. Central to the success of this was the fact  that Rome,Portus and Ostia were connected by the Tiber and interlinked  by a system of artificial canals and roads that together facilitated the  movement of supplies and export between the Mediterranean and Rome.  Research since 2005 has provided important new evidence for the  position,character and function of three new canals that,together with  known canals within Portus itself,help us better understand the  inter-relationships between Portus,Rome,Ostia and the broader  Mediterranean. This paper,which is interdisciplinary in scope,and  draws upon recent archaeological,epigraphic,geo-archaeological and  geophysical evidence,provides an interpretative overview of all the  canals that focuses upon their functions. It begins with an analysis of  the canals established by Claudius and then goes on to discuss the  significance of the two new canals established by Trajan. In particular,the paper takes into account recent geo-archaeological evidence from  the canal that run southwards from Portus to Ostia,and that which ran  from the Tiber to the coast lying to the north of Portus.

Disciplines : Archéologie et préhistoire
Mots-clés : archéologie
Type de document : image en mouvement
Type de ressource : lecture
Niveau : doctorat
Auteurs ou éditeurs : Simon KEAY,Muriel Richard