The Elbert County tribune., 1912-09-20

maging OF yet earlier diggers.
has become In certain respects the
most enthralling of all the Roman
sights. 1t has often been called the
PompeIi of Latium." and certainly
1t is the only other place In Italy
where one can ramble about the streets
of town of the empire with no mod
ern architecture to intrude on ones
dream. The ruins however. differ
greatly from those of Pompeii. because
the ancient character and purpose Of
Ostia were different. The latter town
was bustling seaport with a cosmo-
politan Industrial population neither
leisured enough to indulge private ar
tistic tastes nor much disposed to
them. The worlds capital. only a
few miles distant, was the natural
home Of Ostlans of wealth or culture.
But If we cannot see at Ostia the
painted rooms and the courtyards set
with statuary, which make Pompeii
30 attractive. we can see the frame
work OF more vigorous and momen-
tous life, which makes strong ap-
peal to the Imagination OF anyone who
has ever considered, however vague
ly. what the Roman empire meant.
Streets Filled PIP.
The extraordinarily untouched state
In which the Ostia of the late Inn
perial age has been preserved to our
time is due to two agents, sand-drift
and malaria. Silt brought down to
the Tiber mouth. dried. pulverized, and
wind-borne. has gradually filed up
streets and ruined buildings deserted
by men because of the fevers which
we're bred from choked-up harbors
and channels Of the river. Partly for
fear of these fevers, partly because
Civita Vecchia was found, ultimately,
to be the better port for Rome, no con-
siderable population has ever return
ed to Ostia. not even during a tempo
rary revival In the fifteenth century
when the existing papal castle was
built. The town had from the first
precarious existence. Its life was
given to 1t by the Tiber, but the Tt
ber could not be trusted. The river
silted up its harbors one after the 9TH
er. and silted up itself. The port
from which navies sailed to the Pu-
mic wars had become useless by the
time of Augustus, and Claudius first
and Trajan after him, had to dig out
new basins at enormous expense some
distance away to the north. and cut
connecting channels, which the river
proceeded to silt up as Of old. In the
end 1t proved impossible (or not worth
while) to keep any port open into
which the main current OF the Tiber
flowed: and II Trajan's fossa. or canal.
dredged out anew by Pope Paul ", in
the early seventeenth century is still
navigable for small craft working up
to Rome. 1t is a channel only. and
the huge spreading basins, that OF
Trajan as well as that OF Claudius.
are dry. Just because the river treat
ed these new harbors as badly
as the old. Ostia managed to main
tain its life. and even to develop II.
for some Centuries longer. and only
succumbed in the competition with
Civita vecchia Ia new creatioa of
Trajans) after the empire has
become Christian. II II had no prop-
er basin for ships. 1t had always the
main channel of the Tiber flowing past
Its walls. and bad passage as this Of
fered to ships, It was probably more
to be depended on than the Ciaudian
or Trajanic canals. Therefore. we
find that in the second and third
centuries. A. D.. It was still
worth while to erect great ware
houses and long. narrow sheds for
ships on the river bank. and that
fourishing guilds. whose business lay
with shipping. existed in Ostia. Such
were the associations OF boatmen.
lightermen. and divers. whose Official
records Lave been found cut on stone:
but the Importance OF the last-named
is in itself witness to the difficulties
against which the port was struggling.
For these divers had neither sponges