Ostia

Ostia, a city of Latium, at the mouth of the Tiber, 14 miles SW. of Rome. It is said to have been founded by Ancus Martius, and was regarded as the oldest Roman colony. It first acquired importance from its salt-works, and afterwards as the port where the Sicilian, Sardinian, and African corn shipped for Rome was landed; but its name first occurs during the second Punic war. It was long, too, the principal station of the Roman navy; but its harbour was exceedingly bad, and gradually the entrance became silted up, so that vessels were compelled to discharge their cargoes in the open roadstead. At length, towards the middle of the 1st century A.D., the Emperor Claudius dug a new harbour or basin, 2 miles to the north, and connected it with the Tiber by a canal. It was named the Portus Augusti, and around it soon sprang up a new town called Portus Ostiensis, Portus Urbis, Portus Romæ, and often simply Portus. Yet it was not till nearly the close of the Roman empire that the prosperity of Ostia as a city began to decline. It was, however, a mere ruin in 830, when Gregory IV. founded a village—the modern Ostia—half a mile above the ancient one, whose 100 inhabitants still carry on the manufacture of salt. The ruins of Ostia extend for a mile and a half along the Tiber, and are nearly a mile in breadth. Excavations were commenced in 1783, and have been carried on systematically since 1855. See MITHRAS.