Understanding Rome as a port city

Abstract

Often Ostia or Portus are presented as the ports of Rome, which tends to overshadow the city of Rome as a major port in its own right. This chapter proposes that Rome could even have been among the greatest port cities of the ancient world, far surpassing other great ports such as Puteoli or Carthage, and rivalling Portus and Alexandria. The Tiber was essential in supporting the massive urban population of Rome from the Late Republic to Late Antiquity. The strain of supplying up to a million inhabitants in a pre-industrial society necessitated harbour facilities of an unprecedented scale, which transformed the banks of the Tiber into a major commercial and industrial zone. In the Republican period, the city was also the main Roman naval base. This study will try to demonstrate the size of the port by providing an overview of most of the known port facilities, whether based on archaeological finds, modern development work, the marble plan, or ancient texts. The aim is to show that previous estimates of the size of the port of Rome should most probably be radically increased.