Ostia in Late Antiquity

Ostia in Late Antiquity is the first book to narrate the life of Ostia Antica, Rome's ancient harbor, during the later empire.

Douglas Boin (Author)

9781107024014, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 22 July 2013

308 pages, 57 b/w illus. 1 map
26 x 18.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.82 kg

'This very readable and carefully edited book is dedicated to daily life in Rome's ancient harbour town of Ostia between c.AD 200 and 800. The content is rich and thought provoking … [This book] will certainly interest a wide range of readers.' L. Bouke van der Meer, The Journal of Roman Studies

Ostia Antica was Rome's ancient harbor. Its houses and apartments, taverns and baths, warehouses, shops and temples have long contributed to a picture of daily life in ancient Rome. Recent investigations have revealed, however, that life in Ostia did not end with a bang but with a whimper. Only on the cusp of the Middle Ages did the town's residents entrench themselves in a smaller settlement outside the walls. What can this new evidence tell us about life in the later Roman Empire, as society navigated an increasingly Christian world? Ostia in Late Antiquity, the first academic study on Ostia to appear in English in almost 20 years and the first to treat the Late Antique period, tackles the dynamics of this transformative time. Drawing on new archaeological research, including the author's own, and incorporating both material and textual sources, it presents a social history of the town from the third through the ninth century.

Part I. Background: 1. New approaches to daily life in Late Antique Ostia
2. The new urban image of Rome's ancient harbor
Part II. Foreground: 3. The third century: Roman religions and the long reach of the emperor
4. The fourth century: proud temples and resilient traditions
5. The fifth century: history seen from the spaces in between
6. The sixth and seventh centuries: a city in motion, shifting traditions.

Subject Areas: Classical Greek & Roman archaeology [HDDK], Social & cultural history [HBTB], Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA]