Posted on 07/14/2010 5:43:49 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Scholars discovered the 100-yard-wide (90-metre-wide) canal at Portus, the ancient maritime port through which goods from all over the Empire were shipped to Rome for more than 400 years. The archaeologists... believe the canal connected Portus, on the coast at the mouth of the Tiber, with the nearby river port of Ostia, two miles away. It would have enabled cargo to be transferred from big ocean-going ships to smaller river vessels and taken up the River Tiber to the docks and warehouses of the imperial capital. Until now, it was thought that goods took a more circuitous overland route along a Roman road known as the Via Flavia... The subterranean outline of the canal was found during a survey... using geophysical instruments which revealed magnetic anomalies underground... The archeologists have found evidence that trading links with North Africa in particular were far more extensive than previously believed. They have found hundreds of amphorae which were used to transport oil, wine and a pungent fermented fish sauce called garum, to which the Romans were particularly partial, from what is now modern Tunisia and Libya. Huge quantities of wheat were also imported from what were then the Roman provinces of Africa and Egypt... The British team believe that Portus and Ostia would have been home to a large expatriate population of North African trading families and commercial agents, some of whom had their names inscribed on tomb stones. Portus was the main port of ancient Rome for more than 500 years and provided a conduit for everything from glass, ceramics, marble and slaves to wild animals caught in Africa and shipped to Rome for spectacles in the Colosseum. Work on the massive infrastructure project began under the emperor Claudius. It was inaugurated by Nero and later greatly enlarged by Trajan.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
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LOL. Reminds me of one of my favorite signs: "Except for ending slavery, fascism, Nazism & communism WAR HAS NEVER SOLVED ANYTHING.
I may be newer to this ping SC but I see how dedicated you are in maintaining GGG :). Just wanted to help out a bit because I know you have only 4 hands :) Thx for all you do.
So, tell me: how does a publican make any money off of derelicts?
Or, was this a "bread & circuses" charity deal, where they doled out drinks to derelicts in return for their votes...like in Chicago?
Before the canal, the road was used to transport cargo from port to city.
My memory is that the canal has been known for a long time?
Hmmm...if they didn’t know of this canal then how do they know there’s not some yet bigger one to be found?
All right... all right... but apart from better sanitation and medicine and education and irrigation and public health and roads and a freshwater system and baths and public order... what have the Romans done for us?I saw this movie for the very first time last week. We really do walk in the footsteps of giants. Monty Python, that is.
“I saw this movie for the very first time last week. We really do walk in the footsteps of giants. Monty Python, that is.”
“The Life of Brian” was one of their best, along with “The Holy Grail”. You might also like “The Meaning of Life”.
Is that cemetary where they found the bodies, or were these random drownings or murders, CSIs want to know.
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