Rome's million-plus inhabitants are super consumers. Alongside the Spanish olive oil, they're eating grain from Egypt, drinking wine from Gaul and Greece. They're using timber, marble, tin, glass, leather, and much more besides. Rome is a monster devouring everything it can get its teeth into. But this greed is a problem. How can the Romans transport all these goods into their growing city? Without a solution, they will go hungry.
In 42 AD, this city puts its faith in an ambitious plan: a building project like no other. 25 kilometres away on the coast, they begin construction on a gateway to their vast empire that grows and expands over 60 years. This is Portus, a mega harbour. And at its heart, a massive hexagonal dock.
[Kevin Dicus] Today, it looks like a nature preserve here. 2,000 years ago, it would have been incredibly different. The level of engineering here can barely be appreciated.
[Narrator] Built of waterproof concrete, a Roman innovation, this vast port holds 350 ships all at once.
[Kevin] Enormous buildings, the warehouses that lined the six sides. This was a massive, massive endeavour.
[Narrator] Every day, ships from all over the empire offload goods onto its dockside. But this harbour only solves part of Rome's import problem. Because shifting this vast quantity of goods demands a distribution network on the same enormous scale. So the Romans keep on building.
At 150 hectares, Ostia is the largest remaining Roman site anywhere in the world.
[Kevin] This entire city was built for one purpose, and that was to serve the port. This is a monument to the Roman economy.
[Narrator] Ship owners, traders, tax inspectors, warehouse and dockworkers make this bustling city their home. 30,000 people who all play their part in making Rome rich.
[Kevin] We have a large plaza around us. On three sides, 61 rooms frame it. And we would have no idea about the function of these rooms... if not for these mosaics.
[Narrator] These mosaics act as hoardings for the huge variety of goods traded here. Ears of wheat indicate imported grain. An elephant, ivory or exotic animals. And ships and a lighthouse, timber for boats. At the height of Ostia, this would have been similar to a Wall Street. All these deals being made. Yelling, money exchanging hands, goods exchanging hands. All sorts of things to continue this ongoing trade that was so necessary to supply Rome, to feed Rome. And this is really the business end. This is where it happened.
If we could have seen the city in its heyday, I think we would have been stunned at the grandiosity of it.YouTube transcript reformatted at textformatter.ai
Rome paid for these imports with Roman money and keeping peaceful trade possible.
Most Mediterranean trade was abandoned with the rise of Muslim pirate raiders. Coasts became fortified. Agricultural production plummeted to levels not seen in a thousand years. The coastal population fell to 10% of previous levels in former Roman Christian cities such as Antioch. The word Slave derived from the Slavs, because Muslims took so many slaves from the Slavic areas.
This was probably exacerbated by a lowering of temperatures from the Roman Climate Optimum which lasted from about 250 BC to 400 AD.
https://www.devsustainability.com/p/roman-climate-optimum-and-energy-system-resiliency
Got to see Ostia antica in 1995 and got to visit relatives in the nearby beach town of Ostia.
From central Rome you take the suburban **Roma–Lido (now Metromare) train** toward the coast.
- Go to **Porta San Paolo** station (next to **Piramide** on Metro line B).
- Follow signs for the **Roma–Lido / Metromare** line toward **Cristoforo Colombo**.
- For the ruins, get off at **Ostia Antica**; it’s about a 5–10 minute walk over the pedestrian bridge to the site.