16. The Roman Way of Life and Death at Ostia, the Port of Rome

Roman Architecture (HSAR 252)

Professor Kleiner focuses on Ostia, the port of Rome, characterized by its multi-storied residential buildings and its widespread use of brick-faced concrete. She begins with the city's public face--the Forum, Capitolium, Theater, and Piazzale delle Corporazioni. The Piazzale, set behind the Theater, was the location of various shipping companies with black-and-white mosaics advertising their business. Professor Kleiner examines the Baths of Neptune and the Insula of Diana, a brick apartment building with four floors that housed a number of Ostia's working families. The Insula of Diana and other similar structures, including warehouses like the Horrea Epagathiana, demonstrate a fundamental feature of second-century Ostia: the appreciation of the aesthetic qualities of brick facing. Since the time of Nero, brick was customarily covered with stucco and paint, but these Ostian buildings are faced with exposed brick, the color, texture, and design of which make it attractive in its own right. The lecture ends with a survey of several single family dwellings in Ostia, including the fourth-century House of Cupid and Psyche, notable for the pastel-colored marble revetment on its walls and floors and for a charming statue of the legendary lovers.

00:00 - Chapter 1. Ostia: Romes First Colony
12:37 - Chapter 2. Civic Architecture in Ostia
23:32 - Chapter 3. Transacting Business at the Piazzale delle Corporazioni
36:57 - Chapter 4. Residential Architecture at Ostia: The Insulae
49:43 - Chapter 5. The Warehouses of Ostia
56:19 - Chapter 6. Painted Decoration and Mosaic Floors
01:04:33 - Chapter 7. Re-emergence of the Domus at Ostia and Tombs at Isola Sacra

Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://open.yale.edu/courses

This course was recorded in Spring 2009.