The port of Ostia

Seagoing vessels were rowed well into the fourth century BC. often up the Tiber to moor in the port in Rome itself, the Navalia. From about 300 BC. However, the function of Rome's seaport was taken over by Ostia. It was initially not only a trading port, but also a naval port, as evidenced by the fact that in 267 BC. a special magistrate for the fleet was stationed in Ostia. The cargo of the seagoing vessels was transshipped in Ostia and transported further along the Tiber to Rome by river ships. Originally, in Ostia there were only moorings on the banks of the Tiber. However, large seagoing vessels could not reach there and had to anchor off the coast and be unloaded there with small river ships.

The main ports to reach Rome were Ostia and Pozzuoli.

• Ostia was further upstream and therefore inaccessible to larger ships. Those ships were required to anchor at sea and unload their cargo onto smaller ships, which shuttled between the ships and the port of Ostia. The smaller ships formed a fleet of about 90 ships carrying only grain. These operations were very long and dangerous as the coast was inhospitable and sandy.

• Pozzuoli was located in the port of Naples.

Under Emperor Claudius, work began on the construction of a separate seaport, on the coast about three kilometers north of Ostia. The construction of the Portus ('port') lasted from 42 to 64 AD. It was a more or less round harbor with an area of approximately 80 hectares and a depth of four to five meters. There was room for approximately 250 ships and the port was connected to the Tiber by two canals. Piers hundreds of meters long provided shelter on the sea side, and at the end of the left pier stood a lighthouse 50 meters high.

In the years 100-112, Emperor Trajan commissioned a new hexagonal harbor behind Claudius's harbor, further inland and better sheltered. Each of the six sides was approximately 358 m long and the harbor had room for 350 to 400 ships, which did not moor alongside but perpendicular to the quay. Trajan had the two canals of the port of Claudius replaced by one large canal, the Fossa Traiani. Gradually, a separate city, Portus Ostiae ('Port of Ostia'), emerged near these seaports, with baths, a theater and temples.

During the time of Emperor Constantine the Great, this city was given the status of municipium and the name was changed to Portus Romae ('port of Rome'). On the island that was created between the sea, the Tiber and Trajan's Canal, called Isola Sacra ('The Holy Island') in the Middle Ages, there was a large cemetery (partly uncovered and open to visitors).

From Ostia and Portus the cargo of the seagoing ships - mainly grain, but also all kinds of other products - was transported to Rome. This sometimes happened by road, but mainly on the Tiber. For transport across the winding Tiber, barges were used, pulled by oxen from a towpath along the Tiber. The destination was the Emporium, the port district of Rome.

Nexus (philosophy)

The term 'Nexus' comes from the Latin word 'nectere', meaning 'to connect'. It means something like the center or focus of a certain whole, or a connection (the link) that connects two or more people/companies or things.