Ostia Population, Society, and Identities

Abstract Ch. I introduces central features and considerations which have inspired this monograph on Ostia, Rome’s harbour town. In its importance for the study of Roman history, Ostia stands behind only the capital, Rome. Ostia has several advantages over Pompeii, a town which garners a similar amount of interest from scholars and the wider public: Ostia was much larger, its history continued for much longer, and its surviving sources are more diverse. The go-to work for any study of Ostia, regardless of focus, is still Russell Meiggs’ Roman Ostia, first published 1960 and republished, with additions, in 1973. While not aiming to become the “New Meiggs”, the book takes a broad approach to the history of Ostia from c. 50 CE to c. 250 CE (roughly, the period of the Principate). A wide-ranging survey of research on Ostia since Meiggs’ monograph is included, as is a discussion of what it means to study the concept of identity in the Roman world. In a vibrant community such as Ostia, there was undoubtedly a plurality of identities, a variety of expressions of mentalities and emotions at any given time, not to mention over a period of three centuries. Particular attention is paid to the challenges posed by a study of identities primarily based on epigraphy, that is, evidence from inscriptions. Literary sources have little to offer, while material evidence of all kinds, not least iconographical sources, plays an important role.