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Alla fine delle guerre contro Cartagine (146 B.C.) Roma acquistò
due province (Sicilia ed Africa, allora il nome dell'odierna Tunisia) che
erano grandi produttrici di cereali (la Sicilia fu in seguito chiamata il
granaio dell'Impero). The most important Roman families acquired large estates in these
provinces and at the same time through their control of the Senate they
decreed the free distribution of wheat to the inhabitants of Rome
(frumentationes). The wheat bought by the Senate came from the new
provinces, leading from one side to the abandonment of agricultural land
in continental Italy and eventually to the expansion of marshes along its
coasts and from the other side to the development of maritime routes and
ports to ensure the constant supply of a growing metropolis.
The river
harbour of Ostia
became so important that Marius and Silla fought
for its possession as they considered it a strategical point for the
control of Rome. With the conquest of Egypt, another large supplier of
crops, and the increased population of Rome, Emperor Augustus
considered the creation of an artificial port near Rome because Ostia was
affected by silting caused by winter floods.
Augustus' plan was
implemented by Claudius and completed
by Nero in 54 A.D.:
the new port (called Portus Augusti) was located a few miles north
of Ostia and linked to the Tiber by an artificial channel, thus creating
an island (Isola Sacra) between the two branches of the Tiber and
the sea.
Map of the area, Necropolis and
Baths
In 103 Emperor
Trajan enlarged the port by digging a new inner basin having a
perfectly hexagonal shape (Portus Traiani). The basin was
surrounded by warehouses and granaries built according to advanced masonry
standards aimed at ensuring appropriate ventilation and temperature to the
stocked goods. The current coastline runs some two miles to the west of
Portus Augusti and in the aerial view shown above the new land is
printed very lightly to highlight the old coast line: the numbers
indicate: 1) Portus Traiani; 2) Episcopio (Bishop's palace) di
Porto; 3) Basilica di S. Ippolito; 4) Roman Baths: 5) Necropolis.
Porto
retained its role of terminal of the maritime routes supplying Rome until
the VIth century, when the wars between the Byzantines and the Goths
(535-553) for the control of Rome ended up causing a dramatic decrease of
its population and a spoliation of its treasures. In the VIIth century the
Arab expansion put the final seal on the decline of Porto by cutting its
links with the Egyptian, Libyan and Tunisian ports.
Porto had a very
cosmopolitan population, as it attracted merchants from all parts of the
Roman Empire. A large necropolis shows that its inhabitants were buried in
well built family chapels and that some private villas had their own
baths.
Episcopio di Porto
In AD 314 one year after the Edict of Milan, by which Emperor Constantine
had granted to the Christians the right to openly profess their faith,
Porto had its bishop. In the XVth century when marshes covered Porto and
only herdsmen ventured their lives for pasturing their cattle in a land
stricken with malarial fevers, the importance of Porto was revived by the
decision of the popes to appoint the most prominent cardinals, bishops of
Porto, or of Ostia. The
diocese of Porto was a suburbicarian see: the cardinal who held this post
was a likely candidate for the papacy.
XVIIIth century gate and a section of
the walls (in the distance the bell tower of S. Ippolito)
The palace where the bishops of Porto lived was built in
the XVth century and due to its isolation and to the possible landing of
corsairs it was fortified. In the map of the area painted in the Vatican
Palace it is called Castello (castle).
Stemmi dei Cardinali Borgia (Alessandro
VI), Piccolomini (Pio
III ), Ciocchi del Monte (Giulio
III) nell'Episcopio di Porto
Some of the cardinals who
were bishops of Porto in the XV/XVI centuries were eventually appointed
popes.
Se vai a Porto, torni morto (If you go to Porto, you
will come back dead) this lugubrious warning had its impact on the bishops
of Porto: as their diocese included the right bank of the Tiber from the
sea to Trastevere
and Isola
Tiberina they preferred to live in Rome and have a delegate taking the
risk of presiding over the bishop's palace in Porto.
Bell tower of S.
Ippolito
The church of S. Ippolito according to the
tradition was dedicated to a bishop of Porto killed during a persecution.
It shows that the area was populated in medieval times and then abandoned,
most likely when the nearby new bishop's palace offered a safer location.
Its XIIth century bell tower was turned into a watch tower in 1579 by Pope Gregorius
XIII. Because it was already far from the coastline its height was
increased.
Ruins of Tempio di Portuno and a
Renaissance watch tower
In the first decades of the
XXth century the whole area of Porto was reclaimed and malaria was
eradicated. In the 1950s its northern part was chosen to locate the new
International Airport of Rome, known as Roma Fiumicino (officially
dedicated to Leonardo da Vinci). The excavations led to the discovery of
five Roman ships which are now on exhibition in a small museum at the
airport. By walking in the now redeemed countryside it is possible to come
across other monuments of the past, included in farms or private
residences.
Fiumicino e S. Maria della
Salute
The whole area of Porto was acquired by the
Torlonia family in the late XVIIIth century: heirs of the Torlonia still
own the area around the hexagonal lake, which once was Portus
Traiani and now it has been turned into a small park. Unlike most of
the other Roman prominent families they did not owe their wealth to the
favour of a pope, but to their entrepreneurial skills. This led the
Torlonia to try to improve the value of their newly acquired possessions
by founding a little town at the mouth of the once artificial channel dug
by the Romans to link Porto with the Tiber. Fiumicino, after fiume,
river, has a neatly designed water front and a fine Neoclassic church,
both by Giuseppe Valadier, the architect most known for reshaping Piazza del Popolo.
Brano dell'Itinerario di Giuseppe Vasi (1761) relativo a questa
pagina:
Porto Romano, città distruttaFuori di porta
Portese camminando si giunge dopo 14. miglia al celebre e
magnifico Porto Romano, ora distrutto dal tempo, e per la
trascuraggine. Claudio Imperatore piantollo sulle foci del Tevere,
affine di rendere Roma abbondante di viveri e di mercanzie, e però
fu l'emporio di tutte le nazioni, ed il luogo del commercio di tutto
il Mondo. Fecevi una gran torre a similitudine di quella di
Alessandria, e nell'imboccatura vi pose un gran colosso
rappresentante Augusto, che pensato aveva di fare sì grande opera.
Trajano fecevi smisurati portici, e magazzini, e Costantino Magno
per fare a Roma un forte antemurale contro le invasioni de' nemici
fecevi un accrescimento notabile, onde Costantiniana fu detta: e fu
tale il concorso de' popoli dell'Affrica, dell'Egitto, e di tutte le
provincie dell'Impero Romano, che divenne famosissimo il porto, e
ricchissima la città. Restò spopolata quella città dopo
l'edificazione della città Leonina, e però da s. Leone IV. vi fu
posta una colonia di Corsi; ma ora è alloggio di pecorari e di
pescatori, che vi hanno erette fra le rovine alcune capanne, e vi è
una piccola chiesa dedicata a s. Biagio.
E' notabile, che
essendo vescovo di detta Città s. Ippolito, sotto Alessandro
Imperatore legate le mani e i piedi fu gettato ivi in un pozzo. Egli
era venuto dall'Oriente per visitare i sagri Limini e cimiterj; ma
il Pontefice s. Calisto conoscendo la sua santità, creollo vescovo
di Porto, dove intento alla propalazione della Fede, in odio di
questa acquistò la corona del martirio: onde i Cristiani ebbero
tanta venerazione a quel Santo, che vi eressero una statua, la quale
ora sta nella biblioteca Vaticana, e sopra la di lui sepoltura
fabbricarono una chiesa, che nelle disgrazie di Porto soggiacque
anche essa; si conserva però il pozzo, ove fu gettato il Santo, e i
vestigj dell'antica confessione. Furono similmente martirizzati
nella città di Porto s. Giacinto, e li ss. Marziale, Saturnino,
Epiteto, Maprile, Felice e compagni, ed ancora 50. soldati; e poi i
ss. Eutropio, Zosimo e Bonosa, ed altresì s. Ninfa vergine
Palermitana, la quale essendo sbarcata con suoi compagni nel porto
Romano, stette nascosta in una grotta, ivi vicina, nella quale fu
poi con i compagni sepolta; e però vi fu edificata una chiesa. Molti
altri Santi, che noi per brevità tralasciamo, col glorioso loro
martirio illustrarono quelle contrade; ma non già conviene tacere le
glorie delle sante sorelle Rufina e Seconda nobilissime donzelle
Romane.
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Prossima ed ultima tappa del tour nei dintorni di Roma, attorno al Monte Cimino: Caprarola.
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