City
Hostis
Ostia antica
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Ostia takes its name from the Latin word for a river mouth, because the town stood where the Tiber meets the sea, and Roman tradition credited its founding to King Ancus Marcius. The map gives it a pair of towers, fitting for Rome's harbour, naval base and gateway for the city's grain. Yet the river kept laying down mud, and the Greek geographer Strabo noted that ships had to anchor at sea while small barges ferried the cargo ashore. The new harbour of Portus, built under Claudius and Trajan, slowly drew trade away, and sand later buried the ruins now excavated as Ostia Antica.