\'Biggest canal ever built by Romans\' discovered

[Lindsay_Powell]

The lost canal at Portus has been found The Daily Telegraph reports ( http://bit.ly/c1MWem ):

"It's absolutely massive," said Simon Keay, the director of the three-year dig at Portus, the most comprehensive ever conducted at the site, which lies close to Rome's Fiumicino airport, 20 miles west of the city.
"We know of other, contemporary canals which were 20-40 metres wide, and even that was big. But this was so big that there seems to have been an island in the middle of it, and there was a bridge that crossed it. It was unknown until now."

The canal at Portus measures 100-yard-wide (90-metre-wide). (The photo in the article appears to be of the recently discovered ampitheatre of the imperial palace at Portus, not the canal - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8283195.stm ).

All someone needs to do now is find the canal(s) of Nero Claudius Drusus (fossa Drusiana/fossae Drusinae). :lol:

[Epictetus]

90 metres wide! Why would they need it that size? If I had to guess, I would say the volume of traffic necessitated a canal that wide, but if they stuck an island in the middle of it then they create a bottleneck.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

This is interesting. The lake itself is still visible (the hexagonal harbour) and can be seen on google earth, IIRC
Imagine the volumn of traffic in a harbour that size, which supplied the heart of the Empire, and possibly was a gateway for goods to head further north?

[MARCvSVIBIvSMAvRINvS]

What a coïncidence !! at the moment i am reading Russel Meiggs Roman Ostia, and he was already contemplating the existence of such a channel and the disregarded importance of Portus !

Great news !!

M.VIB.M.

[Jona Lendering]

This is interesting. The lake itself ... can be seen on google earth, IIRC

YRC: here.

[MARCvSVIBIvSMAvRINvS]

M.VIB.M.

[Jona Lendering]

Thanks for the map. If I understand it correctly,

The archaeologists ... believe the canal connected Portus, on the coast at the mouth of the Tiber, with the nearby river port of Ostia,

which would make it parallel to the road. Surprising elements are, to me, that this road is called Via Flavia (I'm pretty sure it was called Severa) and that there is a cemetery on that island. Of course not the entire island will have been covered with tombs.

[MARCvSVIBIvSMAvRINvS]

True, i also understood it was called Severa... I am wondering whether they also have tried to excavate parts of the "palatium" which function is still not clear.

I cannot scan at the moment but as soon as its possible again i will try to post an old aereal photo of the RAF which shows Ostia Antica and the Hexagon.

M.VIB.M.

[Lindsay_Powell]

Great discussion quirites

In 'Greek and Roman Technology' (New York: Cornell University Press, 1984) author K.D. White includes the canal in his list (table 6, pp229, item 14) quoting Suetonius, Nero, 16 as the source, but states "details are not clear". The two books in my collection expressly on Ostia and Portus are:
* Carlo Pavolini, 'La vita quotidiana a Ostia', Roma-Bari: Editori Laterza, 1996
* Gustav Hermansen, 'Ostia: Aspects of Roman City Life', Alberta: University of Alberta Press, 1982
Surprisingly neither author mentions or speculates about the canal.