The Swan Song of Empire: the Opus Sectile of Porta Marina

This week I was taking a charming group of folk on a gallop through Rome’s architectural history. The itinerary I devised began with the Appian Way and aqueducts on Tuesday morning and, several centuries—and indeed kilometres—later, we ended up on Saturday with a visit to EUR. A crisp, bright, deserted weekend afternoon is ideal for a visit to EUR: the De Chirico vibes were strong.

The building Romans call the Colosseo Quadrato (square Colosseum), now the HQ of Fendi. No filter. 13 January, 2024.

While we were there I thought we might conclude the week with a final burst of ancient beauty in an unlikely and (sadly) under visited setting. In 2016 the new Museo delle Civiltà (Museum of Civilisations) saw four national collections coalesce into a single broad anthropological museum. One of the four was the Museo dell’Alto Medioevo (Museum of the Early Middle Ages), home to the spectacular opus sectile discovered in 1959 at the Porta Marina of Ostia Antica. It is an incredibly elegant last gasp of Antiquity, offering a grand segue into the medieval collection: a glimpse of the swan song of Empire.