Porta Marina thermal baths - Ostia Antica excavations - Roman Domus

Porta Marina, whose remains are visible today at a lower level than the current level of the Decumanus, belonged to the circuit of the republican walls of Ostia (Rome), built around the middle of the 1st century BC.

This large spa complex was built in the Trajan era, around 110 AD, a period from which the portrait of Marciana, sister of the emperor Trajan, found inside, dates back.

The building is divided into a large courtyard surrounded by a colonnade with the function of a gym (A) and a spa sector located on a raised floor: the apodyterium (changing room) (B) was paved with a mosaic in black and white tiles depicting athletes, while a polychrome mosaic decorated the frigidarium (room for cold baths) (C), to which in the third century AD. a large swimming pool with apse was added (D).

The southern sector of the complex was occupied by the heated rooms (E-G).

During the fourth century A.D. a part of the southern wing (H) was transformed into an independent spa complex, in direct connection with the Via Severiana.

The Terme di Porta Marina were the subject of subsequent restorations until the time of Theodoric (493-526 AD).

Map: Porta Marina thermal baths - Ostia Antica excavations - Roman Domus