Snowfall

Loading Oil on a Roman Merchant Ship

A slave loading oil on a Roman Merchant Ship at Ostia, the busy trading port of Rome.

Roman Merchant Grain Ship

A Roman Merchant Vessel (small freighter) the Isis Giminiana, is being loaded with sacks of grain, second or third century A. D.  Farnaces, the commander (magister), stands at the steering oars.   Stevedores carry the sacks aboard and empty the goods (res) into an official measure under the eye of the ship's owner, Abascantus, and of a government inspector (holding an olive branch).  A stevedore who has emptied his sack (marked feci, "I'm done") rests in the bows  The mast is stepped far forward; the ship was probably sprit-rigged.

  The demand for grain grew as Rome prospered, and imports became essential.  In order that the trade might proceed peacefully, Rome had to have command of the Mediterranean.  (Anderson);

Latin Labels, Left to Right:

ISIS              FARNACES              ABASCANTUS           RES
GIMINIANA             MAGISTER
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