Phrygian Caps, Ancient Roman Empire and Mithraism

Ancient clothing, ancient beliefs. They are with us today. Here is a fair use and rescaled portion of a mosaic in Ostia Antica, the whole can be seen at www.ostia-antica.org/regio5/9/9-1_11.

For background where this was uncovered, see our views of Ostia Antica at Italy Road Ways, Ostia Antica; and at Italy Road Ways, Ostia, Death by Silt. See the cap, the forward-pulled peak.

Our focus here is on this headwear - known by its shape as the Phrygian Cap.










Now, see this same cap shape on a slave shown on the Arch of Septimius Severus in Rome, at Italy Road Ways, Rome, Colosseum, Arch of Septimius Severus.

It also was worn by worshippers of Mithra, Mithraism as a pagan Roman religion that competed in the early times with emerging Christianity, and was the dominant religion where Paul grew up. See its influence at ://sparklemjk.com/Yule.html. See also Bogomilia, Mithraism.

This cap has significance in any era where freedom was valued, and fought for - see Joy of Equivocating, Phrygian Cap; and sites listed there.

Origins are anchors. Ties to the past that light up the present. Wear your Phrygian Cap with pride. See its current significance in modern symbolism at Joy of Equivocating, Phrygian Caps.

The United States Army sports it with pride. This is a fair use portion of the official seal. See Joy of Equivocating site for more. Then look up the American Revolution, and the French Revolution. A search for Phrygian caps there as well. And connections to Rome - see ://www.crwflags.com/FOTW/flags/xf-cap.html

Ostia Antica - Death by Silt. A Quiet Death

Compare Ostia Antica to Pompeii - the one expiring over time as water levels altered and port capabilities diminished; the other with the drama of violence, painful death, sudden cataclysm.

Nonetheless, go to Ostia, near Rome, before your flight takes off. We stopped there on the way to the airport, in our rental car, but this article in New York Times 9/17/06 says at page 12 that you can take a boat there from Rome. Perfect. We squirrel away things like this for a return trip, and that is the great advantage of going first, researching later. Find what you want on a second run.

Less touristy, a sense of the place, the streets, the people. "Ostia" means mouth - and the city does seem to be swallowed - it ultimately melts away into the river. See the baths, amphitheater, storehouses, a synagogue, and a temple. Metropolis. Finally - as late as the 9th century, says the article, Ostia became a mere quarry area. Its marble went to Pisa, and Florence, anywhere needed. Organ transplants.

The communal nature of living in those days - we saw it also at the Roman villa in Sicily - see Sicily Road Ways , look for the Villa del Casale post. Hoppers were all in a square at the house, the holes looking at each other, with kindly running water beneath, all genders do your business and move on, group togetherness. Sometime look up the equivalent of TP, a stick with handy bulbous thing. Note also, as in Rome, the two-story apartment buildings. The ancients did ok.

Ostia Antica - Lydia and the Mint. "The Better Pompeii"

Ostia Antica. The old port to Rome, now found inland. This lovely place is often overlooked because Rome's airport is so close. See http://www.ostia-antica.org/intro.htm. Make the time for it. Spend the night near here. Quiet. Contemplative.

Ostia Antica, near Rome, Italy

This town 2000 years ago was on the coast, and was Rome's main port for some 600 years.
.
This site calls it, "The Better Pompeii." See http://www.initaly.com/regions/latium/ostia.
.
Ostia was hit by disease (malaria) and other towns became more prominent as Ostia became silted in. Waterways changed. The port finally silted over, and also silted over much of the town, preserving a great deal..
.
Anecdotal Lydia! We meandered -- no fences, no ropes, and out and saw "Lydia's House" on the little sign. Climbed in and over the rocks, into a courtyard, to a room on the left - and suddenly there was the aroma of mint and more mint - and no mint to be found anywhere. Thank you, Lydia, for your home and your hospitality. I can smell it yet. A delight mid-afternoon. And where from?
.
Ostia did produce at least one recipe still available, see the customary use of passum or raisin wine, possibly seen in a medieval church in Denmark, at Vetting Roots: Bjernede Church, Last Supper section, Passum and Ostian meatballs.  Ancient Roman recipes:  see http://www.ddvculinary.com/oldrecipes/ancient-rome/ostian-meat-balls.php
.
Romans in cities - there were apartments, several stories high, around a central courtyard - brick-like, with shops on the bottom. The guidebook picture recreating the building of flats looks quite modern.
.
Ostia is also known for Mithraism - a center for one of the major Roman Empire religions that flourished and became (as to cultural practices and many concepts) incorporated into the later Christian faiths. Read about Mithra - and the similarities and liturgical adoptions - at Bogomilia, A Site for the Unsung: Mithraism. Then go back to the Danish church, Bjernede and see the crescent on the headdress of St. Laurence. Syrian, Middle Eastern connections, all part of the Crusades, cultural crossovers.