VIA OSTIENSIS
(Not. app., which also mentions the via Campana and the
via Laurentina):
the road which led to Ostia, a distance of 14 miles
(Fest. 250; Plin.
Ep. ii. 17. 2). The road from the porta Trigemina of
the Servian wall, which is probably the original via Ostiensis, kept under
the north-west and south-west sides of the Aventine (see
PORTICUS-AEMILIA>
AEMILIA), and was joined by a branch from the porta Lavernalis and
another from the porta Raudusculana, the latter (with which the
SEPULCRUM CESTII is orientated) falling into it a little beyond the tomb (
BCr 1866, 34;
1898, 60-76; Mon.
L. i. 511-513; LF 44). A piece of its pavement was found in the ditch surrounding the old Protestant cemetery
in 1824. After the intersection a road continued in the same direction
(
NS 1911, 42;
BC 1915, 56); but the main road ran due south, and is
followed by the modern road, which crosses the Almo by a bridge under
which the ancient bridge is concealed (
NS 1898, 450).
At the vicus Alexandri, 4 miles from Rome, a road to Lavinium
diverged to the left (
CIL xiv. 4086, 4087; EE ix. p. 375; Mon.
L. xiii.
133-196; Carcopino, Virgile et les Origines d'Ostie, 240-250), which
must be the via Laurentina (nova?) mentioned by Pliny (see
VIA
ARDEATINA).
1 An archaic milestone of the via Ostiensis was erected
by the aediles (CIL i². 22 =vi. 31585).
For administrative purposes the via Ostiensis and the via Campana,
which was on the right bank of the Tiber and ran to the campus Salinarum romanarum (EE ix. p. 337, No. 434;
BC 1888, 86-89;
NS 1888,
228, 229), were both under a curator of equestrian rank (
CIL vi. 1610;
x. 1795;
BC 1891, 130). See Jord. i. I. 233, 368;
T. iv. 1-153;
BCr 1897, 283-321;
1898, 60-76;
BC 1897, 56, 314.