Commerce of Ancient Rome

  • The Trade and Commerce of Ancient Rome was conducted through its Port, Warehouses and Markets, some of which have survived until the present era.

Markets

  • Trajan's Market:
    • The world’s oldest Shopping Mall.
  • Slave Markets:
  • Food Markets:
    • Macellum Magnum was a large farmers’ market built by Nero.
      • A Macellum was an indoor farmers’ market with shops arranged around a courtyard with a fountain in the centre. Some shops had marble counters for selling meat and fish.
    • Forum Piscarium was a fish market betyween the Via Sacra and the Argiletum and later incorporated into the Macellum.
    • Forum Cuppedinis was a delicatessan.
    • Forum Holitorium was a cabbage market.
    • Forum Boarium was the cattle market.
    • Forum Suarium was the pork market.

Rome’s Harbour

  • Emporium
    • The Emporium was the Docks of Rome on the Tiber, which replaced the old harbour of the Forum Boarium in 193 BCE.
    • Barges moored alongside the quays. Then stone paved terraces and stone walls, connected by ladders, formed a series of terraces up the riverbank and into the warehouses above.

Romes’ Warehouses

  • Porticus Aemilia:
    • This huge warehouse ran parallel to the river Tiber and was set back from it by 300 ft (90m).
    • It formed a long, thin rectangular building almost 1600 ft (487m) long, and 200 ft (60m) wide.
    • The interior was divided into 50 aisles, about 27 feet (8.3m) in length, created by 294 pillars in rows of seven.
  • Horrea Galbana
    • This was the warehouse where the Grain was stored.
  • Horrea Lolliana
    • This was another warehouse, possibly located on the opposite bank of the Tiber.

Monte Testaccio

    • Monte Testaccio was Ancient Romes’s huge Rubbish Heap that consisted entirely of Pottery Shards from all the Amphorae imported into the warehouses.

Water Mills

  • Water Mills:
    • Ancient Rome’s Water Mills, where the grain was ground into flour, were built on the Aqua Traiana (Trajan’s Aqueduct) located on the Jainculia (Janiculum) Hill.

Government Grain Office

  • Statio Annonae:
    • This was the Office of Public Provisions (Grain Supply).
    • The columns of this building are preserved in the Church of Santa Maria, Cosmedin.

The Sea Ports of Rome

 

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