Pope Leo IV
Pope Leo IV was pope from 10 April 847 to his death in 855. He is remembered for repairing Roman churches, damaged during Arab raids on Rome, for building the Leonine Wall around Vatican Hill. Pope Leo organized a league of Italian cities who fought the sea Battle of Ostia against the Saracens. A Roman by birth, Leo received his early education at Rome in the monastery of St. Martin, near St. Peter's, he attracted the notice of Pope Gregory IV. In April 847, Leo was unanimously chosen to succeed Sergius II; as the attack of the Saracens on Rome in 846 caused the people to fear for the safety of the city, he was consecrated on 10 April, 847 without waiting for the consent of the emperor. He began to repair the damage done to various churches of the city by the Saracens during the reign of his predecessor, he embellished the damaged Basilica di San Paolo fuori le Mura and St. Peter's; the latter's altar again received its gold covering, which weighed 206 lb. and was studded with precious gems. Following the restoration of St. Peter's, Leo appealed to the Christian kingdoms to confront the Arab raiders.
Leo took precautions against further raids. He put the walls of the city into a thorough state of repair rebuilding fifteen of the great towers, he was the first to enclose the Vatican hill by a wall. Leo ordered a new line of walls encompassing the suburb on the right bank of the Tiber to be built, including St. Peter's Basilica, undefended until this time; the district enclosed by the walls is still known as the Leonine City, corresponds to the rione of Borgo. To do this, he received money from the emperor, help from all the cities and agricultural colonies of the Duchy of Rome; the work took him four years to accomplish, the newly fortified portion was called the Leonine City, after him. In 849, when a Saracen fleet from Sardinia approached Portus, the Pope summoned the Repubbliche Marinare – Naples and Amalfi – to form a league; the command of the unified fleet was given to son of Duke Sergius I of Naples. Aided by a fierce storm, the Saracen fleet was destroyed off Ostia; the Battle of Ostia was one of the most famous in history of the Papacy of the Middle Ages and is celebrated in a famous fresco by Raphael and his pupils in his rooms of the Vatican Palace in the Vatican City.
A separate incident in Leo's life celebrated by Raphael's Incendio di Borgo, the fire in the pilgrims' district of Rome, according to legend, was stopped by Leo making the sign of the cross. Leo IV held three synods, the one in 850 distinguished by the presence of Holy Roman Emperor Louis II, but the other two of little importance. In 863, he travelled to Ravenna to settle a dispute with the archbishop; as the archbishop was a good terms with Emperor Lothair I, the pope had little success. The history of the papal struggle with Hincmar of Reims, which began during Leo's pontificate, belongs properly to that of Nicholas I. Leo IV died on 17 July 855 and succeeded by Benedict III. Leo IV was buried in his own monument in St. Peter's Basilica, however some years after his death, his remains were put into a tomb that contained the first four Pope Leos. In the 18th century, the relics of Leo the Great were separated from the other Leos and given their own chapel. Leo IV had the figure of a rooster placed on the Old St. Peter's Basilica or old Constantinian basilica which has served as a religious icon and reminder of Peter's denial of Christ since that time, with some churches still having the cockerel on the steeple today.
It is reputed that Pope Gregory I had said that the cock "was the most suitable emblem of Christianity", being "the emblem of St Peter". After Leo IV, Pope Nicholas I, made a deacon by Leo IV, decreed that the figure of the cock should be placed on every church. List of Catholic saints List of popes Papal Navy This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed.. "Pope St. Leo IV". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton. Cheetham, Keepers of the Keys, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1983. ISBN 0-684-17863-X Opera Omnia by Migne Patrologia Latina with analytical indexes Colonnade Statue in St Peter's Square
Baldwin I, Margrave of Flanders
Baldwin I known as Baldwin Iron Arm, was the first Margrave of Flanders. At the time Baldwin first appears in the records he was a count in the area of Flanders, but this is not known. Count Baldwin rose to prominence when he eloped with princess Judith, daughter of Charles the Bald, king of West Francia. Judith had been married to Æthelwulf and his son Æthelbald, kings of Wessex, but after the latter's death in 860, she returned to France. Around the Christmas of 861, at the instigation of Baldwin and with her brother Louis's consent, Judith escaped the custody into which she had been placed in the city of Senlis, Oise after her return from England, she fled north with Count Baldwin. Charles had given no permission for a marriage and tried to capture Baldwin, sending letters to Rorik of Dorestad and Bishop Hungar, forbidding them to shelter the fugitive. After Baldwin and Judith had evaded his attempts to capture them, Charles had his bishops excommunicate the couple. Judith and Baldwin responded by travelling to Rome to plead their case with Pope Nicholas I.
Their plea was successful and Charles was forced to accept the situation. The marriage took place on 13 December 862 in Auxerre. By 870, Baldwin had acquired the lay-abbacy of Saint Peter's Abbey in Ghent and is assumed to have acquired the counties of Flanders and Waasland, or parts thereof by this time. Baldwin developed himself as a faithful and stout supporter of Charles and played an important role in the continuing wars against the Vikings, he is named in 877 as one of those willing to support the emperor's son, Louis the Stammerer. During his life, Baldwin expanded his territory into one of the major principalities of Western Francia, he was buried in the Abbey of St-Bertin, near Saint-Omer. Baldwin was succeeded by his and Judith's son, Baldwin II; the couple's first son, named after his maternal grandfather, died at a young age. His third son Raoul became Count of Cambrai around 888, but he and his brother joined king Zwentibold of Lotharingia in 895. In 896, they attacked Vermandois and captured Arras, Saint-Quentin and Peronne, but that year Raoul was captured by Count Herbert and killed.
Baldwin I of Flanders Counts of Flanders Glay, Edward Le. Histoire des comtes de Flandre et des Flamands au moyen âge. Desclée. Retrieved 25 May 2015
Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople
The Ecumenical Patriarch is the Archbishop of Constantinople–New Rome and ranks as primus inter pares among the heads of the several autocephalous churches that make up the Eastern Orthodox Church. The term Ecumenical in the title is a historical reference to the Ecumene, a Greek designation for the civilised world, i.e. the Roman Empire, it stems from Canon 28 of the Council of Chalcedon. The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople is one of the most enduring institutions in the world and has had a prominent part in world history; the ecumenical patriarchs in ancient times helped in the spread of Christianity and the resolution of various doctrinal disputes. In the Middle Ages they played a major role in the affairs of the Eastern Orthodox Church, as well as in the politics of the Orthodox world, in spreading Christianity among the Slavs. In addition to the expansion of the Christian faith and the Eastern Orthodox doctrine, the patriarchs are involved in ecumenism and interfaith dialogue, charitable work, the defense of Orthodox Christian traditions.
Within the five apostolic sees of the Pentarchy, the Ecumenical Patriarch is regarded as the successor of Andrew the Apostle. The current holder of the office is Bartholomew I, the 270th bishop of that see; the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople is first among equals, or first in honor among all Eastern Orthodox bishops, who presides in person—or through a delegate—over any council of Orthodox primates or bishops in which he takes part and serves as primary spokesman for the Orthodox communion in ecumenical contacts with other Christian denominations. He has no direct jurisdiction over the other patriarchs or the other autocephalous Orthodox churches, but he, alone among his fellow primates, enjoys the right of convening extraordinary synods consisting of them or their delegates to deal with ad hoc situations and has convened well-attended Pan-Orthodox Synods in the last forty years, his unique role sees the Ecumenical Patriarch referred to as the spiritual leader of the Orthodox Church in some sources, though this is not an official title of the patriarch nor is it used in scholarly sources on the patriarchate.
The Orthodox Church is decentralized, having no central authority, earthly head or a single Bishop in a leadership role, having synodical system canonically, is distinguished from the hierarchically organized Catholic Church whose doctrine is the papal supremacy. His titles primus inter pares "first among equals" and "Ecumenical Patriarch" are of honor rather than authority and in fact the Ecumenical Patriarch has no real authority over Churches other than the Constantinopolitan; the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople is the direct administrative superior of dioceses and archdioceses serving millions of Greek, Ukrainian and Albanian believers in North and South America, Western Europe and New Zealand, Korea, as well as parts of modern Greece which, for historical reasons, do not fall under the jurisdiction of the Church of Greece. The Orthodox Church in America, while acknowledging the Ecumenical Patriarch's role in "guiding and preserving the worldwide unity of the family of self-governing Orthodox Churches" emphasizes that he carries no sacramental or juridical power over bishops outside of his own Patriarchate, further states that "it is possible that in the future this function may pass to some other church."His actual position is Patriarch of the Orthodox Church of Constantinople, one of the fourteen autocephalous and several autonomous churches and the most senior of the four orthodox ancient primatial sees among the five patriarchal Christian centers comprising the ancient Pentarchy of the undivided Church.
In his role as head of the Orthodox Church of Constantinople, he holds the title Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome. The Ecumenical Patriarchate is sometimes called the Greek Patriarchate of Constantinople to distinguish him from the Armenian Patriarchate and the extinct Latin Patriarchate, created after the Latin capture of Constantinople in 1204, during the Fourth Crusade; the see of Byzantium, whose foundation was ascribed to Andrew the Apostle, was a common bishopric. It gained importance when Emperor Constantine elevated Byzantium to a second capital alongside Rome and named it Constantinople; the see's ecclesiastical status as the second of five Patriarchates were developed by the Ecumenical Councils of Constantinople in 381 and Chalcedon in 451. The Turkish government recognizes him as the spiritual leader of the Greek minority in Turkey, refer to him as the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Fener; the Patriarch was subject to the authority of the Ottoman Empire after the conquest of Constantinople in 1453, until the declaration of Turkish Republic in 1923.
Today, according to Turkish law, he is subject to the authority of the state of Turkey and is required to be a citizen of Turkey to be Patriarch. The Patriarch of Constantinople has been dubbed the Ecumenical Patriarch since the 6th century; the exact significance of the style, used for other prelates since the middle of the 5th century, is nowhere defined but, according to the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, the title has been criticized in the Catholic Church as incompatible with its own claims by the Holy See. The monastic communities of Mount Athos are stauropegic and are directly under the jurisdiction of Ecumenical Patriarch, the only bishop with jur
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bourges
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bourges is an archdiocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in France. The Archdiocese comprises the departements of Indre in the Region of Val de Loire. Bourges Cathedral stands in the city of Bourges in the department of Cher. In 2002 it lost its metropolitan function; the Archdiocese is now suffragan to the Archdiocese of Tours. Historical ecclesiastical geography has here thus changed to correspond with France's new regions, much as diocesan and provincial boundaries from Napoleon's Concordat of 1801 onwards changed in accordance with those of the Revolution's départements; the diocese was founded in the 3rd century. Its first bishop was St. Ursinus of Bourges. In the Middle Ages there was a dispute between the bishop of Bourges and the bishop of Bordeaux about the primacy of Aquitaine. Bourges was the place of many synods; the synods 1225 and 1226 are the most important and dealt with the Albigenses. St. Ursinus of Bourges Sevitianus Aetherius Thecretus Marcellus Saint Viateur 337–354: Leothère 354–363: Pauper 363–377 Palladius: Villice 384–412: Avit 412–431: Saint Pallais II 448–462 Leo Euloge 462–469 Simplicius Saint Tétrade 494–506 Rorice 512–??–?: Siagre?–?: Saint Humat:?–?
Honoratus of Bourges 533–535 Saint Honoré II 535–537 Saint Arcade 537–538 Saint Désiré Saint Probien 552–559 Saint Félix 560–573 Remedius Sulpitius I of Bourges Saint Eustase 591–591 Saint Apollinaire 591 – † 5 octobre 611 André Fremiot, 1602–1621Michel Phélypeaux de La Vrillière, 1677–1694 Georges-Louis Phélypeaux d'Herbault, 1757–1787 Jean-Antoine-Auguste de Chastenet de Puységur Marie-Charles-Isidore de Mercy Etienne-Jean-Baptiste des Galois de la Tour Jean-Marie Cliquet de Fontenay Guillaume-Aubin de Villèle Jacques-Marie-Antoine-Célestin du Pont Alexis-Basile-Alexandre Menjaud Charles-Amable de la Tour d’Auvergne Lauraguais Jean-Joseph Marchal Jean-Pierre Boyer Pierre-Paul Servonnet Louis-Ernest Dubois Martin-Jérôme Izart Louis-Joseph Fillon Joseph-Charles Lefèbvre Charles-Marie-Paul Vignancour Pierre Marie Léon Augustin Plateau Hubert Barbier Armand Maillard Jérôme Daniel Beau Catholic Church in France Timeline of Bourges Gams, Pius Bonifatius. Series episcoporum Ecclesiae catholicae: quotquot innotuerunt a beato Petro apostolo.
Ratisbon: Typis et Sumptibus Georgii Josephi Manz. Eubel, Conradus. Hierarchia catholica, Tomus 1. Münster: Libreria Regensbergiana. CS1 maint: Extra text: authors list Eubel, Conradus. Hierarchia catholica, Tomus 2. Münster: Libreria Regensbergiana. CS1 maint: Extra text: authors list Eubel, Conradus. Hierarchia catholica, Tomus 3. Münster: Libreria Regensbergiana. CS1 maint: Extra text: authors list Gauchat, Patritius. Hierarchia catholica IV. Münster: Libraria Regensbergiana. Retrieved 2016-07-06. Ritzler, Remigius. Hierarchia catholica medii et recentis aevi V. Patavii: Messagero di S. Antonio. Retrieved 2016-07-06. Ritzler, Remigius. Hierarchia catholica medii et recentis aevi VI. Patavii: Messagero di S. Antonio. Retrieved 2016-07-06. Du Tems, Hugues. Le clergé de France, ou tableau historique et chronologique des archevêques, évêques, abbés, abbesses et chefs des chapitres principaux du royaume, depuis la fondation des églises jusqu'à nos jours. Tome premier. Paris: Delalain. Jean, Armand. Les évêques et les archevêques de France depuis 1682 jusqu'à 1801.
Paris: A. Picard. Société bibliographique. L'épiscopat français depuis le Concordat jusqu'à la Séparation. Paris: Librairie des Saints-Pères. Centre national des Archives de l'Église de France, L’Épiscopat francais depuis 1919, retrieved: 2016-12-24. Archevêques de Bourges Lists of Bishops and Archbishops
Carolingian dynasty
The Carolingian dynasty was a Frankish noble family founded by Charles Martel with origins in the Arnulfing and Pippinid clans of the 7th century AD. The dynasty consolidated its power in the 8th century making the offices of mayor of the palace and dux et princeps Francorum hereditary, becoming the de facto rulers of the Franks as the real powers behind the Merovingian throne. In 751 the Merovingian dynasty which had ruled the Germanic Franks was overthrown with the consent of the Papacy and the aristocracy, a Carolingian Pepin the Short was crowned King of the Franks; the Carolingian dynasty reached its peak in 800 with the crowning of Charlemagne as the first Emperor of Romans in the West in over three centuries. His death in 814 began an extended period of fragmentation of the Carolingian empire and decline that would lead to the evolution of the Kingdom of France and the Holy Roman Empire; the Carolingian dynasty takes its name from Carolus, the Latinised name of Charles Martel, de facto ruler of Francia from 718 until his death.
The name "Carolingian" or "the family of Charles." Traditional historiography has seen the Carolingian assumption of the Frank kingship as the product of a long rise to power, punctuated by a premature attempt to seize the throne through Childebert the Adopted. This picture, however, is not accepted today. Rather, the coronation of 751 is seen as a product of the aspirations of one man, whose father, dynastic founder Charles Martel, had been a Frankish high court official military commander, of the Roman Catholic Church, always looking for powerful secular protectors and for the extension of its spiritual and temporal influence; the greatest Carolingian monarch was Pepin's son. Charlemagne was crowned Emperor by Pope Leo III at Rome in 800, his empire, ostensibly a continuation of the Western Roman Empire, is referred to historiographically as the Carolingian Empire. The Carolingian rulers did not give up the traditional Frankish practice of dividing inheritances among heirs, though the concept of the indivisibility of the Empire was accepted.
The Carolingians had the practice of making their sons minor kings in the various regions of the Empire, which they would inherit on the death of their father, which Charlemagne and his son Louis the Pious both did for their sons. Following the death of the Emperor Louis the Pious in 840, his surviving adult sons, Lothair I and Louis the German, along with their adolescent brother Charles the Bald, fought a three-year civil war ending only in the Treaty of Verdun in 843, which divided the empire into three regna while according imperial status and a nominal lordship to Lothair who at 48, was the eldest; the Carolingians differed markedly from the Merovingians in that they disallowed inheritance to illegitimate offspring in an effort to prevent infighting among heirs and assure a limit to the division of the realm. In the late ninth century, the lack of suitable adults among the Carolingians necessitated the rise of Arnulf of Carinthia as the king of East Francia, a bastard child of a legitimate Carolingian king, Carloman of Bavaria, himself a son of the First King of the Eastern division of the Frankish kingdom Louis the German.
It was after Charlemagne's death that the dynasty began to crumble. His kingdom would end up splitting into three, each being ruled over by one of his grandsons. Only the kingdoms of the eastern and western portions survived, would go on to become the countries known today as Germany and France; the Carolingians were displaced in most of the regna of the Empire by 888. They ruled in East Francia until 911 and held the throne of West Francia intermittently until 987. Carolingian cadet branches continued to rule in Vermandois and Lower Lorraine after the last king died in 987, but they never sought thrones of principalities and made peace with the new ruling families. One chronicler of Sens dates the end of Carolingian rule with the coronation of Robert II of France as junior co-ruler with his father, Hugh Capet, thus beginning the Capetian dynasty; the dynasty became extinct in the male line with the death of Count of Vermandois. His sister Adelaide, the last Carolingian, died in 1122; the Carolingian dynasty has five distinct branches: The Lombard branch, or Vermandois branch, or Herbertians, descended from Pepin of Italy, son of Charlemagne.
Though he did not outlive his father, his son Bernard was allowed to retain Italy. Bernard rebelled against his uncle Louis the Pious, lost both his kingdom and his life. Deprived of the royal title, the members of this branch settled in France, became counts of Vermandois, Valois and Troyes; the counts of Vermandois perpetuated the Carolingian line until the 12th century. The Counts of Chiny and the lords of Mellier, Neufchâteau and Falkenstein are branches of the Herbertians. With the descendants of the counts of Chiny, there would have been Herbertian Carolingians to the early 14th century; the Lotharingian branch, descended from Emperor Lothair, eldest son of Louis the Pious. At his death Middle Francia was divided between his three surviving sons, into Italy and Lower Burgundy; the sons of Emperor Lothair did not have sons of their own, so Middle Francia was divided between the western and eastern branches of the family in 875. The Aquitainian branch, descended from Pepin of Aquitaine, son of Louis the Pious.
Since he did not outlive his father, his sons were deprived of Aquitaine in favor of his younger brother Charles the Bald. Pepin'
Papal primacy
Papal primacy known as the primacy of the Bishop of Rome, is an ecclesiastical doctrine concerning the respect and authority, due to the pope from other bishops and their episcopal sees. English academic and Catholic priest Aidan Nichols wrote that "at root, only one issue of substance divides the Orthodox and the Catholic Churches, and, the issue of the primacy." The French Orthodox researcher Jean-Claude Larchet wrote that together with the Filioque controversy, differences in interpretation of this doctrine have been and remain the primary causes of schism between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church. In the Eastern Orthodox Churches, some understand the primacy of the Bishop of Rome to be one of greater honour, regarding him as primus inter pares, without effective power over other churches. Other Orthodox Christian theologians, view primacy as authoritative power: the expression and realization in one bishop of the power of all the bishops and of the unity of the Church; the Catholic Church attributes to the primacy of the Pope "full and universal power over the whole Church, a power which he can always exercise unhindered," a power that it attributes to the entire body of the bishops united with the pope.
The power that it attributes to the pope's primatial authority has limitations that are official, legal and practical. In the Ravenna Document, issued in 2007, representatives of the Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church jointly stated that both East and West accept the fact of the Bishop of Rome's primacy at the universal level, but that differences of understanding exist about how the primacy is to be exercised and about its scriptural and theological foundations; the Catholic dogma of the primacy of the bishop of Rome is codified in both codes of canon law of the Catholic Church – the Latin Church's 1983 Code of Canon Law and the Eastern Catholic Churches' 1990 Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches. The Second Vatican Council's 1964 dogmatic constitution Lumen gentium declared that the "pope's power of primacy" is by "virtue of his office, as Vicar of Christ and pastor of the whole Church," and is "full and universal power over the Church" which he "is always free to exercise." The primacy of the bishop of Rome, according to John Hardon in Catholic Dictionary, is "primacy of jurisdiction, which means the possession of full and supreme teaching and sacerdotal powers in the Catholic Church".
Knut Walf, in New commentary on the Code of Canon Law, notes that this description, "bishop of the Roman Church," is only found in this canon, the term Roman pontiff is used in 1983 CIC. Ernest Caparros' et al. Code of Canon Law Annotated comments that this canon pertains to all individuals and groups of faithful within the Latin Church, of all rites and hierarchical ranks, "not only in matters of faith and morals but in all that concerns the discipline and government of the Church throughout the whole world." Heinrich Denzinger, Peter Hünermann, et al. Enchiridion symbolorum states that Christ did not form the Church as several distinct communities, but unified through full communion with the bishop of Rome and profession of the same faith with the bishop of Rome; the bishop of Rome is the supreme authority of the sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches. In CCEO canon 45, the bishop of Rome has "by virtue of his office" both "power over the entire Church" and "primacy of ordinary power over all the eparchies and groupings of them" within each of the Eastern Catholic Churches.
Through the office "of the supreme pastor of the Church," he is in communion with the other bishops and with the entire Church, has the right to determines whether to exercise this authority either or collegially. This "primacy over the entire Church" includes primacy over Eastern Catholic patriarchs and eparchial bishops, over governance of institutes of consecrated life, over judicial affairs. Primacy of the bishop of Rome was codified in the 1917 Code of Canon Law canons 218–221; the Catholic Church bases its doctrine of papal primacy on the primacy among the apostles that Jesus gave to Peter in Matthew 16:16-19:Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father, in heaven, and I tell you, you are Peter, on this rock I will build my church, the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven and in John 21:15–17:Feed my lambs...
Feed my sheep While acknowledging that "the New Testament contains no explicit record of a transmission of Peter's leadership. Accordingly, it would be a mistake to expect to find the modern developed doctrine of
Ostia Antica
Ostia Antica is a large archaeological site, close to the modern town of Ostia, the location of the harbour city of ancient Rome, 15 miles southwest of Rome. "Ostia" is a derivation of "os", the Latin word for "mouth". At the mouth of the River Tiber, Ostia was Rome's seaport, but due to silting the site now lies 3 kilometres from the sea; the site is noted for the excellent preservation of its ancient buildings, magnificent frescoes and impressive mosaics. Ostia may have been Rome's first colonia. According to the legend Ancus Marcius, the semi-legendary fourth king of Rome, the first to destroy Ficana, an ancient town, only 17 km from Rome and had a small harbour on the Tiber, proceeded with establishing the new colony 10 km further west and closer to the sea coast. An inscription seems to confirm the establishment of the old castrum of Ostia in the 7th century BC; the oldest archaeological remains so far discovered date back to only the 4th century BC. The most ancient buildings visible are from the 3rd century BC, notably the Castrum.
The opus quadratum of the walls of the original castrum at Ostia provide important evidence for the building techniques that were employed in Roman urbanisation during the period of the Middle Republic. Ostia was a scene of fighting during the period of the civil wars between Gaius Marius and Sulla during the 1st century BC. In 87 BC, Marius attacked the city. Forces led by Lucius Cornelius Cinna, Gnaeus Papirius Carbo and Quintus Sertorius crossed the Tiber at three points before capturing the city and plundering it. After his victory here, Marius moved on to attack and capture Antium and Lanuvium to further destroy the foodstores of Rome. In 68 BC, the town was sacked by pirates. During the sack, the port was set on fire, the consular war fleet was destroyed, two prominent senators were kidnapped; this attack caused such panic in Rome that Pompey the Great arranged for the tribune Aulus Gabinius to rise in the Roman Forum and propose a law, the lex Gabinia, to allow Pompey to raise an army and destroy the pirates.
Within a year, the pirates had been defeated. The town was re-built, provided with protective walls by the statesman and orator Marcus Tullius Cicero. During Julius Caesar's time as Dictator, one of his improvements to the city was his establishment of better supervision of the supply of grain to Rome, he proposed better access to grain by the use of a new harbour in Ostia along with a canal from Tarracina. The town was further developed during the first century AD under the influence of Tiberius, who ordered the building of the town's first Forum; the town was soon enriched by the construction of a new harbour on the northern mouths of the Tiber. The new harbor, not called Portus, from the Latin for "harbour," was excavated from the ground at the orders of the emperor Claudius; this harbour became silted up and needed to be supplemented by a harbour built by Trajan finished in the year 113 AD. Moreover, it must be noted that at a short distance, there was the harbour of Civitavecchia; these elements began its commercial decline.
In 2008 British archaeologists discovered the remains of the widest canal built by the Romans, 90 feet, which they believe connected Portus with Ostia across the Isola Sacra, which would have made the transport of large quantities of goods far easier than by land transport. In 2014 remains on the north side of the river opposite the city were discovered and the built-up area of the city extended beyond the perimeter of the south wall. Ostia itself was provided with all the services a town of the time could require; the popularity of the Cult of Mithras is evident in the discovery of eighteen mithraea. Archaeologists have discovered the public latrinae, organised for collective use as a series of seats that allow us to imagine today that their function was a social one. Ostia had many public baths, numerous taverns and inns and a firefighting service. Ostia contained the Ostia Synagogue, the earliest synagogue yet identified in Europe. Ostia grew to 50,000 inhabitants in the 2nd century, reaching a peak of some 100,000 inhabitants in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD.
Ostia became an episcopal see as early as the 3rd century AD, the cathedral of Santa Aurea being located on the burial site of St Monica, mother of Augustine. In time mercantile activities became focused on Portus instead. For scholars of the High Empire Ostia was the seaside version of Rome, the city of apartment buildings It used to be thought that the city entered a period of slow decline after Constantine I made Portus a municipality, Ostia thereby ceasing to be an active port and instead becoming a popular country retreat for rich aristocrats from Rome. In spite of the fact that Portus shows substantial growth in the 4th century the traditional view that Ostia went into marked decline has had to be revised due to recent excavations and re-evaluation of the evidence; the knocking down of some apartment blocks replaced by houses of the rich was "thought to have signalled the disappearance of Ostia's once-vibra
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton.
