A very expensive and desirable coin. I'd hate to have been the celator who had to carve such a busy reverse.
Just on that Ostia port, I came across a very good video on it's past and present if anyone is interested.
The OP coin shows the Port of Ostia, on the reverse of a Nero sestertius: NERO AE Sestertius (26.56 g.) Lugdunum circa 65 A.D. RIC 441 NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GER P M TR P IMP P P Laureate head of Nero left. Rev. PORT AVG Port of Ostia, river Tiber reclining below. Note that Ostia is NOT the same as the city of Portus, so the OP citation "Nero's Portus issue" appears to be incorrect. Here's Wikipedia's information on Portus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portus Ostia's population reached 50,000 during its peak, and is famous for the mosaics its merchants used to illustrate their services and businesses along an avenue in their city. Here are a couple mosaics that I photographed during my Italy trip late last year when I visited Ostia, the first of which was a shipbuilder, and the second provided cargo unloading from ships in the port: One of my two favorites ruins was the takeout restaurant, with its menu on the wall. The dishwashing area is also shown and you can still see some of the marble that covered the bricks: Ancient lore has it that the proprietor was named Macrinus Donaldus and boasted of “Over MMMDDDLL served” in a sign above the restaurant. AncientJoe also has a very nice Nero Port of Ostia sestertius.
Fantastic posts!!! Thanks IOM and AJ !!! @Ancient Aussie, Utterly amazing effects!! I thoroughly enjoyed it!!!
Love those pics, such a big place to visit I missed seeing the restaurant when we visited in 2015, the imagination runs wild on what it would have looked like in Nero's time, when visualising some of the layout of the ruins, like one of my pics below.
I've been to Pompeii multiple times and to Ostia twice. I actually enjoyed my trip to Ostia more. It was in January and I pretty much had the whole Roman town to myself. Ostia is not unlike Pompeii, though without the crowds. A 30 minute commuter rail ride outside Rome, for about 2 euros. For lovers of ancient Rome, it may be my #1 tourist site; only Pompeii/Herculaneum can compete, IMHO. But I don't think anyone knows where the Ostian mint was located. I'd love to be corrected on that.
I agree Ostia was my prefered tourist site over Pompeii/Herculaneum I think it is underated, close second Herculaneum for most buildings intact.
Me and my buddy Mithras in an Ostian Mithraeum, 2010. Don't worry everybody--the statue was a copy. The original is in the nearby excellent Ostian museum. But you just don't have the freedom of movement and interaction with the sites of Pompeii that you do in Ostia. Pompeii is crumbling, in part because of the tourist crush. The visitor has greater movement at Ostia.
Great pics Gavin, I need to go back again and catch up on a few places I missed, although last time I was there spent most of the day. I got a pic of the original statue, along with quite a few others in that onsite museum.
