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HARBOUR, NERO, AE Sestertius (Portus Claudii)
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Æ sestertius (22.54g, maximum Ø34.24mm, 6h), Lugdunum mint, struck AD 66.
Obv.: IMP NERO CAESAR AVG P MAX TR P P P, laureate head of Nero right, globe below tip of bust.
Rev.: PORT AVG (below) S C (above), aerial view of the harbour of Ostia, showing pier, breakwaters, lighthouse surmounted by the statue of Neptune, seven ships, and the figure of Tiber reclining left in foreground, holding rudder and dolphin.
Mac Dowall (The western Coinages of Nero, ANS SSN 161) 476; RIC 586 (R2); BMCRE 323 var. (different obv. legend); Cohen 253 var. (emperor's head to left); CBN 74 var. (different obv. legend); Sear (RCV) 1953var.
Rome's original harbour was Ostia, situated at the mouth of the Tiber. It could not easily handle large sea-going vessels such as those of the grain fleet. Therefore, Claudius initiated the construction of a new all-weather harboru at Portus, about 4 km north of Ostia. The project was completed under Nero who renamed the harbour "Portus Augusti".
It was a huge project enclosing an area of 69 hectares, with two long curving moles projecting into the sea, and an artificial island, bearing a lighthouse, in the centre of the space between the moles. The foundation of this lighthouse was provided by filling with concrete and sinking one of the massive ships that Caligula had used to transport an obelisk from Egypt for the Circus Maximus. These giant ships had a length of around 100m and displaced a minimum of 7400 tons. The harbour opened directly to the sea on the northwest and communicated with the Tiber by a channel on the southeast. However, it was very exposed to the weather and under Trajan was superseded by a new land-locked inner basin linked to the Tiber by a canal.
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