Deck 15: Ostia, Port and Mirror of Rome

Question 1

The Capitolium of Ostia was constructed under which Roman emperor?

A) Augustus
B) Nero
C) Trajan
D) Hadrian

Answer 1

D

Question 2

The theater of Ostia was originally constructed by

A) Trajan.
B) Hadrian.
C) Agrippa.
D) Domitian.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

By the middle of the third century BCE, artists could approximate the effects of true paintings through the use of tiny, cut stones called

A) sestertii.
B) tesserae.
C) cubicula.
D) alae.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Instead of replicating the illusionism of Greek figural mosaics, Roman mosaic artists of the second and third centuries preferred color schemes that were primarily

A) black and white.
B) polychromatic,
C) red and black.
D) complementary.

Question 5

Because it functioned as a major Roman port city, Ostia had numerous horrea, or

A) warehouses.
B) apartment blocks.
C) hotels.
D) brothels.

Question 6

During the first and second centuries CE, the Romans developed a taste for the aesthetic effect of what building material?

A) unfinished concrete.
B) exposed brick
C) sculpted tufa.
D) painted wood.

Question 7

A niche framed by pilasters and a pediment is called a(n)

A) insula.
B) statio.
C) aedicula.
D) amphora.

Question 8

The ground-floor shops of Imperial insulae were usually of what standard type?

A) multiple-room, timber-roofed
B) one-room, timber-roofed
C) multiple-room, corbel-vaulted
D) one-room, concrete-vaulted

Question 9

An individual apartment unit occupying the upper floor of an insula was called a(n)

A) atrium
B) triclinium
C) cubiculum
D) cenaculum

Question 10

Which of the following was an effect of the economic downturn in the Roman economy in the fourth century?

A) property values declined, and poor families were forced to sell their villae
B) property values increased, and poor families were forced to move out of the city
C) property values declined, and wealthy families could afford to live in a domus
D) property values increased, and wealthy families had to move into insulae

Question 11

Most surviving tombs from Rome and Ostia are located

A) near the cities' most prestigious temples.
B) on the roads leading out of the cities.
C) in remote necropoleis far outside the city walls.
D) near the area of each city's civic forum.

Question 12

Which of the following is NOT true concerning the standard type of tomb that emerged in Rome and Ostia?

A) The standard type emulated imperial mausolea in its form.
B) The standard type consisted of a single barrel-vaulted room.
C) The standard type was usually located on roads leading out of the city.
D) The standard type usually contained the remains of working-class families.

Question 13

Rome's first colony was

A) Ostia.
B) Pompeii.
C) Herculaneum.
D) Tivoli.

Question 14

The sarcophagi in the Tomb of the Caetennii reflect what change in Roman burial customs?

A) Romans were starting to practice cremation instead of burial.
B) Romans were starting to practice burial instead of cremation.
C) Romans were starting to deify their deceased.
D) Romans were starting to decrease the extravagance that accompanied elite burials.

Question 15

Arcuated recesses in tombs that contained sarcophagi are called

A) decursiones.
B) tumuli.
C) arcosolia.
D) ash urns.

Question 16

Discuss the gradual architectural development of Ostia's civic center.

Question 17

Discuss the architectural and artistic embellishment of Ostia's theater by the Roman emperors.

Question 18

Describe the chronological development of mosaics and the distinctions that set Roman mosaics apart from Greek ones.

Question 19

Explain the design principles that were applied to Roman mosaics such as those in the Baths of Neptune and the Baths of the Seven Sages.

Question 20

Describe examples of the Romans' taste for exposed brick, or "brick aesthetic," in the architecture of Ostia.

Question 21

Describe a typical Roman insula (apartment block).

Question 22

What evidence does Juvenal provide for the domestic life of typical, working-class Romans?

Question 23

Describe the standard type of tomb that emerged in Rome and Ostia during the High Empire.

Question 24

Discuss the evidence for painted walls and ceilings at Ostia.

Question 25

Discuss the placement of tombs of both elite and middle-class families during the High Empire.

Question 26

Explain how the second-century tombs of Ostia and Rome reflect a transition in Roman burial customs.

Question 27

Explain Ostia's importance to Republican and Imperial Rome as well as to contemporary archaeologists.

Question 28

Although it had a theater since the time of Augustus, Ostia never had its own amphitheater.

Question 29

The vast majority of the inhabitants of Ostia and Rome lived in apartment blocks rather than houses.

Question 30

The tombs in the so-called Isola Sacra necropolis at Ostia were mostly constructed for aristocrats and important magistrates.