HARRY R. NEILSON, III
FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY
As exhibited by their urban planning and such long-standing institutions as the marching-camp, the Romans had a proclivity for order and standardization. This paper examines the evidence that the Romans applied a similar desire for order in the organization of their harbors, especially with regard to the maritime traffic flow. In order to avoid traffic chaos in busy ports, practicality dictated certain rules of directionality. Imperial Roman numismatic and sculptural evidence suggests that the Roman solution to this problem was the division of vessel traffic entering and leaving port into inbound and outbound lanes. In particular, iconographic evidence from several Roman ports reveals that a statue of Neptune stood on a pedestal in the sea in the mid-channel area of the harbor entrance to function as a daybeacon and as a channel marker to divide the traffic flow. The iconography also suggests that ships both entering and leaving the harbor passed these beacons on their left-hand sides thereby observing a counterclockwise traffic flow. In support of this argument is the hypothesis that Roman vehicular traffic on roads, on city streets, and in circuses adhered to the same rule of counterclockwise directionality. [1] There are also literary and iconographic depictions of boat races where the boats pass a mid-sea meta on their left sides. Therefore, in keeping with the counter-clockwise rule, if two ships met at sea and were on a collision course, it is also likely that they made a deliberate attempt to pass each other on their left hand sides.
[1] Poehler, E. E. 2001. “Directionality in the System of Pompeii’s Urban Streets.” Paper read at the 2001 Annual Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America, 2-5 January, San Diego. (abstract in AJA 105: 264).
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