← Back to the mapThe Claudian harbour basin and Trajan's hexagonal basin at Portus, Rome's imperial port
Annotated view of the Claudian harbour and Trajanic hexagonal basin, Portus · Wikimedia Commons

Portus

Italia · Roman province·Italy·Founded 42 CE by Claudius

Rome's imperial harbor. Trajan's inner hexagonal basin was finished just before our snapshot — you can still see its outline today.

An uninhabited archaeological site near Rome's Fiumicino airport; the hexagonal basin of Trajan's ancient harbor still survives amid the modern town.

Excavation history

1830s-1850s
Luigi Canina — Produced systematic maps and restorations of the port, clearing debris from the hexagonal Trajanic basin and identifying key harbor features.
1863-1869
Torlonia family, visited by Rodolfo Lanciani — After the Torlonia family acquired the Portus land in 1856, they conducted digs whose findings Lanciani later wrote up in an influential 1868 article.
1997-present
British School at Rome with the Universities of Southampton, Cambridge and Durham, led by Simon Keay — This international 'Portus Project' carried out large-scale excavation and survey, uncovering a large Roman shipyard and one of the largest canals the Romans ever built, linking Portus to Ostia.

Notable finds

Torlonia Harbor Relief
The Torlonia family's 1863 dig at Portus turned up this marble panel crowded with ships working the hexagonal basin — real vessels and harbor buildings mixed with a touch of artistic license, the closest thing to a photograph of Trajan's port anyone has.
Museo Torlonia, Rome
Colossal Statue of Trajan
At 5.57 meters this cuirassed portrait of Trajan once towered over the hexagonal basin's entrance from a base found in 1794, the emperor keeping watch over the harbor that carried Rome's grain supply.
Vatican Museums, Museo Chiaramonti
Relief of a Clerk Recording Cargo
Also pulled from 19th-century digging at Portus, this relief catches the harbor's paperwork side — dockworkers unloading a ship while a clerk seated at a desk with wax tablets logs the cargo coming in.
Museo Torlonia, Rome
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