File:Statio 11 - 02.jpg

English: Mosaic should be read as:

NAVICVLARI MVSLV(V)ITANI HIC

Hardly anything is known and has been published about Musluvium. Our main source is a short description by Jean-Pierre Laporte. The harbour depended on a hinterland around Sitifis, capital of Mauretania Sitifensis (it was at the end of a road from Sitifis). In this area olive oil, grain and wine were produced. Perhaps wood was exported.

Because Ostia had a special Forum Vinarium we can rule out wine. Can we choose between olive oil and grain? Perhaps we should not. The tondos provide a clue. The people working in the office must have had a very good reason to depict only two seasons, not four. Olives are harvested in the Autumn or Winter, grain is harvested in the Summer. So the reason that only two seasons are depicted, not all four, is presumably that the shippers were involved with the export of both.

Musluvium is in Mauretania Caesariensis. On the opposite side of the square is a statio (nr. 48) that was used by shippers from the entire province Mauretania Caesariensis. It has been argued that this office is related to the import of fish and fish sauce. This may explain why Musluvium, importing oil/grain, has its own office.

Finally we should note that the tondos and the amorino on a dolphin have a strong decorative aspect, not found elsewhere in the east porticus. Perhaps this choice was motivated by the wish to stress the divergent location of the shippers: all other shippers from North Africa came from Africa Proconsularis. The scheme however remained the same: heraldic dolphins and a single depiction on the axis.