Ostium: Where the Name Comes From
I often get asked where the name Ostium comes from:
Ostia Antica was ancient Rome's principal port and harbor, critical for commodity imports and a hub for trade, both in the Roman Republic and later imperial Rome in the 1st-3rd centuries AD.
Ostia sat right at the mouth of the Tiber River, which facilitated transport of commodity goods on barges up the river just 15 miles north directly into Rome. Romans imported everything from beef and corn to silver, iron, dye, and spices through Ostia.
Trading routes spanned the Mediterranean, from Southwestern Europe to the ME and North Africa Interestingly, the world's first dual carriageway – a road with two directions, separated by a midsection – happens to have been the one built between Rome and ancient Ostia to facilitate goods transport.
Ostia flourished with the creation of public Forums, ordered by Emperor Tiberius. Public infrastructure to facilitate a public life built a vibrant economy.
The most impressive artistic output to come from this period is a series of still excellently-preserved black and white mosaics from across Ostia's bath houses. These are the primary attraction for today's tourists:
Ultimately, ancient Ostia met her downfall after her capture by Alaric the Goth in 409 AD. In fact, the city was chosen as this barbarian's target precisely because blocking the port would starve Rome of needed corn imports.
Ostium is simply the singular of the plural Ostia, and sounded more like a metal commodity (e.g. Osmium) to us – and is in keeping with the "um" ending common among many crypto protocols (...Ethereum).
The city's symbolic relevance to Ostium as a digital trading hub for commodities and more, facilitated at scale by an open forum and decentralized architecture are hard to understate.
Anyways, that's the nerdy story of our name
Originally published on X.