Legendary Rome - The 'Fons Olei' In Trastevere

	~ Legendary Rome ~ - 4 - The Mysterious Fons Olei

Trastevere is probably Rome's most typical district, where old houses and narrow streets remind us what the whole city must have looked like centuries ago. The heart of the neighborhood is a charming square, piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere, featuring an ancient church, whence the name of the place, and a fountain. Curiously, both of them are considered the oldest of their kind: the church is the first one founded in Rome, in the 3rd century AD, although the original building underwent several alterations, while the present fountain, dating back to the late 16th century, replaced a much older one which stood in a less central spot of the square. The church is famous for its well preserved mosaics, many of which by Pietro Cavallini (late 13th - early 14th century), who also restored the ones in the upper part of the façade.	piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere

Trastevere is probably Rome's most typical district, where old houses and narrow streets remind us what the whole city must have looked like centuries ago.
The heart of the neighborhood is a charming square, piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere, featuring an ancient church, whence the name of the place, and a fountain. Curiously, both of them are considered the oldest of their kind: the church is the first one founded in Rome, in the 3rd century AD, although the original building underwent several alterations, while the present fountain, dating back to the late 16th century, replaced a much older one which stood in a less central spot of the square.
The church is famous for its well preserved mosaics, many of which by Pietro Cavallini (late 13th - early 14th century), who also restored the ones in the upper part of the façade.

piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere

an old wood-print of the square; the early fountain is on a less central spot	But there is a less known anecdote about the church, concerning a curious phenomenon, said to have taken place here 2,000 years ago. In roman times, this was the site of a hospice for wounded soldiers and veterans, called Taberna Meritoria. Here one day, in 38 BC, oil suddenly started to gush out from the ground. This mysterious event was given the Latin name fons olei ("oil source", or "oil fountain"): a record of this prodigy is still found in some old chronicles, which tell us how the oil "for the time length of one day and one night, like a broad river reached the banks of the Tiber".

an old wood-print of the square;
the early fountain is on a less central spot

But there is a less known anecdote about the church, concerning a curious phenomenon, said to have taken place here 2,000 years ago.
In roman times, this was the site of a hospice for wounded soldiers and veterans, called Taberna Meritoria. Here one day, in 38 BC, oil suddenly started to gush out from the ground. This mysterious event was given the Latin name fons olei ("oil source", or "oil fountain"): a record of this prodigy is still found in some old chronicles, which tell us how the oil "for the time length of one day and one night, like a broad river reached the banks of the Tiber".

Through the years, roman augures (official foretellers) as well as ordinary people gave this event all sorts of magical and religious meanings; according to the early Christian version, this prodigy would have foretold Christ's birth. Apparently, this was the reason for which Christians, whose number was slowly growing, asked the roman emperor Alexander Severus (3rd century) for the Taberna, and later built on this site the first church. There is enough proof for mantaining that a roman building did actually stand on this site, and two small but rather interesting ancient mosaics are on display in the church's sacristy, reachable from the left aisle.	the church in a map of Rome (1472): Santa Maria in Trastevere from where the oil ran towards the Tiber on the night of the Lord's birth

Through the years, roman augures (official foretellers) as well as ordinary people gave this event all sorts of magical and religious meanings; according to the early Christian version, this prodigy would have foretold Christ's birth. Apparently, this was the reason for which Christians, whose number was slowly growing, asked the roman emperor Alexander Severus (3rd century) for the Taberna, and later built on this site the first church.

There is enough proof for mantaining that a roman building did actually stand on this site, and two small but rather interesting ancient mosaics are on display in the church's sacristy, reachable from the left aisle.

the church in a map of Rome (1472):
Santa Maria in Trastevere from where
the oil ran towards the Tiber
on the night of the Lord's birth

one of the two roman mosaics in the church	However, according to a second less mystical theory, the expression fons olei may also have a rational origin. The first emperor, Octavian Augustus (27 BC-AD 14), used to enjoy naumachiae, i.e. mock naval battles, for which real ships were used: they were held in broad arenas flooded with water for the occasion, a kind of naval stadium. Apparently, this peculiar form of entertainment has always been very popular in Rome, because from the 17th through the 19th century similar naval battles were still held by noble families, by flooding the popular piazza Navona.	fictional drawing of the naumachia in Trastevere (map of ancient Rome, 1561)

Augustus had his own naumachia in Trastevere. In order to fill the battlesite, he had an aqueduct built from a non-drinkable water source located north of Rome, partially used also for irrigation, whose output was likely to be called in Latin fons olidus ("dirty / polluted fountain").
Therefore, according to this further theory, fons olei might simply be a corruption of the expression fons olidus.

Christ's Birth, by Pietro Cavallini (14th century) and the Taberna Meritoria in detail	But for those who like to believe in the legendary version of the story, just below the altar in St.Mary's church, on the very spot where the oil was said to gush out, an old inscription remembers the event. And among the famous mosaics in the apse featuring biblical stories, the panel with Christ's birth clearly shows the old Taberna Meritoria, and a stream of oil reaching the Tiber. the spot where the fons olei is said to have sprung from the ground