Pinguntur enim portus...L'opus pilarum fra iconografia e topografia litoranea

In the figurative arts in the Roman era the port (as Vitruvius explains) is a recurrent subject. It is, however, a broad and complex infrastructure, not easy to depict. The concept of port has therefore undergone a process of figurative synthesis, which has summarized it in some graphic codes. The most widespread is the arch structure based on immersed pilae series (the opus pilarum): a model, derived from the reality of the bridges and few maritime ports where the system was carried out, wich was transposed into a pictogram for express the abstraction 'structure built in water' in a universally and immediately understandable way. This pictogram appears in various forms of representation and purposes (coins, paintings, mosaics, lamps, etc.), referred to ports and other coastal buildings, as the villae maritimae.