When RS and us ancient Italy fans encourage people to make the easy day trip from Rome to Ostia Antica, we tend to emphasize the pre-Christian appeal of the Mithraic Mysteries and the other, more slithery, deities that were popular in the port town because of their attraction to sailors, merchants, and soldiers -- the traveling folks, like ourselves.
But the same people were attracted by another moveable religion: early Christianity,
and I'm reminded of that because today (27 Aug) is the feast day of Monica of Hippo -- the mother of St. Augustine.
Mother and son lived together in Ostia and some of the creepier passages in Augustine's "Confessions" take place there.
Monica was an Algerian who married an Italian stationed in North Africa, raising several kids including Augustine.
Her husband died when Augustine was 17 and away at school, and she ended up following him around Italy and setting up home with him and putting up with his shenanigans so self-effacingly that she earned sainthood.
Her relics were venerated there in Ostia for several centuries (she died in Ostia when Augustine was returning back to Hippo) and became so popular that they were moved to Rome, and were just as successful there on the big stage.
The beach town in southern California was named after Monica in the early 1800s (well before it was taken by the USA), and today the collection of the Getty Center and Getty Villa includes many pieces that have her as a subject.