Ostia has yielded much evidence for commercial complexes, warehouses, and shops. The Portico of the Corporations (Piazzale delle Corporazioni), located behind the small theater, exemplifies the Ostian business center. The portico as well as the theater originated in the Augustan age, but were remodeled in the late second or early third century AD. The business complex consisted of a rectangular area, ca. 125m x 80m, framed by a double colonnaded portico; in the center lay a garden with a small temple dedicated perhaps to Mercury. Behind the portico, sixty-one small rooms served as branch offices for businesses dealing with shipping in the Mediterranean. Many offices advertised their specialty in the mosaic pavement in front of their door. The image of an elephant with the legend Stat(io) Sabratensium, for example, signaled traders from Sabratha in Tripolitania (modern Libya) who dealt in ivory, and who may even have arranged the transport of African elephants for the Colosseum. Like the variety of religious cults attested in Ostia, this business portico speaks eloquently for the cosmopolitan character of the city.
Ostian warehouses include the Horrea Epagathiana et Epaphroditiana, built by two freed-men, Epagathus and Epaphroditus, during the reign of Antoninus Pius (138-161). Brick was the construction material. Indeed, at Ostia, instead of stone facing on a cement core (as at Pompeii), regular courses of bricks were preferred. The exterior of the warehouse contained shops open to the street. Over 800 shops (tabernae) are known from Ostia. They normally consist of a single tall, deep, barrel-vaulted room, often equipped with a loft for storage or sleeping. A small window over the door would provide lighting when the front door panels were closed.
A grand entry lined with brick columns and pediment marked the passage from the street to the interior court of the warehouse. A double gate with iron bolts provided security. The inner court was paved with mosaics and surrounded by arched porticoes. The building had sixteen rooms on the ground floor. Stairs with separate entrances led to the upper stories, to offices and possibly apartments for the owners.
Some warehouses contained traces of the products traded. In one example north-east of the forum, 100 dolia (huge pottery vats) were discovered sunk in the ground — a capacity of more than 84,000 liters of oil or wine.
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