Sergius-orata-demonstrates fishing Medieval French Illustration

Gaius Sergius Orata (

fl. ''Floruit'' ( ; usually abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for 'flourished') denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indic ...

c. 95 BC) was an Ancient Roman who was a successful merchant, inventor and hydraulic engineer. He is credited with inventing the cultivation of oysters and refinement to the

hypocaust A hypocaust () is a system of central heating in a building that produces and circulates hot air below the floor of a room, and may also warm the walls with a series of pipes through which the hot air passes. This air can warm the upper floors a ...

method of heating a building to provide, in addition, heated water for bathing.

Origins of his name

The writer Festus noted "The Orata", the gilt headed bream, "is a kind of fish so called for its golden color (''aurata'', "golden," also spelled ''orata'')." ... "Because of this, it's said about the very wealthy Sergius that they called him ''orata'', because he wore two big rings of gold. Some authorities assert that his nickname just comes from the commercialization of those fishes."

Biography

Sergius was well known to his contemporaries for the breeding and commercialization of

oyster Oyster is the common name for a number of different families of salt-water bivalve molluscs that live in marine or brackish habitats. In some species, the valves are highly calcified, and many are somewhat irregular in shape. Many, but no ...

s, of which he was a noted innovator. Orata wanted to take advantage of the wealthy Romans' liking for shellfish as food, so he developed many new techniques for breeding oysters. This included the practice of surrounding mature oysters with twigs, to which their young (known as "spats") could affix themselves and thus be easily transplanted wherever desired. This allowed for the creation of artificial oyster beds, which he surrounded with channels and dams in order to protect them from the sea tides. He based his business at the Lucrine Lake in

Campania Campania is an administrative Regions of Italy, region of Italy located in Southern Italy; most of it is in the south-western portion of the Italian Peninsula (with the Tyrrhenian Sea to its west), but it also includes the small Phlegraean Islan ...

, which was adjacent to the luxurious and popular spa town of

Baiae Baiae (; ) was an ancient Roman town situated on the northwest shore of the Gulf of Naples and now in the ''comune'' of Bacoli. It was a fashionable resort for centuries in antiquity, particularly towards the end of the Roman Republic, when i ...

. This brought him into conflict with the local Roman tax farmer Considius, in a dispute over his use of the public resource of the lakefront for his business. Consilius was successfully defended in the legal case by the orator

Crassus Marcus Licinius Crassus (; 115–53 BC) was a Roman general and statesman who played a key role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. He is often called "the richest man in Rome". Wallechinsky, David & Walla ...

Alma-Tadema A Favourite Custom 1909 Tate Britain

Orata was also a significant developer and builder of luxury villas in the area, Crassus made a joke based on the common use of terra cotta tiles both as surfaces for artificial oyster beds and also in the roofs of structures, saying that "even if Orata were deprived of the waters of the lake, he would still find oysters on his roof-tiles". Orata was also credited by the writer

Vitruvius Vitruvius ( ; ; –70 BC – after ) was a Roman architect and engineer during the 1st century BC, known for his multi-volume work titled . As the only treatise on architecture to survive from antiquity, it has been regarded since the Renaissan ...

with the invention of the

(

underfloor heating Underfloor heating and cooling is a form of Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning, central heating and cooling that achieves indoor climate control for thermal comfort using hydronics, hydronic or electrical heating elements embedded in a fl ...

), although this is not fully established. What is certain is that he invented a new type of "''hanging baths"'' (''"bal(i)nea pensilia"''),Karl Friedrich Kempf's edition has it with an extra i, which would also make more sense given the Greek source. which were a kind of relaxing thermal spa baths; that are usually considered to be related to hypocausts. He commercialized them as he had his oyster business. He claimed healing and soothing properties for the invention and this helped Orata to market it successfully. They became fashionable among the wealthy and no luxury villa was considered complete unless one of Orata's pools was installed. Sergius Orata became rich due to his inventions; he was himself noted for his love for luxury and refinement.

References

Bibliography

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sergius Orata 1st-century BC Romans Ancient Roman civil engineers Ancient Roman merchants Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning Hydraulic engineers Orata

Origins of his name

Biography

See also

References

Bibliography