Resumen de Was the tempestas of AD 62 at Ostia actually a Tsunami?
This article argues that the tempestas credited by Tacitus (Ann. 15.18.2) with the destruction of 300 ships in the harbor at Ostia and on the Tiber was a tsunami caused by the earthquake of February AD 62. As a result of this conclusion we can further argue that the harbor of Ostia was already completed by that time, and had probably been completed during Claudius' reign, and that Nero therefore had nothing to do with its design or construction. Finally, that Nero's harbor sestertii were issued to reassure Romans about the security of the grain supply, not to commemorate the inauguration of Portus.
